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Create Awareness of Alternatives - 2/4/25


Sandy was hungry, and she was on the move.  Driving between meetings, she saw the restaurant sign and pulled in.  The fast-food restaurant had two drive-thru lanes.  One was for any customer who wanted to place an order on the spot. The other was for mobile orders only.  The Read more

Listen with Your Eyes - 1/28/25


Out of the corner of his eye, Patrick saw the customer enter the lobby.  The customer was carrying a large shoulder bag with several papers in her hand.  The customer was shuffling the papers and looking down; then she stopped, looked up, and saw the staff navigator sitting at Read more

When You’re the Educator, What Should You Teach? - 1/21/25


The best customer service professionals are also excellent educators.  Not only within the organization, but I’m talking specifically about the role they play as educator with their customers.  With all the self-service options that technology provides, customers often have the opportunity to do things on their own, to investigate Read more

Wrap It Up Right: Why Follow-Up Communications WOW Customers - 1/14/25


Dena had some questions about her water bill, so she looked for answers on the utility’s website.  She didn’t find specific answers, and she really didn’t want to get on the phone with somebody at the time and risk staying on hold.  She had lots going on, but she Read more

From Conversation to Connection: Defining Customer Engagement - 1/7/25


Maggie was sitting in the Service Excellence Training class, and the instructor kept talking about staying engaged with the customer.  Proactively engaging the customer.  Being fully engaged in the conversation. After hearing this same phrase (“engage”) used in various ways, Maggie raised her hand and asked a question probably several Read more

Self-empower for the New Year - 12/31/24


Jeff joined the company, in part, because he loved their approach to culture.  Leadership tried to create an empowerment culture.  They tried to develop an environment where, within certain parameters, individual team members could make a decision and feel confident that they would be supported by leadership. The reality was Read more

2024 Holiday Poem - 12/24/24


I sometimes hear it said That things have never been like this before. That challenges are unique, That stresses seem like more.   I sometimes hear it said That we're asked to do much more with less. That workloads are increasing, And we're resource-constrained at best.   And others often say That things are really very good. That they enjoy those Read more

Is Their Poor Planning Your Emergency? - 12/17/24


Have you ever heard the saying:  Your poor planning is not my emergency. I’ve heard it said often – not necessarily directly from one person to another.  More typical is that I hear it from the person having to drop everything and do something immediately because someone else didn’t think Read more

Empathy Examples for Everyday Situations - 12/10/24


I’ve often said that empathy is the single most important characteristic of people who are great at customer service.  If empathy is essentially “to understand the other person,” it helps so much to have that ability in order to specifically help someone.  To talk to what’s unique about them.  Read more

Tell Them Why You’re Giving Thanks - 12/3/24


Thank you! Merci! Danke! Doumo! Gracias! It seems like every language has a translation of Thank You.  Even though I only fluently speak English and speak Spanish, un poco, I – and probably most of you – have heard some or all of the translations of "Thank You” noted above.  Read more

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Campaign for Customers

Posted on September 22, 2010 in Business Advice, Government Please leave a comment

A Toronto mayoral candidate is campaigning in such a manner as to try to appeal to small businesses and economic growth. One area of focus in his campaign is customer service.

It’s interesting to note how politicians are talking customer service. Why would they do that? Well, there are two key reasons. First is that government in general has (deservedly or not) a reputation for delivering poor customer service, not being responsive, not having the same attitudes that one should find in organizations competing for the customer.

Second, great customer service is something that their customers – the voters – find important. We can debate whether or not it’s the number one issue, but it IS important.

Think about this in terms of how it relates to your business. What is important to your customers? What is their hot button issue? In what aspects of your organization do customers perceive you negatively?

To ANSWER these questions, you have to ASK these questions of your customers.

Ask, listen, learn, prioritize, improve, and then campaign for your customers.

Interested in improving your company’s customer service? See more information at: http://www.cssamerica.com/

Check out our new customer service book at http://www.amigreatat.com/


Take a Measure from Government

Posted on September 1, 2010 in Business Advice, Government Please leave a comment

When we work with our government clients, whether it’s an economic development division trying to retain local businesses, a property assessment division trying to efficiently serve its customer base, a City/County manager’s office trying to best manage such a large organization, we’ve found a consistent need – measurement.

When government is trying to measure over such a broad organization, they typically create an organization-wide balanced scorecard system. This metrics system will have the typical measures of Revenue, Cost, Quality, and Customer Service. But it will also have some more outcomes-oriented customer measures such as the percentage of residents on welfare and more capacity-oriented customer measures such as the percentage of residents living within “X” miles of a public park.

Let’s translate those last two measures to a typical business. Outcomes. An outcome is some end-benefit from what your service or product provides. It’s not the product itself. For a hospital, it’s the quality of life after discharge, not just how good the care was in the hospital. For a fine restaurant, it’s the enjoyment of the evening, not just the quality of the food. For an automobile dealership, it’s the feeling when driving or knowing you own a particular brand, not just the gas mileage. These outcomes often relate to the feelings your customers have as a result of their engagement with your company. They should be measured to make sure your services had a positive ongoing impact.

The other example metric dealt with Access. How close you live to a park can determine your ease of access and likelihood to use it. Similarly, what percentage of the population lives near a grocery store, what percentage of season ticket holders receive a sports team’s newsletter, and what percentage of long-term customers have online access all help to determine the customer’s access to the company. A greater access leads to a greater chance to develop relationships and retain the customer.

Learn from these atypical measures from government to know how well you impact your customers and to ensure you have adequate access to them.

Interested in improving your company’s customer service? See more information at: http://www.cssamerica.com/

Check out our new customer service book at http://www.amigreatat.com/


A Day at the DMV

Posted on August 24, 2010 in Business Advice, Government Please leave a comment

The thrill of victory…the agony of the DMV.

For the first time in 5 years, I had to get a new driver’s license. Being out of practice at this activity, I got to the DMV office right when it opened – a colossal error! With this being the best day of the week on my schedule to get the driver’s license renewed, when I arrived at 8:00 a.m., there were already close to 100 people in line; unfortunately, my schedule wouldn’t let me leave.

If patience is a virtue, then there were hundreds of very virtuous people experiencing the DMV today.

But why the wait?

Too few employees for the number of customers. Too few offices for a city the population of Charlotte, NC. Too many steps in the process. Patrons not educated on the best day-of-week or time-of-day, how they needed to prepare for the visit to the office. I could go on and on.

I stood outside for nearly 2.5 hours, entering the office just before 10:30 a.m. When my number was finally called 30 minutes later, it took about 4-5 minutes to do the test. Then I had to wait again for my picture. I left the office at 11:15 a.m. So I had over 3 hours of wait time for about 7 minutes of activity.

What’s worse is that I was just renewing. There were 30+ people who entered the office before me who were getting a permit or a new license, at least 25 of which were still there when I left.

We can all learn from our experiences – good and bad. Learn from my experience to reduce steps in a process, staff appropriately, educate customers in advance, and create fast-track processes for people with minor needs.

Learn from my nearly half-day at the DMV.

Interested in improving your company’s customer service? See more information at: http://www.cssamerica.com/

Check out our new customer service book at http://www.amigreatat.com/


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