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2024 Holiday Poem - 12/24/24


I sometimes hear it said That things have never been like this before. That challenges are unique, That stresses seem like more.   I sometimes hear it said That we're asked to do much more with less. That workloads are increasing, And we're resource-constrained at best.   And others often say That things are really very good. That they enjoy those Read more

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

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Predict, Prioritize, and Personalize – 9/12/17

Posted on September 12, 2017 in Customer Service Tip of the Week Please leave a comment

Many sports organizations are overly marketing-driven, so they’re typically much more focused on major marketing initiatives/programs than the 1-on-1 relationship-development approach we promote. So when we work with Sports clients, we’re often asked why we use research to do so much analysis on individual fans. Here are 3 key reasons we offer:

  • Predict – Sales to and return/renewal of existing fans typically result in 70%-90% of a sports team’s ticket revenue annually, so we use our CSS Renew+ analysis to predict the renewal likelihood for every existing fan. This prediction enables teams to know who’s most likely to renew, who’s on the fence, and who’s least likely to return. This leads to the next reason.
  • Prioritize – When you know who’s most likely to return, you can prioritize them for upsell/cross-sell efforts. When you know the customers who are on the fence, you can prioritize them for service recovery or retention efforts. When you know who has little-to-no chance of returning, you know with whom to spend little time – these fans may get the e-mail instead of the personal call or visit.
  • Personalize – When we perform analysis of the client base, it typically occurs after we’ve conducted a fan survey, so we’ve gathered tremendous intelligence on the individual fan. Instead of the follow-up to the prioritization activity being thousands of generic e-mails being sent, the follow-up involves a call to the customer named Marty that references how he likes to take his family to games and what other kid/family activities are available. The follow-up involves addressing Claudia’s concern with traffic and parking, noting actions the organization is taking to relieve those concerns. And the call to Chris includes following up on the interest he conveyed in the survey for more tickets for his small business.

 
If you’re trying to uncover the reasons to research and analyze information on individual clients, remember these 3 key words.

Predict, Prioritize, and Personalize.

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Dealing with the First-time Fan – 5/5/15 TOW

Posted on May 5, 2015 in Customer Service Tip of the Week Please leave a comment


Customer service people, those in relationship management, those in call centers, those called service reps – they all at some point or another have to deal with the new customer. In sports, we call them the “First-time Fans.” These are the customers with the highest rate of turnover, and are therefore a huge priority for retention for organizations.

Instead of addressing the retention of the new customer from a strategic perspective, let’s look at it from the perspective of a representative. The customer is Jay. What is Jay like?

If you had to generalize Jay, he’s an unknown. You know less about Jay than any other customer in your business. He bought your service – but why? Was it a low cost offer (like a ticket discount), a service he never needed before (like outpatient surgery), or simply his moving near your business that drove him to your company?

He could be friendly, he could be open, he could be a techie, or maybe he’s a family man. He could make over $100,000 per year, he could anger easily, he could love your team, he could be impatient, or he could be very analytical.

He could be all of those things – or none.

Jay is the great unknown. He’s also beginning what could be a long journey with your organization. All customers are special, but view Jay as special in a slightly different way.

View him as a fountain of information. Someone so unknown, that that makes him intriguing. Jay is really James Bond; he’s 007; he’s someone new and exciting.

When you see Jay or the new patient, or the new customer, or the First-time Fan – get intrigued. Get inquisitive. Convey excitement about his newness.

Realize that to best meet his needs today and to keep him for the long-term, you have to get to know him. Ask questions; note the answers. Learn more and more so you can keep him longer and longer.

Let the intrigue of the new customer lead you on a quest to get to know them.

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The Customer is Always Right? – 6/25/13 TOW

Posted on June 25, 2013 in Customer Service Tip of the Week Please leave a comment

The customer was so upset, but about what? The event was “general admission,” so this customer thought that she and her husband could sit anywhere. Logical, right? Well, the e-mail from the arena staff noted that general admission only applied to certain sections. The husband got the e-mail; the wife was the one who got upset. After dialoguing with a customer service representative, the wife realized that her husband forgot to tell her that it was only for certain sections, and they were trying to get into a section which wasn’t general admission. They apologized to the representative and walked away.

At another arena well before game time, a fan arrived, and the seat attendant asked if she needed help finding her seat. The fan said “No, I’ve been here before.” She walked down a few steps and turned left down the row to a seat.

A few minutes later, two couples walked up to the seat attendant, and the seat attendant asked if they needed help finding their seats. The fans said “No, we’ve been here before.” So they walked down a few steps and turned left. They walked right toward the lady. The seat attendant watched as they talked with the lady. She then stood up, and the couples sat down. Then the lady walked toward the seat attendant and started complaining, griping, and blaming HIM for her sitting in the wrong seat.

The customer is not always right. Sometimes they’re really, really wrong. But the best in customer service find a way to treat the customer right, even if they’re wrong. It’s not easy to do; it may not be natural to do, but it’s the right thing to do.

Be the bigger person. Be in a service mindset even when the customer is wrong.