Customer Service Tip of the Week

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Beware of Scary Telephone Customer Service - 10/27/26


As we near the Halloween holiday in the United States, it seems appropriate to discuss examples of scary customer service, particularly on the telephone.  Here are a few common issues that frustrate and annoy customers.  These are experiences to avoid delivering, and alternatives to adopt: The customer calls, describes their Read more

The Art of the Successful Script - 10/20/26


You’re the customer.  You go to the store, and they ask if you have a loyalty card.  You call the doctor’s office, and they ask for your birth date.   You walk up to the counter, and they ask if you found everything you were looking for. These are all valid Read more

The Key Building Block for Your Customer Relationship - 10/13/26


An automotive manufacturer gets supplies for their vehicles from all over the world.  They have arrangements, service level agreements, expectations for timing and quality of all the parts.  And when they gather all these supplies, they assemble the cars.  They test the cars.  Then they take pictures of those Read more

Be Flexible to Fill the Gaps - 10/6/26


The non-profit has the expected challenges.  There are only 3 people in the organization, yet, they have the same responsibilities of a larger company.  They have to do finance, sales, marketing; they deliver their services to the community, and they need to keep a pulse on what’s going on Read more

Is This Good Customer Service? - 9/29/26


A friend of mine reached out to me recently as she waited for the electrical technician to show up at her house to do some minor repairs.  She had never worked with this company before, but they sent a text about the tech who was soon to arrive. The message Read more

Ownership when Fixing Others’ Errors - 9/22/26


We were conducting training with a client recently, and one of the participants, Jackie, is in a role in his organization where he goes out to the customer site to investigate issues, address customer complaints, and fix problems.  While he’s at the site, he often gets an earful from Read more

Why “No” is So Important - 9/15/26


The employee told the caller: “I don’t think that is possible.” The customer eventually hung up, and redialed to ask a different employee the same question. The employee responded to the customer: “That’s probably not the best way to do it.”  Then, the customer kept asking question after question, arguing Read more

It’s Not “You,” It’s “I” - 9/8/26


During a business writing course that I took years ago, the instructor had us write an e-mail.  I can’t recall if it was written to a co-worker or customer, but after writing this e-mail, she had us count every “I” and “You.”  We talked about how we need to Read more

It Shouldn’t Make a Difference, But… - 9/1/26


We have this conversation with lots of our sports clients, but the principles apply across all different industries.  Too many service representatives view a conversation with a customer as a transaction.  Just get him off the phone as quickly as possible.  The customer is Joe Public, not Joseph Pendergrass.  Read more

Use What the Customer Gives You - 8/25/26


Scenario #1: The customer sent an e-mail to the general inbox at the company.  The message noted that the customer needed to get a family member added to their account, but they couldn’t tell from the website how to do so. The next morning an employee opened up the e-mail, Read more

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How Persistence Saved the Day – 10/1/24

Posted on October 1, 2024 in Customer Service Tip of the Week Please leave a comment

Sherrie saw the customer walk into her store holding his cell phone, and Sherrie immediately knew that was William.  She had spoken to William on the phone about an hour ago, he said he would be at Sherrie’s cell phone store in less than an hour, and there he stood.

William looked as flustered in person as he sounded over the phone.

“Hi there, my name is Sherrie; can I help you?”

“Oh, thank goodness it’s you, Sherrie. I’m William. We spoke on the phone a little while ago.”

“Thanks for coming by,” said Sherrie.  “You said you’d be here in an hour, and you’re right on the dot.  Thanks!  So, I know you had mentioned that the phone could make calls, but none of the apps seem to be working; is that correct?”

As William and Sherrie worked together to try to address the issues, she could sense his frustration, and she could see why.  She was having trouble getting any apps to work, as well.  She tried to reboot, she tried different types of technical changes on the phone, and nothing was doing the job.  The phone could make calls, but it could do little else with the apps.

Sherrie spent about 45 minutes with William, and as she troubleshooted and tried various solutions, she explained what she was doing – noting each step she was taking, and why.

