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Be Amazing - 4/23/24


Watching Michael Jordan steal a pass and then dunk a basketball is amazing.  Taking a rocket to the moon is amazing.  The taste of my mom’s homemade beef soup is amazing. We all have our personal examples of what is amazing.  Usually, it’s something that we cannot comprehend, that we Read more

Talk About Yourself to Build Customer Confidence - 4/16/24


When you’re dealing with somebody who is anxious or nervous about a situation, a customer who feels like they don’t have much control, an individual who is unsure and uncertain, it’s important to put the customer at ease.  It’s important to build their comfort level.  It’s important to help Read more

The Proven Value in What You Do - 4/9/24


Forbes wrote an article last year based on a compilation of the results of research on customer service and the customer experience; it was titled:  100 Customer Experience Stats For 2023. In reading the article, you’ll note that many of these key research findings are about you – the value Read more

A Tale of Two Texts - 4/2/24


Having to get allergy shots once a week is never fun, and for Janet, it became an even bigger frustration. She had the shots typically scheduled on Tuesday around 10:30 in the morning, figuring she would avoid the morning rush as well as the lunch rush by going mid-morning.  However, Read more

The Secret Sauce for Great Customer Service - 3/26/24


I was working with the League Office for a major American sport several years back, and one of the executives asked me to describe our Secret Sauce that helped our clients improve the fan experience and customer retention.  I gave him a sense of what makes us unique and Read more

The Miracle of an Apology - 3/19/24


Unfortunate but true story… The manager basically lost his mind.  He terminated his employee on the spot.  She had told the customer that there was going to be a delay in the shipment.  The employee called up the customer ahead of time to let the customer know what was about Read more

It’s Not About the 5-Minute Wait - 3/12/24


Robert went into his supervisor’s office to update her on a situation at the payment desk.  Robert said that a customer was about fourth or fifth in line, waiting to be served, and the customer was complaining loudly about the wait.  He was there to make a property tax Read more

Lessons from the Greats - 3/5/24


I was recently facilitating a workshop on the customer experience, and I made the point that it’s usually beneficial to look at your personal life for great experiences; identify what really resonates with you in a positive way in order to uncover ideas to improve your own customer service. So, Read more

The Empathy Roadmap - 2/27/24


For some people, empathy comes naturally.  There’s an innate desire to learn about the other person and to sincerely convey that sense of interest and caring.  But for many of us, sometimes it helps to have a communication plan.  It helps to know what to do in order to Read more

“You’re the Boss” - 2/20/24


Terrence is excellent at what he does.  From a technical standpoint, he knows how to keep the facility clean.  He’s the lead custodian, and he knows that keeping things straight does not necessarily mean keeping things sanitary.  He knows what chemicals to use and not to use, how to Read more

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Take the HCAHPS Test

Posted on March 11, 2010 in Business Advice, Government, Healthcare Please leave a comment

Will the government be getting into healthcare with the proposed healthcare reform legislation? That’s probably not the best question to ask, because the government is already in healthcare in many ways. I’m sure we’re all familiar with Medicare and Medicaid, but since this is a customer service and retention-related blog, have you heard of HCAHPS?

The government is already in healthcare in the customer service/satisfaction aspect of the business. The federal government has required that hospitals survey patients using standardized tools to gauge satisfaction with multiple areas of the patient experience including communication, responsiveness, information provided, processes, etc. Then this information is posted on the internet for any current or prospective patient to review to compare one hospital to another.

What if this approach related to other organizations? What if two retail stores had their customer satisfaction ratings posted side-by-side? Or maybe you could compare all restaurants in your region in an evaluation – side-by-side – of key characteristics of the food, the environment, the price, the customer service. How about comparing 3 banks or 4 car dealerships or 5 animal hospitals or 6 grocery stores?

If you were one of those retailers or restaurants or banks or grocery stores being objectively compared for all your current or prospective customers to see, how would you do?

It’s a scary proposition, but if you’re not willing to consider it, believe me, your customers make this evaluation every day.

Think of this as the HCAHPS test. How would you objectively compare on key characteristics of the customer experience with your competitors? If you have no idea, then you might want to consider mystery shopping, having a research firm such as ours to shop your organization…and your competitors.

Make sure you know how you measure up.

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


Own the Problem

Posted on February 18, 2010 in Business Advice, Education, Healthcare, Sports Please leave a comment

Personnel in a college athletics department were interviewed about the low attendance this season for basketball games. They discussed the reasons for it. ‘It’s the economy’s fault.’ Valid reason. But the student attendance is down, too. ‘It’s the players fault for not being more a part of the student body.’ Possibly valid. ‘It’s also the student leadership’s fault – they’re not doing a good enough job of getting the students excited about basketball.’ Possibly valid.

What’s interesting about these three reasons discussed is that none of them were the fault of the athletics department. Or put more politely, none of these were directly controllable by the athletics department.

So this implies one of two things. Either the athletics department has no impact whatsoever on attendance or they have an impact, but there’s nothing wrong with what they’re doing. They’re perfect.

This is the problem in organizations where the product is the most important thing. In sports, it’s the play on the court. In hospitals, it’s the clinical care. Too many people in these types of organizations feel that the product is not only the most important thing; it’s the only thing.

If this were true, why do athletics departments have “fan relations” positions? Why do pro sports team have “season ticket holder account representatives?” In hospitals, why are employees taught customer service skills?

Why? Because there should be some impact, some value, some effect from the efforts of these people.

If you’re in an industry where you don’t control the ultimate product, focus instead on what you DO control. And take more ownership over making an impact than did this one college athletics department.

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


BOOST Your Retention

Posted on February 2, 2010 in Business Advice, Healthcare Please leave a comment

Project BOOST is a concept being piloted by The Society of Hospital Medicine. They are working with Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Michigan as well as the University of Michigan to reduce readmissions to hospitals. Modern Healthcare (http://www.modernhealthcare.com/article/20100201/NEWS/302019973/1153#) reported on this project as an example of some creative programs that can be put in place to reduce unnecessary readmissions, which is obviously preferable from the patient’s perspective and helps to manage costs from the facility’s perspective.

What’s especially interesting about the program is that it has a strong customer service component. The program includes a recommended follow-up visit to the doctor within two weeks of discharge to ensure that the patient knows whom to contact, what they need to be doing for themselves, and what to be looking for in terms of post-discharge issues.

To think about this in more general customer service terms, there is a built-in communication step after the patient has left the hospital which ensures that the patient is communicating their situation and their issues back to the physician and also to ensure that the patient is well-educated. To ensure that the patient and their family understand the information being conveyed by the physician/nurses/pharmacists, they use what they call the “teach back” method. This essentially involves the clinician asking the patient to restate what information they were just told.

This is a technique which CSS, our company, teaches to our clients as well. Whether you’re setting expectations or just wanting to make sure you’re on the same page with your customer in terms of what needs to happen next, who’s going to do it, and when it needs to be done, ask the customer to summary those key points back to you. If they can, you’re confident that you’re both on the same page. If they cannot, then you have more work to do to before you close out the conversation.

Learn from Project BOOST. Before the client leaves your business, ensure they’re on the same page with you in terms of what’s going to happen next. And after they’ve left, touch base with your clients a short time after the transaction has occurred to ensure they were satisfied and to keep that relationship-building conversation going.

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


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