Business Advice | Customer Service Solutions, Inc. - Page 7

Home  /  Redesign around Millennials (and Others, too!)  /  Business Advice

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

Refine Your Decision-making Process - 11/26/24


Every day, you make decisions of what to do and what not to do.  And in the world of customer service, often the affected parties are our customers, our co-workers, and our company.  Here are a few quotes to consider when you’re thinking about evaluating and refining your decision-making Read more

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

•••••

Redesign around Millennials (and Others, too!)

Posted on July 3, 2015 in Business Advice, World of Customer Service Please leave a comment

Blog 7-3-15Millennials. I’ve been in so many meetings lately where they were the main topic of discussion. Why? Because they’re different. How they communicate, how they socialize with each other, why and how they move toward a brand and what could pull them away is different from other generations.

But couldn’t we say that about most of the customer groups out there? Aren’t first-time customers different than those that have been with you for ten years? Aren’t those that transact business with you purely via the web different than those that will only come into the store to make a purchase or get service?

The uniqueness of Millennials is important to note, but it’s important to note because every customer group (every customer) is unique.

To improve the customer’s experience, conduct this exercise with whomever the key 3-5 customer groups are for your business:

  • Research – Conduct research – surveys, focus groups, interviews, etc. – to identify what is most important to them about their experience. Is it speed, simplicity, self-service options, self-evident steps, text-based options, face-to-face dialogue, quality, or kindness? Identify just a few key attributes of their experience.
  • Journey Map – Use those attributes as guiding principles to redesign your customer’s experience by breaking up the experience into several Macro-process steps; here are six sample steps:
    • They identify a need for and inquire about “stuff”
    • They find stuff
    • They request/order stuff
    • They get a status on stuff delivery
    • They receive stuff
    • They complete/pay for stuff
  • Redesign – During evaluation of each step in this customer continuum, how well does the experience in this step address the guiding principles? For example, when they’re requesting/ordering an item, is it “simple, quick, and self-evident?” If not, then that’s where there’s opportunity for a redesign.

The lesson on the laser focus on Millennials is to look at each customer or customer group as unique. Know what’s important to them so you can design your world around theirs. Research. Journey Map. Redesign

Did you like this post? Here are other related posts:


For School Districts, the “Nebulous” is Important

Posted on April 20, 2015 in Business Advice, Education Please leave a comment

Blog 4-20-15Parent satisfaction and student satisfaction are easily measured. The employment rate of high school graduates and the percentage of graduates moving to college are also easily gauged. The attendance patterns of students and ACT scores are both measurable.

But in the survey results for Springfield Public Schools, there was something overall that was highly important…and highly nebulous.

In a survey of students, employees, parents, and community members, the third most important “measure” of school success was “Communication, collaboration and critical thinking.” This attribute was only less important to respondents than “Highly qualified teachers” and “Employment rate.”

This is important, because when we think of outcomes, we think of graduation, employment, and college entry. But to the stakeholders in this school system, the most important “causes” of these “outcomes” or “effects” were teachers, communication, collaboration, and critical thinking.

When many districts and other educational organizations work to improve student success, they work on the academic rigor, the testing, raising reading or math proficiency, and putting the right curriculums and programs in place.

But people make those approaches work, and what characteristics of the people and the organization make them work? Their communication, collaboration, and critical thinking make them work.

Whenever you launch an initiative to improve performance in your organization, don’t just create the perfect program. Ensure that the people are communicating, collaborating, and asking the right questions to make that initiative a success.

Did you like this post? Here are other Education-related posts:

Learn about our CSS Education services at: http://cssamerica.com/education-industry


Journalists are Sharing Patient Satisfaction Scores

Posted on April 17, 2015 in Business Advice, Healthcare Please leave a comment

Blog 4-17-15It’s happening. We knew it would come. It’s not that the hospitals haven’t been measuring patient satisfaction for decades. It’s not that the Federal Government is just now monitoring patient satisfaction and reporting it publicly. It IS that it’s become such an easily-obtained set of information that journalists are quickly pulling the data and writing articles. The article See how Triad hospitals fare when it comes to patient satisfaction is a perfect example. It identifies specific hospitals in North Carolina only getting 2 “Stars” out of 5. It notes that nobody in the region is above a 4, and it interviews those performing “badly” in the eyes of the writer, putting them on the defensive. Now here’s the question: What is your organization doing to continually improve patient satisfaction? Some of the answer is process-oriented, some is culture, some directly relates to engaging employees, and some relates to communications and relationship-building with patients. Our suggestion is to start with the Voice of the Patient – What are their true satisfaction drivers? Uncover the true drivers of willingness to recommend and return, if needed. Then identify what correlates most to those drivers. At that point, you can be efficient in your efforts. At that point, you’re tailoring your strategy to improve and sustain that improvement in patient satisfaction through employee engagement, patient engagement, process, communications, cultural, and other initiatives. Continually work to improve your patient satisfaction. Your scores could be in the next headline, the next television segment, or the next in-depth article. The data on the hospitals have become stories waiting to be written.

Did you like this post? Here are other Healthcare-related posts:


« Previous   1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 ... 109 110   Next »