customer satisfaction survey

Complement Empathy with Action - 8/4/26


A man falls into a hole, and he can’t get out.  He starts yelling for help, and a doctor walks by and looks down the hole.  The man in the hole yells to the doctor “Please help me.  I’ve fallen into this hole!”  And the doctor takes out a Read more

My 8-Minute Visit at the DMV- 7/28/26


I needed to get a Real ID, which in North Carolina facilitates airline travel and other identity verifications.  My wife suggested I go to one particular DMV that was a LONG way away from home, but where she had experienced great customer service.  I was lucky to find an Read more

When They Might Walk Out the Door…Permanently- 7/21/26


Have you ever had one of those conversations with the customer where they literally tell you they’re about to stop doing business with your company?  This is it.  They may bring up a competitor or found another way to get their need met, or they are just leaving. When we Read more

Transparency in Customer Service- 7/14/26


We’ve worked with a lot of clients in the local government sector, and many of these clients have Customer Service Standards and/or corporate values that include Transparency. Think about an old-fashioned transparency sheet, that malleable see-through page you put on an overhead projector.  You can see everything on one side Read more

See the Customer’s Journey from Their Perspective- 7/7/26


That customer is face-to-face with you right now, and you are fielding their questions or delivering your service to them.  And oftentimes and understandably, we are so immersed in the moment that we don’t think about what came before or think enough about what comes next. But in the life Read more

Gaining the Benefits of the Greeter- 6/30/26


Most likely, we’ve all entered some establishment – a retail store, restaurant, or service center - when there is a greeter at the door.  The most famous greeter position is probably the Walmart greeter.  I often thought that my father-in-law would have been a fantastic Walmart greeter, because he Read more

Seamlessness - Why the Customer Thanked You - 6/23/26


This doesn’t happen enough nowadays, but the employee received a long thank you e-mail from the customer.  A financial services account manager had taken care of the client during a period of time that was stressful for the customer. Life was unexpectedly changing quickly, and personal emotions, additional financial responsibilities, Read more

When to Avoid the Escalation - 6/16/26


The customer calls with a complaint, and the easy thing to do is to escalate it to your supervisor. That may also be the right thing to do, but how do you know when to avoid the escalation? Why You Would Escalate The first thing to consider is why you would Read more

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

Learn from Schools without Attending

Posted on in Business Advice, Education Please leave a comment

Nothing like being in school and getting a report card – that moment of truth when you’ll be smiling or wondering how you’ll subtly get it in front of your parents when they’re in the best mood possible.

Well just like students get report cards, now many schools, colleges, and universities are getting them as well. These report cards are akin to Balanced Scorecards in the rest of the business world, but it’s interesting to note the unique twist that these institutions take in reporting their information. Many elementary schools’ report cards include information on student-to-teacher ratios as well as percentages of teachers who are board certified, and much of this data as well as performance data is listed versus district and state comparatives.

At the 4-year university level, they look at graduation rates, year-to-year retention rates, student loan default rates, student satisfaction scores, measures of student learning, end-of-program assessments, and job placement.

So what can you learn from these educational institutions? From the elementary schools perspective, they offer comparative information. They show how many dedicated resources they have for their students. They note qualifications/experience of their teachers. Do you measure and convey this information to your customers?

From the higher education perspective, they look at retention and loss, they gauge satisfaction, and they analyze impact on the customer. Do you track, measure, and analyze these three key pieces of information?

We all went to school to learn. Let’s take a minute as businesspeople to learn again.

Interested in improving your company’s customer service? See more information at: http://www.cssamerica.com/

Ask Yourself…Am I GREAT at Customer Service? Check out our new customer service book at http://www.amigreatat.com/


Don’t Hibernate on Your Customers

Posted on in Business Advice, Sports Please leave a comment

Summer is the downtime for many sports – NBA, NFL, NHL, etc. But for the staff of those organizations, there is no downtime. This is a time to sell for the upcoming season, having completed renewals. But those organizations need to realize this is also the time to learn, to view their existing season ticket holders (STHs) as suppliers of the information needed to gain referrals, gain information on share partners, gain intelligence on the information needed to retain them in Spring 2011.

For sales to new STHs, this is the time to think renewal as well. At the initial sale, that’s the best time to know why they signed up for tickets, who are the share partners, what do they expect from the game day experience and their relationship with your organization, how do they prefer to communicate with you, and how/when do they expect to use their tickets.

There is no downtime in customer retention.

Don’t let retention efforts go into hibernation this summer.

Interested in improving your company’s customer service? See more information at: http://www.cssamerica.com/


EF Hutton and MIT…

Posted on in Business Advice, Education Please leave a comment

When MIT talks, people listen. Okay, so that’s a bad take-off on the old EF Hutton commercials, but there is a comparison to the old EF Hutton commercials. If you remember from back in the 1980s, EF Hutton (a brokerage firm) had a series of television commercials where one person would be talking to a friend in a crowded place (like an airport, a classroom, a restaurant, a golf course, etc.), and once they stated “EF Hutton says…” everyone around would stop what they were doing and listen intently to the person talking. They wanted to hear what EF Hutton said (to see some of the old commercials, go to www.youtube.com and search on EF Hutton). But I digress…

MIT does something on a biannual basis that all companies should listen intently to and consider. They perform student satisfaction surveys (http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2010/student-satisfaction.html). While that may not be an earth-shattering revelation, keep in mind that MIT is a preeminent university. They have a fantastic reputation and brand. They could operate with the assumption of their own self-worth, but instead they ask students – those 18-21+ year olds – “How are we doing?” They ask “How can we do better?” And they ask their research partner “How do we compare to others?”

They ask because, like their students, they want to learn. And who better to learn from than your customers.

MIT asks about its impact on the student over time at the University (a true outcomes-oriented focus) in terms of the improvement in student’s analytical thinking abilities, their knowledge, their communication skills, their ability to plan/execute projects, their ability to function independently, their ability to relate to others, their self-esteem, and their ability to write.

If the student is – to some extent – both customer and product, than one of the best ways to measure outcomes is to see how that student has grown in these ways and many others over time.

MIT is outcomes-focused. What outcomes do you measure in terms of your impact on your customer?

MIT’s students talk, so MIT can listen. We should listen, too.

Interested in improving your company’s customer service? See more information at: http://www.cssamerica.com/