Even though she was getting a little frustrated herself internally that the phone wouldn’t work as it should, she presented some hope to William.

Eventually, Sherrie found the solution, the phone was fixed!  William could make calls, he could text his family, he could take pictures, and he could play his favorite games again.

Sherrie dealt with the customer’s emotions, her own emotions, and an uncooperative cell phone.  She fixed the problem with the device, and she made sure she was managing the person and his concerns along the way.  Sherrie not only showed great customer service, but she was very persistent with the task at hand.

Nowadays, many people seem to lack patience.  Convey some patience to your customer by showing persistence to address their need.

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Notice the Little Changes – 9/24/24

Posted on September 24, 2024 in Customer Service Tip of the Week Please leave a comment

“My, how times have changed.”

Yes, times have changed.  As a matter of fact, one of the biggest reasons why an organization’s customer service deteriorates is that times have changed…customers have changed…and the company has not…

If we think about customer service delivery today v. decades ago, changes in technology alone have affected consumer expectations, methods of communications, level of engagement or interest, and the effort customers have to put in to gather information.

What’s Changed in the Past Year?

But let’s look in a shorter window than “decades.”  Let’s think about the last 12 months.  If part of delivering great customer service is to continuously try to improve, here’s a quick question to ask yourself to identify improvement opportunities: What about your customers has changed in the last 12 months?

Really dive into this question.  Has your mix of customers changed, by age, by some other demographic, by preferred communication method, by first-time customers v. long-term customers, by the attributes they expect to get out of the actual product or service you’re providing?

Has their satisfaction level with your organization gone up or down in the last 12 months?  Have competitors become stronger or weaker in your customer’s eyes in the last 12 months?  Are customers more likely to seek an answer via AI before giving you a call?

Improve Based on Changes You’ve Identified

Based on your answers to these questions, see what unique opportunities you can uncover…

If your customer base becomes older – with a higher percentage aged 60+ – have you adjusted your approach to callers or walk-ins?

If your customers are more focused on the experience they receive, not just the product or service itself, have you modified how you greet them on the phone or in-person, how quickly you respond to them, how intuitive your mobile app is, how self-evident it is to navigate your facility, and how you gauge your own performance?

If your customers are using AI before they contact you, how proficient are you with AI?  If they are getting their basic questions answered before calling using AI, have you prepared to deal with more educated customers, more complex questions and scenarios than you were a year ago?

Sit back for a few minutes, and think about what is different from a year ago, particularly with your customers. Use this information to improve.

My, how times have changed.

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Don’t Hurry…Be Quick – 9/17/24

Posted on September 17, 2024 in Customer Service Tip of the Week Please leave a comment

No, this is not a take off on the Bobby McFerrin song:  Don’t Worry Be Happy.

It’s actually a take off on the John Wooden quote:  Be quick, but don’t hurry.

When I read Wooden’s book with this title, I liked the concept, and not just because John Wooden was a great basketball coach and – apparently – a great person. With his UCLA Bruins college basketball teams, he had success that has never been rivaled – having won 10 NCAA tournament championships.  And that is not a typo – 10!

Wooden said that if you’re in a hurry, you make mistakes.  He doesn’t want mistakes.  He wants achievement.

In order to be quick, it helps tremendously to know what to do.  You can achieve more if you’re quick, efficient, with little wasted motion or effort.

I guess that a less creative way to say “Be quick, but don’t hurry” is to say: You can achieve more the more you know, and the fewer mistakes you make.

Never lose sight of the fact that hurrying through things can hurt the quality of your customer service.  Rushing conversations, speeding through forms and documents without reviewing, avoiding a QA check because “I’ve done this 1000 times,” or skipping a few process steps – these all can result in mistakes, in issues, in rework, in complaints.

And never forget that the more you invest in your knowledge of people, processes, systems, policies, and places, the better equipped you are to handle things right the first time, and usually with less help.

Look at your job through the eyes of a master teacher – Be quick, but don’t hurry.

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