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Is Their Poor Planning Your Emergency? - 12/17/24


Have you ever heard the saying:  Your poor planning is not my emergency. I’ve heard it said often – not necessarily directly from one person to another.  More typical is that I hear it from the person having to drop everything and do something immediately because someone else didn’t think Read more

Empathy Examples for Everyday Situations - 12/10/24


I’ve often said that empathy is the single most important characteristic of people who are great at customer service.  If empathy is essentially “to understand the other person,” it helps so much to have that ability in order to specifically help someone.  To talk to what’s unique about them.  Read more

Tell Them Why You’re Giving Thanks - 12/3/24


Thank you! Merci! Danke! Doumo! Gracias! It seems like every language has a translation of Thank You.  Even though I only fluently speak English and speak Spanish, un poco, I – and probably most of you – have heard some or all of the translations of "Thank You” noted above.  Read more

Refine Your Decision-making Process - 11/26/24


Every day, you make decisions of what to do and what not to do.  And in the world of customer service, often the affected parties are our customers, our co-workers, and our company.  Here are a few quotes to consider when you’re thinking about evaluating and refining your decision-making Read more

Acting on the Guiding Principles for Great Customer Service - 11/19/24


In last week’s tip, we shared 5 Guiding Principles for Great Customer Service.  This week, let’s address what “taking action” looks like on those key principles.  If last week was about what to do and WHY, this week is about the HOW. Engage with Interest: To engage with interest, proactively Read more

Guiding Principles for Great Customer Service - 11/12/24


It’s hard to know every procedure, every policy, every technique possible to handle every situation correctly.  After all, maybe our procedures are standard, but our customers are not.  Maybe our policies stay pretty consistent, but our customers’ needs and issues, their attitudes and actions can change from customer to Read more

From a Simple Question to an Exceptional Experience - 11/5/24


Phyllis loves her job.  It’s not just because she loves being a customer service representative, not just because she really likes her co-workers, and not just because she enjoys her company.  It’s because she really appreciates her customers, as well. A customer had ordered a register book off the company Read more

Fix One Problem without Creating Another - 10/29/24


If you’ve ever had an issue with your dishwasher, this will sound familiar.  I’ve dealt with so many dishwashers over the years, and they always seem to have some kind of an issue.  Maybe it’s because of the mix of water and technology, but for whatever reason, these never Read more

Delight Your Customers - 10/22/24


Buddy the Bug Man was different.  His company was new, and the only reason why Janet tried him out was that the service she had used for years just wasn’t working.  Whether it was mosquitoes in the yard, ants in the kitchen, or cockroaches flying through on their way Read more

A More Complete Definition of Responsiveness - 10/15/24


I was purchasing something recently that was being custom-developed.  At one point, the company’s employee and I had a good 20 e-mails going back and forth - 10 from each of us.  Unfortunately, I broke my own rule, and I did not pick up the phone after 2 or Read more

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Make Surveys Worth It – 9/29/15 TOW

Posted on September 29, 2015 in Customer Service Tip of the Week Please leave a comment


How many customer surveys has your company conducted since you’ve been working at your current employer? Some of you may answer 1,263 – roughly speaking – and others may answer zero.

The results could be many data points, many responses, many comments and analysis and findings and conclusions…or zero.

To make surveys worth conducting, worth the time, worth the money and the blunt feedback, the results have to be used. But even before that, the results have to be worth using.

Before conducting your next survey, think about these key categories of content.

The first is obvious. Find out what’s important to your customer – about the experience, the product/service, the relationship with your business. Find out their satisfaction with those same attributes so you can see where the biggest gap is between importance and satisfaction.

The second may be less obvious. Gauge your customer’s awareness. Many of the reasons for customer dissatisfaction, apathy, exit, confusion, or a poor experience comes down to this point – they just weren’t aware. They weren’t aware of your product offerings, your facility locations, the website functions, the right number to call or person to contact, how they could request a refund or lodge a complaint. They weren’t aware of a process or a service method; they didn’t know about perks and benefits.

