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Don’t Harp on the Customer’s Mistake - 6/24/25


Seth’s daughter, Sarah, had missed some swim classes, and Seth remembered that the aquatics center had several make-up classes available late in the summer.  So Seth pulled up the class schedule on his phone, found one that worked on his and Sarah’s schedules, and planned to attend a session Read more

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

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Help Drivers be Students

Posted on July 10, 2013 in Business Advice, Education Please leave a comment

The quality of the experience of a school student is based purely on their relationship with their teacher, right? The quality of the customer service at a hotel is based purely on their interaction with staff at the registration desk, correct? The season ticket holder’s perception of a sports club’s fan relations is based purely on their relationship with their sales representative, right?

I hope you didn’t agree with these statements, because so much about a customer’s perception of how they’re treated and valued is determined by people other than these key employees.

In the article New chief of Broward school buses: ‘We can fix things’, the new transportation director highlights one of her four key areas of focus being customer service improvements, particularly by training bus drivers. Now my company has actually trained bus drivers for a large school system as well, and there are reasons why this is done – whether drivers are with a student for 10 minutes one morning a week or for 45 minutes each way 5 times per week, a great deal of the student’s opinion (as well as their parents’ opinions) about their school experience can be impacted by these drives to/from school.

Granted, the experience in that classroom is hugely important, but many issues, relationships, discussions, delays, and general topics that require customer service skills occur on the bus.

The big point to take away is that we cannot assume that only one person impacts the customer’s opinion, and others are not relevant. We can’t assume that if an employee has a technical skill, then their communication and customer service skills are irrelevant.

Look at your organization through the customer’s eyes, and look at all of the touch points they have with individuals in positions not named “customer service” or “fan relations” or “reception.” See the impact that these others have on customer perceptions, and ensure they have the customer service skills to succeed.

Make students of your employees by teaching them customer service skills, techniques, and principles.

Learn about our CSS Education services at: http://cssamerica.com/cssed.htm

Interested in improving your educational organization’s customer satisfaction? See our other blog posts at: http://serviceadvice.cssamerica.com/category/education/