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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

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

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Would Poor Customer Service Make You Run for Office?

Posted on August 2, 2012 in Business Advice, Government Please leave a comment

The article Livingston County registrar of deeds faces ‘rude’ challenge notes how a Michigan resident decided to run in an election for the Register of Deeds for Livingston County because – as part of the reason – the customer service in the department is terrible. Staff are “definitely rude,” according to the candidate.

It’s interesting to read the article because – in order to get votes – this individual is attacking the very people she would be leading. It’s also interesting that the incumbent defends herself by talking about all the process improvements she made without addressing any efforts she made to ensure that the staff themselves are customer service-oriented (i.e., to ensure they’re NOT rude).

If I tried to run for office or (for private sector companies) take over every organization that provided poor customer service, I’d be taking over a whole lot of businesses. So I’m not suggesting that what this one resident is doing is a path that must be taken, but here’s what I am suggesting.

The two candidates – in total – are correct. Customer service is about employee attitudes, processes, systems, and communications. Improving customer service is about addressing those items, but it’s also about other things.

It’s about helping the customer to help themselves. It’s about trying to determine why you get repetitive questions and determining how to reduce those questions through improved customer education. It’s about learning why you get complaints, determining root causes, and not getting those same complaints again.

Learn a little lesson from this Michigan election. Customer service is important; it could cause the incumbent their job. It could propel an outsider into a new position.

So if it’s so important, know how to manage the demand for customer service, and get into continuous improvement mode.

Listen to our latest podcast episode of “Stepping Up Service” on The MESH Network at http://themesh.tv/stepping-up-service/


Fan Loyalty is a Sun Devil of an Issue to Address

Posted on August 1, 2012 in Business Advice, Sports 1 Comment

To build fan loyalty, is it just about wins, or is it also about fan relations?

I talked with the owner of an NFL team years ago about building fan attendance, discussing with him the issues that the organization faced at the time. I asked about what initiatives the organization was taking in the area of fan relations. His response was that “only wins and weather drive fan attendance.”

Well if that were the case, then you could do mathematical calculations each year to determine how many fans would attend games. You wouldn’t need to do fan surveys, have security at games, offer concessions, have game day customer service staff, have account representatives, have sales staff (except to take orders), and generally do anything beyond open the doors to the stadium.

The real truth is that the game day experience matters. Relationships matter. Being valued as a fan matters. So do wins and weather, but there’s so much more to building loyalty than those aspects of the experience.

At Arizona State University, the athletics department is trying to build fan loyalty and relations. According to the article ASU athletics undergoing face-lift, changes in culture, fan relations, the new Vice President of Athletics, Steve Patterson, is trying to change the culture of the organization. He’s building personal accountabilities; he’s working to improve the game day experience; he’s ensuring facilities are conducive to communications and relationship-building with prospective and current student-athletes (and their families). He created a championship vision, and he’s trying to create a championship environment for the students, coaches, and fans. He’s trying to create an environment where success is facilitated.

To facilitate means “to make easy.” But there’s nothing easy about becoming a champion. However, individuals on the business side of athletics can have a significant impact on the ultimate success of a program in the minds of the fans. These individuals can impact relationships, word-of-mouth, reputations, and loyalty. They can impact the business side and help foster enthusiasm on the sports side.

Fan loyalty isn’t just about “Wins and Weather.” Fan loyalty is about the fan.

Check out some of our Sports industry services! http://cssamerica.com/csssport.htm

Listen to our podcast on Customer Service in Professional Sports


Use Hospital Data to Drive Patient Loyalty

Posted on July 26, 2012 in Business Advice, Healthcare Please leave a comment

What’s most important – Satisfaction or Loyalty? In healthcare, it’s not necessarily an either/or proposition. To get to loyalty, you typically need satisfaction. Building satisfaction is facilitated by multiple visits reinforcing positive experiences. But whereas data has been vital for decades in treating patients and measuring patient satisfaction, data is much more recently being tapped to track, predict, and facilitate patient loyalty.

In the article Where do Patients’ Loyalties Lie? Building Revenue by Improving Satisfaction, the author interviews a Texas data provider to address the use of data to drive loyalty in healthcare. The author quotes a data provider that stated “they should measure their performance on [satisfaction] drivers and develop strategies to close gaps and improve performance. Hospitals should first focus on the areas with the least satisfaction and where improvement is feasible.” The article then notes that “Another way to build loyalty among patients is to ensure easy access to the organization’s services.”

So a couple of the key points – that apply to any business – include:

  • Know Satisfaction Drivers – Your organization may measure satisfaction, but does your organization statistically correlate satisfaction of individual attributes to overall Satisfaction, Willingness to Return, Willingness to Recommend, and Loyalty? Identify satisfaction and retention drivers.
  • Prioritize Improvement Efforts on Satisfaction Drivers Performing Poorly – Your organization may try to improve on poor aspects of the customer experience, but is it improving on attributes of the experience that truly impact loyalty? In other words, try to improve on what really matters.
  • Ensure Ease of Access to Services – What barriers exist to customers accessing your services, your information, your answers? Assess your website’s ease of navigation, your phone system, your directional signage to the facility, and your employees’ responsiveness to needs and requests to make sure they facilitate customer contact, not impede it.

Target improvement efforts, and eliminate barriers to loyalty.

Want to improve your own personal customer service skills? Go to: http://www.amigreatat.com/


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