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Make the Long Wait Feel Shorter - 12/16/25


When Greg entered the Tax Office, he was thinking only about two things: (1) How he was going to get the tax value on his home reduced, and (2) Whether the wait would be 1 hour or 2.  He checked in with the navigator who asked a few questions, Read more

When Kindness Means More in Customer Service - 12/9/25


Since a large part of the work we do at CSS includes customer research, we have seen tens of thousands of comments over the years about staff, and it is great to hear the positives that customers, fans, and account holders say about our clients’ team members. One word that Read more

Don’t Create the Second Complaint - 12/2/25


Maria was upset.  Rightfully so.  The product delivery was delayed, she couldn’t get anybody on the phone, and nobody would reply to her e-mails.  So, she went down to the store, and she found a customer service representative. After the initial greeting, the employee listened to Maria’s complaint.  While Maria Read more

Refresh on the Reasons to Appreciate the Customer - 11/25/25


This is a great time of year to give thanks, not just because it’s Thanksgiving week in the United States, but also because – with 2025 coming to a close - it gives us the opportunity to do some reflecting on the recent past. The idea of reflecting on reasons Read more

Confirm the Customer is Cleared for Takeoff - 11/18/25


An airplane pilot is told when they’re “cleared for takeoff” before they begin to accelerate down the runway.  The air traffic controller (ATC) has looked at everything in front of the pilot, on the runway and in the air space, and checked to ensure the pilot is good to Read more

Build Relationships with First-timers - 11/11/25


We’ve worked with one of our sports clients for over 10 years, and although the main focus of our work is research with their fan base, we also provide informal consulting advice and guidance whenever possible.  One approach we’ve talked about on and off for years is the need Read more

Last Impression Faux Pas - 11/4/25


Rightfully so, many customer service experts harp on the importance of the first impression.  It happens quickly, and it can impact the individual’s perception of you and the organization.  We even wrote a Tip of the Week on this years ago called First Impression Faux Pas. What many people tend Read more

Familying with Customers - 10/28/25


In our transactional society, it’s hard to think about customers in the long-term.  But if we want to be as successful as we can as an individual or as a business, we need to view customers through a relationship lens. What do we need to know about them to Read more

Avoid These Techniques - 10/21/25


We had a Customer Service Tip of the Week recently that addressed gaining control of the conversation.  One of the key points was that the focus should be on gaining control of conversations in various circumstances, but trying to avoid making it your goal to gain control of the Read more

View Quality through the Customer’s Eyes - 10/14/25


Geri had been dealing with backups in the downstairs plumbing system of her house on and off for the past year.  The most recent company that she called in to unclog the pipes stated that they could send a camera down the pipes and tell her exactly where the Read more

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Why the World of Customer Service Stinks

Posted on July 10, 2009 in Business Advice, World of Customer Service Please leave a comment

I hear so many comments about how the current state of customer service is poor and far below what it used to be, so I thought it was important to talk about some of the main reasons why customer service is so bad nowadays.

Here are my top 10 reasons in no particular order:

  1. Many people are not raised in such a way that they know how to communicate with courtesy and respect.
  2. Individuals are much more self-centered today than in the past, and in customer service, you need to be more other-centered.
  3. Even with all the MBAs that exist in the business leaders of today, too few of them truly understand the financial benefits of high levels of customer satisfaction and retention.
  4. Customer service still is not as sexy as sales and marketing.  It seems more exciting to ring the bell with a new sale than to keep a customer by serving them well.
  5. Customers’ expectations for turnaround time is much higher today, and that has caused organizations – which have not changed the reality of their turnaround times and responsiveness – to meet fewer expectations.
  6. Since there are so many different ways to deliver customer service and deliver products with the advent of the internet, IVR telephone systems, and other technologically-driven means, with variety comes complexity, and with complexity come quality concerns and with consistency in any business.
  7. Organizations care too much about short-term transaction-oriented costs and too little about long-term relationship-oriented value and profitability.
  8. Building World Class Customer Service organizations is something that’s rarely taught from a strategic perspective.
  9. There is an arrogance of thought that customer service is something very easy to do and only needs to be done by low-paid, less educated individuals.  In fact, delivering exceptional service can be very complex and yet very fun, and requires individuals who can quickly change their mindset, change their focus, and have a balance of technical knowledge, organizational knowledge, and customer focus.
  10. Most organizations, especially small businesses, are born from entrepreneurs who know how to sell, sell, sell or who love a product and want to deliver that product.  These leaders are either acquisition-focused or product-focused, but to sustain those businesses, they at some point have to mature as a business and transition towards customer service and relationship building.

