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G.A.B. – The Survey Guiding Principles - 3/28/23


You’re excited!  The company has okayed your conducting a survey, and you immediately think of a half dozen questions you want to ask every customer.  You document your questions, get input from others, and all of a sudden you have a Word document with 36 questions instead of 6.  Read more

Build Your Shield - 3/21/23


When the customer complains or the boss gets upset, when the negativity gets too personal or you get that unprofessional e-mail from the angry client - those are the times when we can feel hurt.  Those are the times when we in customer service roles can feel that physical Read more

Avoid the Aggravation; Confirm the Key Point - 3/14/23


In this age of instant information and auto-completion of texts or e-mails, we are quick to get one thing done and move on to the next thing.  Technology often helps us to complete our work more quickly.  Yes, there’s even AI technology that’s starting to wreak havoc on the Read more

Frame the Ways to Get Back Your Customer - 3/7/23


Every organization that gains customers is in a position to lose customers.  For the sports organization, it’s the lost account holder.  For the healthcare provider, it’s the member who enrolls with the competitor at the end of the year.  The retailer, the software provider, the financial services firm – Read more

RELATE to Your Customers - 2/28/23


One of the more interesting processes we go through with some clients is the development of Customer Service Standards.  One might think that the expectations that organizations have of their staff are pretty consistent when it comes to customer service and relationship-building.  However, the Standards are often unique because Read more

Show Progress to the Customer - 2/21/23


When I enter the Chick-fil-A drive-thru lines, there are typically 10-15 cars ahead of me.  The cars move slowly but surely.  Employees take your order.  Others confirm your order.  Others provide the food.  In a study conducted a couple years ago, Chick-fil-A was noted as having the longest drive-thru Read more

Provide the Promise of Patience and Kindness - 2/14/23


Patience and kindness go a long way in life, and they go a really long way in customer service, as well.  These are two of the harder qualities to exemplify in customer service, particularly when you are spinning multiple plates, have a backlog of work or calls or contacts Read more

When You Can’t Say “Yes to the Address” - 2/7/23


I was interviewing a frontline staff person for one of our local government clients recently as part of our CSS Training Development Process.  They described their customers and the difficult situations that they face, their tougher conversations with customers. This individual supports local events, so there’s a lot of planning involved.  Read more

How to Fix Other People’s Problems - 1/31/23


I was helping a friend navigate some healthcare processes recently, so I conducted a 3-way call with my friend and the physician practice to try to get things cleared up.  The employee I spoke with on the phone - let’s call her Katie. There had been poor communication between different Read more

What to do When You’re in the Middle - 1/24/23


Bob and Sarah are arguing, and you’re in the middle.  Bob’s an employee, and Sarah is a customer, and they have a difference of opinion.  Somehow you’re involved even though you didn’t have anything to do with the interaction in question, the complaint being addressed.  You find yourself being Read more

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Show Your Confidence – 9/7/21

Posted on September 7, 2021 in Customer Service Tip of the Week Please leave a comment

“Self-confidence is the first requisite to great undertakings.”

To do something great, you need to have confidence in yourself.  That confidence often comes from positive experience, preparation, understanding what has happened and could happen, and having the knowledge and resources and training to address it when it does happen.

If you want to do a great job in your role in service or in delivering a customer experience or dealing with the irate customer, remember your positive experiences, prepare, understand what happened and why and that it could happen again.  Know your resources, and train with others so that you can address even the greatest of undertakings.

“With self-confidence fulfilled, you’ll find that folk have confidence in you.”

While having confidence is important, when we’re working with customers, it’s also exceptionally important to show your confidence.  People don’t always take what you say or the information you provide at face value. Oftentimes, they judge the quality of the information and the credibility of the person providing the information based on how that information is delivered.

If you want the customer to accept what you say, have faith in what you decide, and trust the direction you provide, it needs to be delivered with confidence.

Confidence is often conveyed by presenting something with a focus on the other person.  It’s conveyed with clarity of thought and well-articulated words.  It’s often conveyed with brief statements as opposed to lengthy and rambling narratives.  And it’s conveyed with your nodding of the head or with your strong yet conversational tone.

