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Is Their Poor Planning Your Emergency? - 12/17/24


Have you ever heard the saying:  Your poor planning is not my emergency. I’ve heard it said often – not necessarily directly from one person to another.  More typical is that I hear it from the person having to drop everything and do something immediately because someone else didn’t think Read more

Empathy Examples for Everyday Situations - 12/10/24


I’ve often said that empathy is the single most important characteristic of people who are great at customer service.  If empathy is essentially “to understand the other person,” it helps so much to have that ability in order to specifically help someone.  To talk to what’s unique about them.  Read more

Tell Them Why You’re Giving Thanks - 12/3/24


Thank you! Merci! Danke! Doumo! Gracias! It seems like every language has a translation of Thank You.  Even though I only fluently speak English and speak Spanish, un poco, I – and probably most of you – have heard some or all of the translations of "Thank You” noted above.  Read more

Refine Your Decision-making Process - 11/26/24


Every day, you make decisions of what to do and what not to do.  And in the world of customer service, often the affected parties are our customers, our co-workers, and our company.  Here are a few quotes to consider when you’re thinking about evaluating and refining your decision-making Read more

Acting on the Guiding Principles for Great Customer Service - 11/19/24


In last week’s tip, we shared 5 Guiding Principles for Great Customer Service.  This week, let’s address what “taking action” looks like on those key principles.  If last week was about what to do and WHY, this week is about the HOW. Engage with Interest: To engage with interest, proactively Read more

Guiding Principles for Great Customer Service - 11/12/24


It’s hard to know every procedure, every policy, every technique possible to handle every situation correctly.  After all, maybe our procedures are standard, but our customers are not.  Maybe our policies stay pretty consistent, but our customers’ needs and issues, their attitudes and actions can change from customer to Read more

From a Simple Question to an Exceptional Experience - 11/5/24


Phyllis loves her job.  It’s not just because she loves being a customer service representative, not just because she really likes her co-workers, and not just because she enjoys her company.  It’s because she really appreciates her customers, as well. A customer had ordered a register book off the company Read more

Fix One Problem without Creating Another - 10/29/24


If you’ve ever had an issue with your dishwasher, this will sound familiar.  I’ve dealt with so many dishwashers over the years, and they always seem to have some kind of an issue.  Maybe it’s because of the mix of water and technology, but for whatever reason, these never Read more

Delight Your Customers - 10/22/24


Buddy the Bug Man was different.  His company was new, and the only reason why Janet tried him out was that the service she had used for years just wasn’t working.  Whether it was mosquitoes in the yard, ants in the kitchen, or cockroaches flying through on their way Read more

A More Complete Definition of Responsiveness - 10/15/24


I was purchasing something recently that was being custom-developed.  At one point, the company’s employee and I had a good 20 e-mails going back and forth - 10 from each of us.  Unfortunately, I broke my own rule, and I did not pick up the phone after 2 or Read more

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Attitude Can Enable or Limit Success – 5/11/21

Posted on May 11, 2021 in Customer Service Tip of the Week Please leave a comment

Jerome was exceptionally good at customer service; he always received rave reviews from his customers. But Jerome felt like he knew everything there was to know about customer service, and, therefore, he did not need to attend any training or conferences.  His attitude was that he knew it all. Because of that, his professional growth would be limited.

Patty would go to the ends of the earth for a customer to help them out with something relating to her job or her department.  But if Patty received a call, and it was unrelated to her job or department, she had no interest in helping.  She would tell the person that they needed to call somebody else or that it was not her job.  Her overall performance in customer service was limited because of her inability to take any ownership over things that were not directly related to her.

Maddy could’ve been a star in customer service.  If she was having a good day, there was nobody more responsive, more cheery, more empathetic, more courteous and respectful than Maddy.  But if Maddy was having a bad day, then watch out!  Any emotion she was feeling inside was immediately going to come out.  Any difficulty she was having personally was going to come across in her voice to the customer.  Her attitude was “The customer is going to get whatever it is I feel like giving them based on how I’m doing that day.”

These three people in many ways were outstanding in customer service.  But each – in his or her own way – was limited in their overall capacity to deliver great customer service by some flaw in their attitude.  In customer service, an employee’s attitude can enable success…or limit success.

Ensure you bring an attitude that allows you to continuously deliver great service and continuously improve your performance.

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The Resourceful Rep – 3/16/21

Posted on March 16, 2021 in Customer Service Tip of the Week Please leave a comment

One of our clients is seeking to develop Customer Service Standards.  We’re working with them to identify those key expectations of staff that will enable the organization to deliver a consistent high-level customer experience.  One of the key attributes that this organization is seeking from its team members is resourcefulness. So, how can you become even more resourceful?

There are two primary keys to resourcefulness.  One is having the assets that you can bring to bear to address a given issue, need, or goal.  The other is having the creativity to formulate a plan or a response in using those assets.

List Your Assets

First, formulate your own list of assets.  An asset could be a subject matter expert in your company, a key contact in another division, or some other constituent or stakeholder or supervisor with a great deal of knowledge on specific topics or about specific customers.  An asset could be the knowledge base in your system.  An asset could be some past correspondence you had with a similar customer or about a similar situation.

As you can tell, the assets can generally be people, technology, or content that is categorized or organized in such a way that you can quickly find a related situation or customer type that you’ve supported in the past.  Create that list of assets so that you can more quickly meet the need of the customer.

Let Your Creativity Flow

Second, to creatively formulate the plan, you need to be able to think differently.  Let’s say that your customer cannot make their payment by the due date.  You start asking yourself: Who in my organization has expertise in dealing with situations like this and has resolved these types of issues previously?  What list of related FAQs exist?  What are some past e-mails or documents that I’ve utilized in similar situations that I can access to help this person as well?

Instead of just considering what you alone can do in this situation, expand your thought to consider who you can contact, what might be the standard answers, or what has proven successful with these types of customers or in similar situations.

To be resourceful, create that list of assets that you can bring to bear in customer situations. Then, take some of the burden off yourself by tapping into the people, technology, and communications that have helped you to succeed previously.

Use your assets and creativity to become the Resourceful Representative.

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Bring Warmth During Winter – 12/29/20

Posted on December 29, 2020 in Customer Service Tip of the Week Please leave a comment

Winter is upon us.  Now, winter can mean different things to different people in different regions, but just the word conjures up cold.  It conjures up visions of snow.  It conjures up feelings of wind and lack of warmth.

Although some of us may like the cold at times of year or around certain seasons, we don’t like the cold at the start of a conversation.  And oftentimes, customer service representatives can come off as being cold right at the beginning of a customer conversation without ever meaning to do so.

The customer makes their request, and this is how the employee responds:

  • What’s your account number?
  • What’s your name? What’s your phone number?
  • To confirm your account, I need your mother’s father’s wife’s daughter’s maiden name…spelled backwards.

 
While all this information might be valuable, there is typically little warmth associated with the words.  There’s virtually no communication of wanting to help that person or caring about that person’s needs that’s conveyed through the phrases used by the employee.

By simply responding to a request with a few key words or phrases, the conversation can start much warmer, much more pleasant, and take no more time than 1-2 seconds additional.  How about starting with:

  • I will be happy to help you with that request.
  • We can definitely address that for you.
  • I can help with that right away.
  • Great! That’s something I can take care of for you.

 
Simply sprinkle a “happy” or a “definitely,” a few “for you” expressions or “I can help” into your initial response to the request, and the tone and warmth of the conversation will start in the right direction.

Bring warmth to the beginning of your customer conversation.

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