The third content category for your surveys is change. Ask the customer about what is changing in their world, with their preferences, and with their desired experience. Have them to tell you the change so you can anticipate and plan for the changes you’ll need to make in your business to change with your customer. Don’t wait for them to leave in order for you to realize that you didn’t change fast enough.

Make your survey results worth using. Ask the right questions.

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Customerize Your Business – 8/25/15 TOW

Posted on August 25, 2015 in Customer Service Tip of the Week Please leave a comment


Most of us have seen flow charts. You document Step A followed by B followed by C. What does the employee do first? What report do they produce? To where do they route the call?

We’ve all seen e-newsletters that go out to customers. You share what you’re doing, note great offers, and pitch the latest product.

Everyone has gone to a business website. It says what we do, it’s organized by our products/industries, and it talks in the language to which we’re accustomed (I’m guilty of having “consultantese” throughout my site).

But what if we “customerized” our businesses? Let’s take a hospital. For processes, they might say – if a family member wants to visit the newborn baby, how would they want to find the hospital? What would they want the parking experience to be like? How would they want to find out where the relative is located and how they can find the baby? How would they want staff to greet them, and what would be the best exit experience?

Consider the sports team. They’re constantly sending out the marketing mailings to season ticket holders (STH), but what if they customerized the newsletters? Imagine Brian, the STH, getting an e-mail with a Subject heading identifying information about his favorite player. The body of his e-mail addresses only those things of interest to him – the kid’s club, his favorite visiting team coming to town, and a gift coming his way for his upcoming birthday. Brian’s e-mail is all about Brian, and the e-mail comes from his personal account representative, Marie.

If you work in a government organization, imagine having a website that’s been customerized. Instead of it being about government departments and services, it’s about the resident or business. Instead of the list of options including 38 departments and agencies, it lists common questions that the typical resident may ask. Instead of it listing 3 pages of detailed text instructions on how to appeal a tax bill or submit a plan to renovate a deck, it has a simple flow using customer terms and having graphics similar to most advanced websites nowadays.

To have the best experience for your customer, remove yourself from the internal focus of most companies. View your world through the eyes of the customer for the benefit of your customer.

Customerize Your Business.

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I Know It When I See It – 7/28/15 TOW

Posted on July 28, 2015 in Customer Service Tip of the Week Please leave a comment

“I know it when I see it.”

In 1964, a United States Supreme Court justice used these words to determine whether a movie was an “obscenity” or not. He couldn’t define an obscenity with words, but he concluded that this particularly movie couldn’t be accurately described using that word (or other words the plaintiffs were using…).

It’s 51 years later, and for some reason that quote applies to a lot in life. Some things are hard to define, but you know it when you see it. Believe it or not, mediocre customer service is one of those things. I’m not talking terrible customer service – that’s typically easier to note than great customer service, but I’m talking about the little things that differentiate the below average from the above average, that differentiate the predictably poor from the predictably good, that differentiate those that don’t care from those that do care.

There is no perfection in life. There is no perfection in serving customers, either. It is as much an art as a skill or an attitude. It’s not pure science, but there are examples of that better interaction that show you that the person or the company got it right in customer service:

  • When the employee greets you they either stand or remain seated.
  • They either smile or they frown.
  • Either their eyes are engaged with you or distracted.
  • Either they face you or they don’t.
  • They either say “I’d be happy to help” or “no problem.”
  • When you turn in information, they either respond “that’s perfect,” or they don’t respond at all.
  • They either say “I’ll call you back,” or they say “you call me back.”
  • They either apologize for the company’s error, or they avoid the apology.
  • They either thank you for your time and question, or they end the call in silence.
  • Either they ask you questions, or they wait for you to ask them questions.
  • They either go to you, or they wait for you to go to them.
  • They either confirm what you need, or they assume it.
  • They either confirm you got the need met, or they move on to something else.

These examples don’t necessarily illustrate the “WOW!” moment, but they illustrate the little things that create consistent excellence.

When it comes to the consistently positive customer service experience, the customer knows it when they see it.

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