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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

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

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Do You Have Harley Loyalty?

Posted on April 8, 2010 in Business Advice, World of Customer Service Please leave a comment

Your customers are loyal. They wouldn’t consider going to another business for their products and services because your integrity, quality, customer service, and price are too good. They are loyal to a fault. Or are you loyal to a faulty belief grounded in hope or assumptions rather than fact and proof?

What outward signs do you have of your customers’ loyalty? Well Harley-Davidson, America’s most well-known motorcycle manufacturer believes it has proof that few can touch. The company believes the "definition of customer loyalty is when your customers will tattoo the name of your company on their arm."

How many people have "IBM" or "Microsoft" or "McDonald’s" tattooed on their arms? Less than 10…less than 5? That’s not to say that McDonald’s customers aren’t loyal, but how does the company know who’s loyal and who isn’t?

Long-term success is more easily achieved if your existing customer base is loyal. They will fight for your company, drive by competitors to get to your store, pay a higher price than alternatives to your service, and recommend you to their closest friends.

But unless you have all your customers walking around with your company logo tattooed on their arms, you need to generate objective measures of loyalty. Try these methods of gaining solid loyalty data:

· Survey customers and have them estimate the total amount of annual purchases of your types of products and services, regardless of whom they buy from. Calculate their purchases from you as a percentage of the total.

· Distribute loyalty cards. Track either their frequency of use or how often you’ve given discounts/rewards when customers hit a targeted number of uses.

· During purchase transactions from new customers, ask how they’ve heard about your company. Track referral rates to gauge the prevalence of effective recommendations made from your existing customers to others.

In lieu of tattoos, get solid data to confirm your customer loyalty.

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


Government Charges You to Wait?

Posted on April 6, 2010 in Business Advice, Government Please leave a comment

The San Francisco Chronicle published an article on April 1 (no joke) about new fines and fees being instituted by the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency. The article (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/cityinsider/detail?&entry_id=60331) noted how recipients of parking tickets in San Francisco are being charged $2 more, and people using the government customer service center will be charged $3 to be able to wait in line to pay tickets, purchase parking cards, or buy Fast Passes.

All this is understandable. Municipalities in California are having a particularly difficult time financially, and they need to increase revenue. So charge more for parking. Charge more for tickets.

But charge for the right to wait in line? Charge to be inconvenienced? Charge for the opportunity to buy something from you?

When I work with a client considering levying a new fee on the customer, the questions I ask include: How will this impact your relationship with your customer? How will this impact your customer retention? How will this impact the customer’s word-of-mouth? How will this impact your long-term success?

Most businesses – if they asked themselves these questions – will do everything they can to avoid increasing prices unless they can show some equal increase in value to the client.

In municipalities, the same questions are not asked, and maybe it’s because they don’t think they need to be asked. After all, where else is the customer going to go to pay a ticket, buy a parking pass, or buy a Fast Pass?

Whether you work in a municipality or a private business, before you put an additional burden on the customer, before you expect more from your customer, before you put barriers between them and your organization, think about the long-term impact.

Exhaust every opportunity to improve your organization’s performance before dumping that responsibility on your customer.

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


Hockey Team Listening to Learn…Today

Posted on April 2, 2010 in Business Advice, Sports Please leave a comment

The Chicago Blackhawks professional hockey team announced this week (http://blackhawks.nhl.com/club/news.htm?id=523044) that they are launching a new program to improve the fan experience. Chris Werner, the Blackhawks Senior Executive Director of Ticketing and Business Development stated “Quality customer service has been an ongoing priority over the course of the recent seasons. We are working hard at using different innovative methods to gather fan feedback to measure guest’s overall experience.”

This program focuses on getting fan feedback during the games. While that’s not novel, per se (many teams over the years have conducted in-game surveys), what it does suggest is that this organization understands that if it truly wants to impact fan satisfaction, it has to go to the fans and talk to fans. It has to make it easy for fans to get in touch with them. It has to be proactive and seek the input. It has to gain the information as real-time as possible.

These are all great principles for any organization to consider. Does your organization go to where the customers are (when they’re already interacting with your business) and ask for feedback? Does your organization make it easy for them to provide feedback? Do you try to gain information on the customer’s experience while the customer is…well experiencing?

Rethink your research strategies to go away from customer satisfaction surveys conducted over the phone when all your business is done face-to-face. Make sure your research strategies are not purely retrospective, when a customer’s memory cannot always be trusted.

Make sure that you’re asking and receiving real-time input from your customers today.

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


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