Set yourself up for customer service success.  Invest in yourself so that you are confident in the work you do.  Then present yourself in such a way that the customer shares your confidence.

Show your confidence.

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Optimism – A Force for Good in Customer Service – 2/16/21

Posted on February 16, 2021 in Customer Service Tip of the Week Please leave a comment

Will 2021 be a better year than 2020?  I have absolutely no idea.  Maybe it would be nice to see into the future and know for certain, but I can’t and I don’t.  But as I wade further and further into this year, I can hope that the water warms, or I can fear that a big wave is going to knock me over.  I can choose optimism or pessimism.

Optimism is about hope – it’s about faith or belief or confidence in the possibility of a positive outcome.

Colin Powell once said that perpetual optimism is a force multiplier.  In other words, positivity can create momentum, can create power – people are attracted to it and will go with you if that optimism can become a sincere all-the-time thing.

If we want our co-workers and customers to follow our lead, it benefits us to enlist the power of optimism.  If we want pleasant, positive, Yes-oriented interactions, it benefits us to be pleasant, hopeful, and optimistic.

Sometimes it’s easiest to define a word or explain a concept by contrasting it, so let’s consider some examples.  Kahlil Gibran said:  The optimist sees the rose and not the thorns, the pessimist stares at the thorns, oblivious to the rose. Here are a couple other quotes…

  • A stumbling block to the pessimist is a stepping stone to the optimist.
  • A pessimist thinks there’s nothing so bad it can’t get worse; an optimist thinks there’s nothing so good it can’t get better.
  • An optimist sees an opportunity in every calamity; a pessimist sees a calamity in every opportunity.

 
Now let’s refocus on the good – the optimistic viewpoint – hoping and believing that things will turn out well and imparting that hope and confidence to others:

  • Yogi Berra used to say it ain’t over ‘til it’s over. At the end of sporting events where my team is losing, my wife likes to say:  It’s not over yet.  They can come back!
  • Robert Browning encourages us not to look down, but rather to look up. Don’t focus on the difficulty you’re in as much as the direction you want to go.
  • Walt Whitman said the strongest and sweetest songs yet remain to be sung.

 
If times are difficult, remember that today’s circumstances don’t dictate tomorrow’s outcomes.  If times are good, know that they can get even better.

Often our perspectives and our outlooks affect others, and if we want to draw people in and get them to have confidence in us, our decisions, our direction – we can use optimism to be that draw.

Use optimism as a force for good in your service of others.

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To Assure, Ensure You Do This – 2/9/21

Posted on February 9, 2021 in Customer Service Tip of the Week Please leave a comment

Vince Lombardi – famous professional football coach – became a big hit on the speaker’s circuit during his time coaching.  He applied many of his principles in football and life to business, and one of his great business quotes is:  Confidence is contagious and so is lack of confidence, and a customer will recognize both.

Whether the customer is anxious or not, you want them to feel confident in what you or your organization are going to do…confident in what you or your organization says.  You want to impart your confidence to them.

You want to assure them that issues will be resolved, orders will be filled, and needs will be met.  You want them to be confident, and their confidence benefits you.  The more confident they are, the fewer questions they’ll ask.  The more confident they are, the fewer times they’ll contact you for updates.  The more confident they are, the more patient they will be in gaining closure on the situation.

So how do you build confidence in the moment?  You need to assure them.  Assurance is about your being confident – with your words and tone and body language.  It’s about conveying positivity, and it’s about more than you simply telling them the outcome that will occur:

  • Show them the plan – the steps that will get them from Point A to Z.
  • Prove how many times you’ve helped customers in similar situations.
  • Tell a story of a recent success example – how someone in their position got the outcome they’re seeking.
  • Promise or guarantee or pledge what you’ll do next or how you’ll shepherd the situation through to a final positive outcome.

 
To build a customer’s confidence, convey your confidence, and assure them by helping them visualize the path to a positive solution.

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