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Acting on the Guiding Principles for Great Customer Service - 11/19/24


In last week’s tip, we shared 5 Guiding Principles for Great Customer Service.  This week, let’s address what “taking action” looks like on those key principles.  If last week was about what to do and WHY, this week is about the HOW. Engage with Interest: To engage with interest, proactively Read more

Guiding Principles for Great Customer Service - 11/12/24


It’s hard to know every procedure, every policy, every technique possible to handle every situation correctly.  After all, maybe our procedures are standard, but our customers are not.  Maybe our policies stay pretty consistent, but our customers’ needs and issues, their attitudes and actions can change from customer to Read more

From a Simple Question to an Exceptional Experience - 11/5/24


Phyllis loves her job.  It’s not just because she loves being a customer service representative, not just because she really likes her co-workers, and not just because she enjoys her company.  It’s because she really appreciates her customers, as well. A customer had ordered a register book off the company Read more

Fix One Problem without Creating Another - 10/29/24


If you’ve ever had an issue with your dishwasher, this will sound familiar.  I’ve dealt with so many dishwashers over the years, and they always seem to have some kind of an issue.  Maybe it’s because of the mix of water and technology, but for whatever reason, these never Read more

Delight Your Customers - 10/22/24


Buddy the Bug Man was different.  His company was new, and the only reason why Janet tried him out was that the service she had used for years just wasn’t working.  Whether it was mosquitoes in the yard, ants in the kitchen, or cockroaches flying through on their way Read more

A More Complete Definition of Responsiveness - 10/15/24


I was purchasing something recently that was being custom-developed.  At one point, the company’s employee and I had a good 20 e-mails going back and forth - 10 from each of us.  Unfortunately, I broke my own rule, and I did not pick up the phone after 2 or Read more

Have a Game Plan to Address Their Anxiety - 10/8/24


It seems like we all get deliveries - whether it is UPS, USPS, FedEx, Amazon, the local courier, or all the above.  We order.  They deliver.  Or do they? It’s times like these, when we’re expecting that package, that item that we’re looking forward to or need urgently or are Read more

How Persistence Saved the Day - 10/1/24


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 Read more

Notice the Little Changes - 9/24/24


“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 Read more

Don’t Hurry…Be Quick - 9/17/24


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 Read more

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Inquiring Educational Minds Want to Know

Posted on January 12, 2010 in Business Advice, Education Please leave a comment

The National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) conducts annual surveys of college and university students which address personal development, support from their faculty, and other factors driving student satisfaction.

The institutions are graded on such attributes as how supportive they are of student success, the promptness of feedback on student performance, rates of transfers in, etc.

So why is this information important? Isn’t this just another customer satisfaction survey? Sure it is, but this illustrates why such surveys are important. Students make their own decisions about staying or going, they offer word-of-mouth to friends and family about the institutions they attend, they decide whether to continue into graduate school there or to go elsewhere based in large part on their opinions of the institution.

Am I learning? Am I growing? Am I in a supportive environment? Am I being challenged to improve?

Any college or university can create the classes, the culture, and the campus they want. But at some point they have to assess if it’s the classes, the culture, and the campus that the STUDENTS want. At some point, they have to view the student as a customer, with needs and wants, preferences and priorities.

Surveys such as these create that opportunity for the student to be viewed as that important asset to the long-term success of the organization.

Now it’s just a matter on institutions acting on the information.

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


Keep Your Prized Possession

Posted on January 11, 2010 in Business Advice, World of Customer Service Please leave a comment

Is it the autographed picture of your favorite athlete? Is it your mother’s diary she kept as a child? Maybe it’s your vintage ’54 convertible, or it’s your figurine you got from your trip to Japan. It could be your golf clubs. It could be a drawing from a child. Maybe it’s the grandfather clock your grandfather made. What is your prized possession?

Take a minute to think of it.

Now ask yourself a few questions:

· What makes it important?

· How do you take care of it?

· Is it something you want to keep for the long-term?

· How do you benefit from taking care of it for the long-term?

Once you’ve determined the answers to these questions, now ask yourself these questions again. But this time, replace the word “it”, the prized possession, with “your customer and their satisfaction.”

Are the answers the same or different? Try to apply the answers from your “prized possession” to your customer and their satisfaction.

We can learn a great deal about how to view and treat customers if we view them and their satisfaction as a prized possession.

Take a moment to think about your prized possessions, then take that emphasis and caring attitude you have toward your prized possessions and see what a difference that can make in your service to your customers.

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


The Servant Mindset

Posted on December 16, 2009 in Business Advice, Government 1 Comment

A county manager talks about staff needing to have a “Servant Mindset” with the community. He is talking about government workers on the local level in tax collections, parks, social services, and the health department being servants of the residents of the community.

That’s his way of describing customer service. That’s his way of sharing his mental image of what it means to provide customer service.

To many people, this conjures up the image of someone subservient to the other, someone who defers to the other, someone dressing fancy, saying “Yes, Sir” and “Yes, Ma’am” and catering to the other person’s every whim. Could that possibly be the image he is referencing?

Well…yes.

We know that many government workers have a bad reputation for being slow or inconsiderate or even rude at times. And that reputation – fair or not – has to be turned around; changing that perception is not going to happen purely from some slick marketing or branding campaign. It has to happen through the thousands and thousands of interactions that occur on a weekly basis. That perception has to be changed through the reality that residents experience on a daily basis. It has to be based on each call, or e-mail, or face-to-face interaction which the community experiences. At some point, for government entities (and most businesses), reality is the ultimate determinant of perception.

So the manager strives to impact those interactions by impacting the mindset of each employee. If the employee takes the attitude that “I need to defer to the other” and “I need to dress professionally” and “I need to be respectful in what I say and how I say it,” then how that employee is perceived by the customer will improve. This mindset creates an underlying feeling in the conversation that the customer is important, they are being served, and they are being respected.

The next time your company is coming up with the next big thing to impact your perception and your brand, start first by impacting the mindset that each employee has toward their relationship with their customer.

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


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