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The Key Building Block for Your Customer Relationship - 10/13/26


An automotive manufacturer gets supplies for their vehicles from all over the world.  They have arrangements, service level agreements, expectations for timing and quality of all the parts.  And when they gather all these supplies, they assemble the cars.  They test the cars.  Then they take pictures of those Read more

Be Flexible to Fill the Gaps - 10/6/26


The non-profit has the expected challenges.  There are only 3 people in the organization, yet, they have the same responsibilities of a larger company.  They have to do finance, sales, marketing; they deliver their services to the community, and they need to keep a pulse on what’s going on Read more

Is This Good Customer Service? - 9/29/26


A friend of mine reached out to me recently as she waited for the electrical technician to show up at her house to do some minor repairs.  She had never worked with this company before, but they sent a text about the tech who was soon to arrive. The message Read more

Ownership when Fixing Others’ Errors - 9/22/26


We were conducting training with a client recently, and one of the participants, Jackie, is in a role in his organization where he goes out to the customer site to investigate issues, address customer complaints, and fix problems.  While he’s at the site, he often gets an earful from Read more

Why “No” is So Important - 9/15/26


The employee told the caller: “I don’t think that is possible.” The customer eventually hung up, and redialed to ask a different employee the same question. The employee responded to the customer: “That’s probably not the best way to do it.”  Then, the customer kept asking question after question, arguing Read more

It’s Not “You,” It’s “I” - 9/8/26


During a business writing course that I took years ago, the instructor had us write an e-mail.  I can’t recall if it was written to a co-worker or customer, but after writing this e-mail, she had us count every “I” and “You.”  We talked about how we need to Read more

It Shouldn’t Make a Difference, But… - 9/1/26


We have this conversation with lots of our sports clients, but the principles apply across all different industries.  Too many service representatives view a conversation with a customer as a transaction.  Just get him off the phone as quickly as possible.  The customer is Joe Public, not Joseph Pendergrass.  Read more

Use What the Customer Gives You - 8/25/26


Scenario #1: The customer sent an e-mail to the general inbox at the company.  The message noted that the customer needed to get a family member added to their account, but they couldn’t tell from the website how to do so. The next morning an employee opened up the e-mail, Read more

How Better Customer Service is Better for You - 8/18/26


Oftentimes, we have employees in training or workshops who really want to understand what’s in it for them to deliver better customer service.  How does the employee benefit from a better customer experience? Noted below are 5 different aspects of a great experience desired by the customer.  What if... The customer Read more

Manage New Customer Expectations - 8/11/26


The fan had never been to a motorsports event before, but they had been to concerts.  They had been to big conferences.  At those other events, they could park right next to the venue, many of the activities were indoors, and weather was a non-issue.  So, they were not Read more

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Fix Fast to Reduce Stress – 2/4/14 TOW

Posted on February 4, 2014 in Customer Service Tip of the Week Please leave a comment


This tip is all about you. The vast majority of the advice we provide involves helping the customer, serving them better, or the benefits to the organization or the customer for creating a great experience.

For example, when we discuss service recovery – dealing with complaints or issues – we often talk about how quick resolution increases your chance for customer retention. We note that many customers feel better about the company when an issue is resolved quickly than if no issue had ever happened.

But when you think of service recovery and their impact on you, oftentimes you think of stress. When you’re on the phone or face-to-face with a griping customer, you may think “I’m dealing with an emotional customer” (or a raving lunatic, however you like to describe them). Your heart starts to pump, your temperature starts to rise; it’s not a situation that many of us find comfortable. It can create stress.

So when you’re considering how to deal with the situation, there is a benefit to you to resolve it quickly. A fast fix may reduce your stress. The longer the delay in identifying a solution, moving the customer to the next step, making that fix occur, the more time that you are dealing with the emotions, thinking, worrying.

On a more basic level, the longer it takes to deal with a complaint, the more likely you are to have to add items to a To Do list, to play phone tag with others, to send e-mails flying back and forth to co-worker and customer.

Please don’t misconstrue this advice to be to “give the customer whatever they want to get them off your back.” Instead, when faced with an opportunity to call the customer back the next day or take care of it while they’re on the phone, take care of it then. When given the options to resolve it over the next week or to begin the process now, begin. When you have a chance to get them in touch with your co-worker immediately or take their information and tell them someone will call them later in the week, handoff now.

Cut your stress by looking for the faster path to the fix.


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