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Beware of Scary Telephone Customer Service - 10/27/26


As we near the Halloween holiday in the United States, it seems appropriate to discuss examples of scary customer service, particularly on the telephone.  Here are a few common issues that frustrate and annoy customers.  These are experiences to avoid delivering, and alternatives to adopt: The customer calls, describes their Read more

The Art of the Successful Script - 10/20/26


You’re the customer.  You go to the store, and they ask if you have a loyalty card.  You call the doctor’s office, and they ask for your birth date.   You walk up to the counter, and they ask if you found everything you were looking for. These are all valid Read more

The Key Building Block for Your Customer Relationship - 10/13/26


An automotive manufacturer gets supplies for their vehicles from all over the world.  They have arrangements, service level agreements, expectations for timing and quality of all the parts.  And when they gather all these supplies, they assemble the cars.  They test the cars.  Then they take pictures of those Read more

Be Flexible to Fill the Gaps - 10/6/26


The non-profit has the expected challenges.  There are only 3 people in the organization, yet, they have the same responsibilities of a larger company.  They have to do finance, sales, marketing; they deliver their services to the community, and they need to keep a pulse on what’s going on Read more

Is This Good Customer Service? - 9/29/26


A friend of mine reached out to me recently as she waited for the electrical technician to show up at her house to do some minor repairs.  She had never worked with this company before, but they sent a text about the tech who was soon to arrive. The message Read more

Ownership when Fixing Others’ Errors - 9/22/26


We were conducting training with a client recently, and one of the participants, Jackie, is in a role in his organization where he goes out to the customer site to investigate issues, address customer complaints, and fix problems.  While he’s at the site, he often gets an earful from Read more

Why “No” is So Important - 9/15/26


The employee told the caller: “I don’t think that is possible.” The customer eventually hung up, and redialed to ask a different employee the same question. The employee responded to the customer: “That’s probably not the best way to do it.”  Then, the customer kept asking question after question, arguing Read more

It’s Not “You,” It’s “I” - 9/8/26


During a business writing course that I took years ago, the instructor had us write an e-mail.  I can’t recall if it was written to a co-worker or customer, but after writing this e-mail, she had us count every “I” and “You.”  We talked about how we need to Read more

It Shouldn’t Make a Difference, But… - 9/1/26


We have this conversation with lots of our sports clients, but the principles apply across all different industries.  Too many service representatives view a conversation with a customer as a transaction.  Just get him off the phone as quickly as possible.  The customer is Joe Public, not Joseph Pendergrass.  Read more

Use What the Customer Gives You - 8/25/26


Scenario #1: The customer sent an e-mail to the general inbox at the company.  The message noted that the customer needed to get a family member added to their account, but they couldn’t tell from the website how to do so. The next morning an employee opened up the e-mail, Read more

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The Truth(s) About Customer Service

Posted on December 15, 2009 in Business Advice, World of Customer Service Please leave a comment

Here are a few (nearly) undeniable truths about customer service.

· Customers that you truly have a relationship with are more likely to give you the benefit of the doubt when something goes wrong.

· If customers feel like you listen, they’re more willing to talk.

· It’s easier to keep a customer that will provide feedback (good or bad) than one that never responds to communications.

· For most customers, what keeps them with you is not what got them for you.

· You can’t develop a relationship with a customer if you don’t know much about the customer.

· You can’t find out about customers if you don’t ask them about themselves.

· Companies which want to be great at customer service try to be fair and consistent with customers. In other words, they treat everyone special.

· It’s virtually impossible for any high-level executive to keep a customer. The employees keep the customers.

· Words set expectations, but actions deliver results.

· Don’t buy into the philosophy that “we need to treat our customers as family.” We need to show customers more appreciation than that.

· 50% of great customer service is doing what it takes to satisfy the customer. The other 50% is wanting to do it.

· If an executive doesn’t think customer service is important to the organization’s success, have him sit in a room with a competitor and a key customer and make that statement.

· You can’t control your customer’s opinion of you, but you can control the experiences they base that opinion on.

· If you decide you want to have a great day, you have a much better chance of having one.

Decide to Have a Great Week!

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


Electric Service

Posted on December 11, 2009 in Business Advice, Carolinas Please leave a comment

Do you have an electrical problem in your house? You know, your front porch light never comes on, or you wake up to find your ceiling fan dangling by a few wires above your bed. Maybe you need a new light installed or you need a lamp you bought at a garage sale to be rewired.

In most communities, finding an electrician that you can trust is like finding the proverbial needle in the haystack. But in Charlotte, North Carolina, we are blessed with a small firm that has won recognition for their customer service in national publications. The company is Amherst Electric. The reason why were talking about them in a customer service blog is that customer service is what makes them special. They always do the install correctly, and they always fix the problem. And they do so at a reasonable price, where you never feel like the business is taking advantage of your lack of technical skills or knowledge.

What makes them special is that this is the company you call on the phone, and they immediately answer. You ask for advice, and they give it to you over the phone. If you want to try something yourself, they give you some pointers to consider. They schedule the time, and then they actually show up when scheduled. It’s the kind of company that you want to refer to others. It’s the kind of people that are a joy to talk to.

When they are working in your home, they don’t wish you to leave them alone. If you have things to do, that’s fine. But if you’d like to talk to them about what’s going on, they’re more than happy to walk you through the process as they are doing the fix or the install.

There are gems out there in the service world. And usually those organizations are gems not just because they’re technically proficient, but it’s because they understand and live the true value and meaning of service excellence.

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


Retention – They’re Finally Getting It

Posted on December 8, 2009 in Business Advice, Education Please leave a comment

If you would have spoken with 10 administrators 10 years ago in the world of higher education – from community colleges to universities – you could have easily spoken for 2 hours about their priorities without student retention ever being discussed.

My, how times have changed.

It seems that more and more often, retention is discussed whenever goal-setting for enrollment is the topic.  Retention rates are part of the performance dashboards.  Retention strategies are developed with some similar planning focus to marketing strategies.

And why is there all of this focus on retention?  Because these institutional leaders – just like smart businesspeople – understand that retention means dollars.  Retention means less effort in recruitment.  Retention means less hassle in dealing with student complaints and turnover.  Retention means less change to address.  Retention means a faster path to success.

Not all educational institutions get it, however, when it comes to retention.  An organization that truly gets it understands that successful retention strategies require a great deal of research with current students on retention drivers, likelihood to stay, preferences, and satisfaction levels.  Research is required on former students to determine the true loss reasons for controllable exits.  Strategies need to have a component to look at the relationship-building structures and processes which need to be put into place to develop relationships with students and to quickly identify students at-risk of leaving.

Strategies need to be created to address internal cultural issues and priorities that currently run counter to the goal of retention.  And measurement strategies need to be adopted to ensure that issues and solutions are identified early enough to be addressed.

An education-based retention strategy needs to have the concerted effort and focus that balances internal culture with external relationship building, where all the key impact drivers of retention are measured.

Do you have a truly comprehensive retention strategy?

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


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