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Refresh on the Reasons to Appreciate the Customer - 11/25/25


This is a great time of year to give thanks, not just because it’s Thanksgiving week in the United States, but also because – with 2025 coming to a close - it gives us the opportunity to do some reflecting on the recent past. The idea of reflecting on reasons Read more

Confirm the Customer is Cleared for Takeoff - 11/18/25


An airplane pilot is told when they’re “cleared for takeoff” before they begin to accelerate down the runway.  The air traffic controller (ATC) has looked at everything in front of the pilot, on the runway and in the air space, and checked to ensure the pilot is good to Read more

Build Relationships with First-timers - 11/11/25


We’ve worked with one of our sports clients for over 10 years, and although the main focus of our work is research with their fan base, we also provide informal consulting advice and guidance whenever possible.  One approach we’ve talked about on and off for years is the need Read more

Last Impression Faux Pas - 11/4/25


Rightfully so, many customer service experts harp on the importance of the first impression.  It happens quickly, and it can impact the individual’s perception of you and the organization.  We even wrote a Tip of the Week on this years ago called First Impression Faux Pas. What many people tend Read more

Familying with Customers - 10/28/25


In our transactional society, it’s hard to think about customers in the long-term.  But if we want to be as successful as we can as an individual or as a business, we need to view customers through a relationship lens. What do we need to know about them to Read more

Avoid These Techniques - 10/21/25


We had a Customer Service Tip of the Week recently that addressed gaining control of the conversation.  One of the key points was that the focus should be on gaining control of conversations in various circumstances, but trying to avoid making it your goal to gain control of the Read more

View Quality through the Customer’s Eyes - 10/14/25


Geri had been dealing with backups in the downstairs plumbing system of her house on and off for the past year.  The most recent company that she called in to unclog the pipes stated that they could send a camera down the pipes and tell her exactly where the Read more

Be Supportive, Not Defensive - 10/7/25


[An employee on the phone with a customer…] Who told you that you didn’t have to submit that form? … Bob?  Oh brother!  You see Bob is our “special” co-worker.  He seems to always tell customers the wrong thing to do, and we’re having to clean up after him.  Read more

Some Customers LOVE Predictability - 9/30/25


I was facilitating focus groups of businesses that utilize local government services.  The phrase that popped up multiple times was “Time Is Money!”  What these municipal customers were conveying was that their time was valuable, and delays were wasting their time.  But the conversations were not just about how Read more

Find Your Special Sauce - 9/23/25


When I watch a football game and I see a great quarterback (somebody who may be considered a “Star”), he might be an excellent runner, have a big arm, be able to diagnose the defense and get his team into the right play.  But he’s likely not great at Read more

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Create a Common Definition of Customer Service – 9/15/20

Posted on September 15, 2020 in Customer Service Tip of the Week Please leave a comment

Peter, Paul, and Marie are co-workers. They are all customer service representatives.  When Peter thinks of good customer service, he defines it as being friendly to the customer. “And I am friendly,” Peter says.  “That’s why I don’t know why they send me to customer service training.”

Paul thinks customer service is about being responsive.  When he gets e-mails, he replies right away that he got the message.  When he gets a voice message, he calls right back.  If the same customer calls 5 times for updates, that’s OK to Paul, because he’ll get back to that customer immediately every one of those 5 times.

Marie defines customer service as getting the customer what they want.  “If I do my job in getting them what they want, that’s all that matters. I hate when they whine that I was rude to them or short on the phone.  They got what they wanted, didn’t they?”

Peter, Paul, and Marie all have different definitions of customer service. They are all right…and they are all wrong.

Great customer service has a cordiality peace – a friendliness aspect.  Having that warm and positive engagement with another human being should always be a part of great customer service.

Delivering exceptional customer service also has a component of speed.  Being respectful of people’s time and responsive to their needs is a part of the process of serving a customer effectively.

And great customer service, in the end, should be about giving the customer what they need – it should be about striving to achieve outcomes as much as possible.

So, Peter, Paul, and Marie were all correct – what each emphasizes is part of the definition of customer service.  But they’re also wrong – each person has a limited view of what it means to deliver great customer service, and each individual’s version of great customer service will lead to a positive experience for only a subset of their customers.

For organizations to deliver great customer service, they need to create and instill a common vision among all staff of the desired customer experience.  Organizations need to make sure that definition is broad enough to address the attitude, the process, and striving for the desired outcome, as well.

Create a Common Definition of Customer Service.

