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Let’s be Clear on Clarity - 6/9/26


When trying to manage expectations, it’s vital to be clear with the customer.  But what specifically does it mean to be “clear?” Clarity is in the eyes and ears of the beholder, so what may be clear to one customer may be unclear to another.  However, there are some basic Read more

Allow Yourself to Solve a Couple Puzzles Every Day - 6/2/26


Frank had never been a dog owner before, and when he first got Bosco at the shelter, Frank didn't really know what he was doing.  He would try to be a good parent - feed the dog, play with it, take it on walks - but he was doing Read more

Improve with a Purpose - 5/26/26


If you’re reading these customer service tips, you likely want to get better.  You want an idea, a technique, a reinforcement, or a question that helps you improve. But why improve? At some point you may waver on the commitment to improve, because it can take effort, introspection, time, and change.  Read more

Reciprocate the Thanks - 5/19/26


Jasmine had a great experience with the company, and the company sent her a link to provide an online evaluation following the visit.  So, she clicked the link, gave a rating, and made a comment about her experience. The company monitored their online reviews, saw the positive response, and replied Read more

Don’t Skip the Recap - 5/12/26


The playoff hockey game goes on for almost 3 hours.  There’s non-stop action, with plenty of penalties and takeaways and hits against the boards…and a few goals, as well. You didn’t get to watch the whole game because you had other plans, but you wanted to know what happened.  So, Read more

Finalize the Solution with the 6 Step Checklist - 5/5/26


In last week’s Tip, we showed why and how to Use the 6 Step Checklist before Resolving the Issue.  We noted the importance of taking 15 seconds to mentally walk through the Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How to feel confident that you know what’s needed to fix Read more

Use the 6 Step Checklist before Resolving the Issue - 4/28/26


We talk about trying to resolve the issue right the first time, sharing the technique on how to manage the conversation to get clarity on the real issue, need, or goal, and confirming your understanding before moving forward. But what are you trying to clarify?  What are you trying to Read more

Use the Customer’s Words - 4/21/26


The customer is describing a problem on what they call their “computer.” They mentioned that the “screen” doesn’t “move from one page to the other.” They say that the “website’s name is typed at the top,” and it says sample.com with a “line, and then it says ‘home’ after Read more

Affirming the Customer with Empathy - 4/14/26


We’ve spoken and written about empathy for the 20+ years of these customer service tips, noting empathy as the most important quality any individual can have if they want to be great at customer service.  We’ve shared that - in order to serve our customers most effectively – it’s Read more

The Power of Teaching While Helping - 4/7/26


If you’re trying to develop a relationship with the customer rather than just simply handling their transaction and moving on, you are taking a long-term view.  You realize that that individual is someone you want to keep with your business for months or years to come, so it’s a Read more

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Perpetuate Positivity with the Customer – 5/9/23

Posted on May 9, 2023 in Customer Service Tip of the Week Please leave a comment

We’ve written many Tips on how to deal with various negative customer emotions.  Those emotions could reflect anger, fear of the unknown, upset, anxiety, or nervousness.  But instead of talking today about how to deal with their negative emotions, let’s talk about how to engender some positive emotions.

We want our customers to be happy.  We like when they’re content.  They’re usually more supportive and understanding, less argumentative and less questioning when they have that happiness, they have that contentment.

For Contentment, scientific studies have shown that one key to contentment is for somebody to feel fulfilled or feel at peace.  From a service standpoint, a customer has more of a feeling of fulfillment if they got their needs met, so professionally reinforce when a need was met.  They can be more at peace if they shared their concern, they enjoyed the conversation, and they know what will happen next.

For Happiness, there are strong correlations between happiness and people being pleased, filled with joy, or enthusiastic.  People who are happy tend to have been encouraged and are hopeful.  So, how do we help engender happiness?

Tell them when they do something well.  Tell them the types of positive outcomes that can happen with them, just as they have happened with other customers in similar situations.  Provide some hope of what good could transpire.  Reinforce what’s already been accomplished so that they are pleased, and give it with some positive energy to impart your enthusiasm on the customer.

When interacting with your customers, use proactive tools to impart positivity.

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Improve Co-worker Rapport to Improve the Customer Experience – 4/4/23

Posted on April 4, 2023 in Customer Service Tip of the Week Please leave a comment

The movers were packing up the house.  It was a stressful time for Janine.  She was having to move her aging parents to a new city in a new State to help care for them.  The parents were leaving behind friends and a community where they’d lived for most of their lives.  Janine and her sister were doing all of the planning, working through all the logistics, and spending all the time and the efforts and the lack of sleep to make the move happen.

As she was working with the moving company, packing up the house, it would have been easy for Janine to let the burden of the situation overtake her.  But in the moment, there was something that made the packing and the moving experience more pleasant.

Even when she wasn’t talking to the moving team, she was noticing them.  They were talking with each other.  They used respectful tones.  There was smiling and occasional laughter.  They were productive and moved efficiently, but there was still a professionalism and a politeness with how they interacted with each other.

In short, the employees got along with each other.

For Janine, the overall environment in the home was noticeably more upbeat, more energetic, more positive, and more collaborative.  The atmosphere and the experience were much better because the moving team had a rapport with each other.

For organizations that care about the customer, oftentimes they focus the customer experience on their engagement with that individual.  But when more than one employee is involved in a conference call, at an in-person meeting, some kind of video conference, how the staff engage each other also has an effect on the feel of the experience.

Convey the pleasantness, politeness, productivity, and professionalism with your co-workers that we’re all expected to convey with our customers.

Improve Co-worker Rapport to Improve the Customer Experience.

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

Posted on March 14, 2023 in Customer Service Tip of the Week Please leave a comment

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 internet because it does work for people.

But with speed and automation come basic risks.  The risks I’m referring to are those in-the-moment risks when you’re engaged with the customer – the risk that we’re going so quickly that we don’t get the right information. Therefore, we take a wrong step.  Therefore, there’s unnecessary work done.  Therefore, there are delays or rework or frustration.

It helps to confirm key points to avoid unnecessary aggravation.  Check out these 3 true scenarios:

Scenario #1 – The Wrong Number: During a call, the customer gave a phone number for the employee to contact.  The employee thanked the customer but did not confirm they heard the phone number correctly.  The employee called the line and didn’t get a hold of anyone.  It turns out that the employee wrote down the wrong number.  They didn’t call the customer back; they just assumed nobody was available at the number given.  There was a delay and frustration, all because the employee didn’t confirm what she heard.

Scenario #2 – The Self-imposed Deadline: The employee was very conscientious.  He wanted to get things done as quickly as possible.  He got the request from the customer and thought he could get it done by the next day.  So, he put other things on hold and rushed to make this customer request a priority.  Little did the employee know that the customer didn’t need the request addressed for a week.  The employee self-imposed a deadline because he didn’t ask the customer.  The employee put other projects on hold and worked late unnecessarily.

Scenario #3 – Paying for What?: The employee asked the customer for a payment in advance of recurring monthly services.  The customer wrote the check, and one month later the customer received an invoice for service provided.  The customer wondered why they were being billed if they paid up front.  After calling the business, the employee noted that the upfront payment was a security deposit, and the customer would be billed for the services received immediately thereafter.  The customer was not happy that they thought they were paying for services in advance, but instead they were just giving a deposit that they might not get back for months or years.

Sometimes the employee and the customer can avoid the aggravation if the employee is patient enough to confirm their understanding or to confirm that the customer understands.  Information given is sometimes assumed to be received correctly.  But that’s an assumption that can cause downstream issues.

Avoid the aggravation. Confirm the key point.

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