attitude | Customer Service Solutions, Inc. - Page 8

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

Create Customers for Life - 6/17/25


Veronica has gone to the same automotive service shop for at least 20 years.  She bought a new car about a year ago, and this is the third car she’s brought to the shop instead of taking her car to the dealer where she bought it.  She’s had three Read more

Don’t Turn the Customer into the QA Department - 6/10/25


Roberta received a form with information filled in by the company after her conversation with the account rep.  Roberta just needed to review the information, fill in some of the blanks, sign it, and resend it in order to set up a new account. She noticed that the effective date Read more

Imitate to Improve - 6/3/25


Oscar Wilde said that “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.”  Now this doesn’t mean that plagiarism is the sincerest form of flattery.  Nor does it mean that great impersonators such as Rich Little, Dana Carvey, or Frank Caliendo are always offering flattering portrayals of those that they imitate. Wilde’s Read more

How the Customer Perceives a Truth as a Lie - 5/27/25


You’re the customer, you’re asking about an unused item that you’re returning, and you hear the employee say: “The refund process takes 7-10 days.”  You’re thinking: “Great!  I can get the refund check as early as a week from today!”  The reality is that the company means that they’ll Read more

Tell Customers What’s Next - 5/20/25


In most businesses that have been around for a while, how a process was originally designed is not how it currently operates.  Sometimes this change is referred to as “practical drift,” where the actual process moves further and further away from the documented steps over time.  Maybe the changes Read more

Questions to Guide You to Empathy - 5/13/25


“If I was him, I would do ABC…” If you’ve ever heard somebody say this - whether it’s a friend or acquaintance, whether it’s some TV reporter or podcaster - you may get as frustrated or as annoyed as I do. I get annoyed because we are not that other person. Read more

Negate the Nervousness - 5/6/25


The customer needed a loan, so he walked into the bank, but he was a little nervous.  He knew that launching his business would be easier if he had some working capital, but that’s about all he knew.  He was anxious because he didn’t know what to expect in Read more

Don’t Rush to Resolve Quickly - 4/29/25


The customer is angry, so you use the CSS LEAD technique as designed.  You, listen, empathize, accept responsibility, and deliver on a remedy.  But it doesn’t work.  The customer is still upset, and maybe even a little more frustrated than when you started…why?! If the use of this technique fails, Read more

Energy v. Apathy - 4/22/25


I asked a couple friends who are much more scientifically-oriented the question: What is energy?  I didn’t mean E=MC2.  I meant physiologically, what is energy? They described a lot of things that sounded really good, yet far too advanced for my non-medical mind. Part of the reason why energy is of Read more

Prep Enough to Personalize - 4/15/25


Everybody loves Howie.  He is an account rep for the local air conditioning and heating company.  When I say Everybody loves Howie, I’m definitely talking about the customers.  His co-workers love him too, but customers are especially fond of him.  They seem to really enjoy their conversations with him, Read more

•••••

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.

Signup for FREE Tips!    Contact Us    More Resources for You    Visit Our Home Page


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.

Signup for FREE Tips!    Contact Us    More Resources for You    Visit Our Home Page


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.

Signup for FREE Tips!    Contact Us    More Resources for You    Visit Our Home Page


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