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4 Tips for Personal Sanity in Public Crisis – 3/17/20

Posted on March 17, 2020 in Customer Service Tip of the Week Please leave a comment

We can only control what we can control.  There are times like these where the healthcare world is fighting a quickly-spreading virus, and governmental, business, and other organizations are making changes to try to mitigate risks and find solutions where possible.

With all this activity swirling around us, we still have jobs to do.  We still have the work and the customers and the daily responsibilities, and we are expected to perform well even as changes around us become – temporarily, we believe – more unpredictable.

How do we get our mindset and focus on the task at hand or the person we’re serving with everything swirling around us?  Here are 4 Tips:

  • Get Educated, but not Inundated: Know what you need to know about the virus, appropriate personal hygiene practices, and other activities that could keep yourself safe.  Know key facts, but make sure you’re giving your mind a break from non-stop news and discussions on the topic.  Ensure you are giving yourself some balance.
  • Prepare for More Anxiety-filled Discussions: We’ve experienced this with some of our clients and their customers over the past 2 weeks.  There’s more emotion, fear of the unknown, quicker turnaround time expected on requests and complaints.  This is something for which you can prepare – alleviating customer anxiety using our STEP UP technique.  In a nutshell, the CSS technique states:
    • Share your understanding of their situation – offering some empathy
    • Tell them about yourself and how you’ve helped people in similar situations
    • Explain the Process for how you’ll address their concern, and ensure they understand
    • End UP! Close positively, thanking them for contacting you and sharing the concern.
  • Care for Your Own Mental Health: I’m no clinician, but it’s clear that plenty of rest, plenty of fluids, occasional deep breathing, and movement keep you feeling better physically/mentally.
  • Take Action Focused on Today’s Priorities: Even if you don’t know what tomorrow will bring, map out today.  Identify the “big rocks” – those higher priority tasks – and act on them first so you at least get the top items addressed most days.  Having a plan, working the plan, and celebrating the work every day can help with our mental mindset.

We can only control what we can control. Use these four tips to create a little personal sanity for yourself.

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6 Actions for Attitude Adjustments – 2/18/20

Posted on February 18, 2020 in Customer Service Tip of the Week Please leave a comment

The battle over one’s attitude can feel like a never-ending fight…

I need to stop letting little things bother me. I need to not let that customer’s anger infect my mindset.  Just because my co-worker isn’t doing what they said they’d do shouldn’t mean that I should have an attitude of indifference toward promises I made to others. Sure, I’m having a good day, but that negative political link on the internet sure looks interesting.  I really enjoy my customers, but all I can think about is this frustrating computer system that I have to deal with every day.

We may want to be optimistic or have a great attitude, but there are challenges and obstacles and negativity around us.  Our attitude is a decision we make, and it is reflected in how we go through the day, how we respond and react to others, in what we do and what we decide not to do.

So, if Attitude is Everything, how do you maintain the best attitude possible?

What we’re talking about here is how we’re wired, our mindset.  The attitude we employ is based on who we are, how we talk to ourselves, and what we view as our purpose.  Granted, it has many obstacles.  It is a sum total of every day we’ve lived, it is affected by the challenges we face during the day, and it has the worries that we think about what could happen tomorrow.

While I don’t have that silver bullet answer that will help you win the battle over your attitude every day – trying to make it positive/optimistic – here are 6 actions that I take to get my mind right:

  • I read something positive when I wake up in the morning, and I read something positive when I go to bed at night.
  • I avoid information sources or articles that have no bearing on my work or my life, but which have an obvious negative tone or slant.
  • I tend to gravitate toward people who seem more positive and who seem to share my values, and I try to reduce the amount of time I have to engage with those who are perennially negative.
  • I try to empathize and understand others who may be different or negative or complaining, because in that understanding my negativity toward their attitude tends to go away.
  • Many times throughout the day, I give thanks or celebrate small successes, even if it’s a success only I experience.
  • And as I’ve mentioned a couple times in these tips over the years, at the end of a work day, I total up a list that I create through the day of successes, and I just read it back to myself. It is too easy to forget all the successes when you’re in the midst of just trying to get 100 things done during the course of a day.

So much of how our lives turn out is based on the attitude we bring in. It’s easier for some than others to have that kind of attitude that will help us to live out our purpose and to engage others positively.

But whether it is easy or hard for you, be intentional about filling yourself up with the kind of things that bring out the attitude in yourself that you’d love to see in others.

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