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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

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

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Before Getting into Social Media Customer Service, Do This

Posted on November 1, 2011 in Business Advice, World of Customer Service Please leave a comment

Why Social Media Customer Service? Because if you’re not in it, you’ll be left behind…no, that’s not credible. Because everybody wants their customer service through Twitter or Facebook…uh…no they don’t. Because in this day and age, all your customers are constantly in Social Media…well, not really.

In your personal life, I sure hope you don’t do things for the sake of doing them. You don’t quit your job to create a startup just because all your buddies are doing so. You don’t drop out of college because Gates and Jobs did so. You don’t skydive without a parachute because someone told you what “an awesome rush” it is.

When you do something significant in life or in business, do it with a purpose.

Getting into Social Media Customer Service is no different. Companies who are investing in consulting, resources, and technology to get into Social Media Customer Service typically do it for several reasons including (1) To protect their brand, (2) To reduce cost/unit of providing customer service, (3) To be more responsive, (4) To meet their Social Media-savvy customers where they’re located and/or where they’ve purchased, (5) To improve retention and sales.

You have to have a reason to enter Social Media Customer Service, because the people, process, technology, and cultural costs will be expended upfront before the benefits are realized down the road.

One aspect of Social Media Customer Service that everyone should agree on is this – get your current customer service processes, policy, and training in place and effective before you migrate them to Social Media. If your back office support functions are slow and of poor quality, Social Media will just speed up how quickly the customer realizes those shortcomings. If your people are poorly trained, Social Media creates more real-time interactions where that training is less masked by slower Q&A processes. If your policies are unclear, Social Media will facilitate the spread of misinformation more quickly.

Before diving into Social Media Customer Service, get your current customer service house in order.

Read our New Book – “Ask Yourself…Am I GREAT at Customer Service?” http://www.amigreatat.com/

Listen to our latest podcast episode of “Stepping Up Service” on The MESH Network at http://themesh.tv/stepping-up-service/

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


Great Service Still Exists

Posted on October 19, 2011 in Business Advice, Carolinas, World of Customer Service 2 Comments

When the customer visited the Oreck store on Hanes Mall Blvd. in Winston-Salem, NC, earlier this month, she needed service on a vacuum. It wasn’t an Oreck. It wasn’t purchased at the store. It was only one month old.

The customer brought it to Oreck because the manufacturer said not to ship it back to them for repair – instead the customer should bring it to a local repair center. The customer had driven past the Oreck store before and was familiar with the quality of the brand, so that was the first place that came to mind.

The cord wouldn’t unwind fully, so a vacuum that should be able to clean several rooms without plugging and unplugging could barely do one room. It was a vacuum that would run, but it was a hassle to use.

The Oreck store asked if they could hold the vacuum and work on it later, and the customer said that was fine. Later, an employee from Oreck called the customer and said the cord issue was resolved. He had worked on the cord, getting it untangled and testing it about 10 times to confirm it worked well.

“How much do I owe you?” the customer asked.

“Not a thing,” the employee replied.

The customer had an issue; the company provided a resolution, and it didn’t cost a dime.

Sometimes great customer service isn’t about what happens during the sale or even what happens after the customer leaves your store. Sometimes truly great customer service is about your taking the effort just to do something for someone else. It’s about caring more about meeting the need of a customer than making a nickel off a transaction. It’s about taking a situation that presents itself – like a customer you’ve never met who needs help – and doing what’s right for the customer.

Take a lesson from this Winston-Salem Oreck store. Focus on what’s in it for the customer first, and worry about what’s in it for you second.

And who knows, you might get some positive word-of-mouth out of the experience.

Read our New Book – “Ask Yourself…Am I GREAT at Customer Service?” http://www.amigreatat.com/

Listen to our latest podcast episode of “Stepping Up Service” on The MESH Network at http://themesh.tv/stepping-up-service/

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


Groupon Now Rewarding to Retain

Posted on October 5, 2011 in Business Advice, World of Customer Service 1 Comment

If you’ve used Groupon as a consumer, you understand that you get deep discounts (50%+) from local businesses. If you’re a business, you realize that that can drive lots of consumers to your business, but you’re only probably getting half of what the consumer pays Groupon; so you may only be receiving 25% of your normal payment.

So the only way that Groupon really works for a business is for that company to receive repeat business (at a higher per purchase level). So for Groupon to succeed, it’s all about their business clients retaining and growing business with those Groupon customers.

The theory for the business is they take a short-term loss on a consumer purchase to establish and grow a relationship with that consumer. The reality is often different, however. The business could be cannibalizing their own business by selling at discounted rates to existing customers. They could be involved with Groupon only to attract customers who buy purely on price (and a deeply discounted price at that!). So if the discount goes away, so will that customer.

To help its clients with retention, Groupon has created Groupon Rewards. They promote a “Hassle-Free Setup” followed by “Automatic Rewards” followed by “Customer Analytics.”

No, Groupon does not say that it is cutting its fees. It’s apparently proposing to manage a loyalty program for your business, where consumers get discounts once they’ve spent a certain amount. Not exactly leading edge stuff, but it does promote consumers buying before they get the discount.

So let’s focus on the broader lesson here. If you want to grow your business in a smart way, getting customers in your door (such as what Groupon has historically done) is only the start; long-term success is driven by retention and growth.

Interested in improving your company’s customer retention? Check out our Fast-Track Retention & Growth Assessment: http://www.cssamerica.com/cssfastrga.htm

Read our New Book – “Ask Yourself…Am I GREAT at Customer Service?” http://www.amigreatat.com/

Listen to our latest podcast episode of “Stepping Up Service” on The MESH Network at http://themesh.tv/stepping-up-service/


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