Service may stink out there, but those of us who care about it will always have a tremendous niche and tremendous value in the business world.

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


In Hospitals, Personal Care is About Customer Service

Posted on July 7, 2009 in Healthcare Please leave a comment

Patients go to hospitals to take their pain away, to have their broken bones healed, to have their injuries diagnosed, to have their elective surgeries, and to give birth to their bouncing new babies.

And even though this care is provided to address their needs and pains and injuries, how many patients feel that they’re being cared for as a person has little to do with the healthcare.  Instead, it has all to do with the customer service that the patient receives.  Yes, the phlebotomist is drawing the blood, but is the employee so focused on the vein that they don’t interact with the person from whom they’re drawing the blood?  Yes, the surgeon is about to perform surgery, but is the wait so long and the communication so lacking during the wait that the patient feels like she’s been forgotten?  Yes, the emergency room staff will eventually care for the injury, but are they so focused on tasks and activities and paperwork that the patient feels like a cog on the assembly line?

Patients go to hospitals for the healthcare, but they often choose a particular hospital because of the customer service.  Do the employees greet and focus on the patient?  Are they patient with the patient?  Do they take ownership over needs and treat the patient with courtesy and respect?  Do they try to find solutions to problems, or do they simply get defensive or blame co-workers when issues arise?  Are they quick in responding to the call bell or the phone call?  Do they explain what will happen next and why?  Are they empathetic and caring when they perform their services?

The hospital’s product is the healthcare, but the patient’s point of reference in determining how they’re cared for as a person is all about how they’re communicated with, how they’re treated, and what the processes are like.  It’s about customer service.

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


Higher Education – How the Student Must be a Customer

Posted on June 30, 2009 in Education Please leave a comment

The world of higher education is a business.  Leaders may not like to view it that way, but with the tremendous revenue streams they receive, the scope of operations, and the vast size of the campuses, Education truly is an industry with major business and financial considerations.

Many professors have trouble viewing a student as a customer, and, likewise, many others in administrative positions have that same concern.  But if we look at where revenues come from, they come from current or past students to a great extent.  So it is vital to keep your students if you want to keep your revenue – that business impact of the student is what makes them a customer.

Just like many universities, colleges, and community colleges conduct research outside of their organizations, so do those same institutions need to focus on researching themselves.  There are ways to predict which students are most at-risk of dropping out or leaving.  There are ways to anticipate which students are having problems which are precursors to their exit.  There are ways to identify what is driving student retention and growth.

Institutions of higher learning need to take a view of customer service which is research-based, data-driven, internally-focused, and predictive in nature.  If these educational organizations want to succeed long-term, they need to have a student retention and growth strategy which acquires intelligence on the students and leverages its own research capabilities or the research services of outside experts to predict retention.

Educational institutions that understand this need will not have to spend so much energy and time to find high quality new students to replace those they lost.  They won’t have to make the efforts in the admissions process to attract more students and the tuition and other fees that come with them.

Instead, they will form the organizational structures and research processes that will lead them to systematically build relationships with students, identify their most at-risk students, and proactively and effectively take the action they need to retain those students.

Institutions of higher learning need to research inward to continue to effectively grow.


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