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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

Be Supportive, Not Defensive - 10/7/25


[An employee on the phone with a customer…] Who told you that you didn’t have to submit that form? … Bob?  Oh brother!  You see Bob is our “special” co-worker.  He seems to always tell customers the wrong thing to do, and we’re having to clean up after him.  Read more

Some Customers LOVE Predictability - 9/30/25


I was facilitating focus groups of businesses that utilize local government services.  The phrase that popped up multiple times was “Time Is Money!”  What these municipal customers were conveying was that their time was valuable, and delays were wasting their time.  But the conversations were not just about how Read more

Find Your Special Sauce - 9/23/25


When I watch a football game and I see a great quarterback (somebody who may be considered a “Star”), he might be an excellent runner, have a big arm, be able to diagnose the defense and get his team into the right play.  But he’s likely not great at Read more

Gain Control of the Conversation - 9/16/25


The customer’s angry or upset or they have a complaint.  They’re very chatty or very wordy or they just want to talk to somebody.  You’re on a time crunch, and the customer obviously is not. There are times when you need to gain control of the conversation.  It’s important for Read more

Complement with a Compliment - 9/9/25


We perform many tasks for our customers every day, and when we’re done with a step in the process, oftentimes we will tell the customer what’s been done.  But if we want to create more of a WOW experience, if we want to make the customer feel a little Read more

When Patience Begets Patience - 9/2/25


Jennifer, the server, walked toward the couple in the restaurant.  The customers had been seated for a minute or two, and they noticed the server was walking briskly toward their table.  Jennifer recognized the couple she was about to serve, because they had been in the previous week. Since the Read more

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Don’t Let it Stick – 4/28/15 TOW

Posted on April 28, 2015 in Customer Service Tip of the Week Please leave a comment


Many American college football teams have the tradition of putting special stickers on their helmets. The stickers are an award for a great play. A player at Ohio State may have 20 Buckeye stickers noting all the great plays they made, while a Florida State player may have lots of tomahawks on their helmet. The more stickers you have, then the more great plays you must have made – and everybody can see that you must be a fantastic player!

Imagine you wore a helmet at work, and you get a Star on your helmet every time that customer compliments you, that patient says you did something great, or that account thanks you for going above and beyond for them. However, every time your boss berates you, every time that customer complains to you, and every time that account holder sends you a nasty e-mail, you get a big red “X.”

As you walk around the office you see others’ helmets, and they see yours. You get a perception of who is great and who is awful by the Stars and the X’s you see, and others also get a perception of you.

By wearing these helmets, the opinions and comments of others dictate how you’re perceived, but you can never let the opinions and comments of others dictate how you perceive yourself.

If we let those words and emotions of others “stick” to us, then we’re letting others determine our worth and our self-image.

Instead, we need to find ways to let the only stickers that matter to be those that we give to ourselves. At the workplace, we need to find ways to congratulate ourselves for small successes, to give ourselves Stars for being responsive, to add a sticker for focusing on that customer or co-worker like they are the most important person in the world.

I’m not saying we should build our own ego, but I am saying that we need to feel good about what we do for others, and if we rely on others to identify our value, most of us will be selling ourselves short.

Don’t let the opinions and comments of others “stick” too long.

Fill up your own helmet.

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Link and the $5 Mistake – 5/27/14 TOW

Posted on May 27, 2014 in Customer Service Tip of the Week Please leave a comment


It was Link’s first job – working in the retail shop – and he enjoyed it immensely. He was learning how a business runs, the importance of the customer to a company’s success, and his role in creating that success. He had these big picture lessons he was learning, even though his pay was minimum wage, and he basically did grunt work and occasionally ran the register.

He was one of those people in a small role, but you could see big things ahead for him.

One day, he was given the responsibility for closing the store and closing out the register. This was many years ago, so there was no credit card machine, and no computer system – it was all manual.

And as Link started shutting things down, he did a quick reconciliation between the cash in the drawer and the register tape. It was off by $5. And then it hit him; he had calculated the change wrong on the last customer of the day, and he gave Ms. Isaacs $5 change when it should have been $10. She was buying some supplies for an out of town trip, so Link knew she’d be gone for a while.

With no car to drive and no phone to call from (this is not that recent a story), he started walking. Block after block, mile after mile toward her house. When he arrived, he apologized to Ms. Isaacs, gave her the additional change, turned, and began the long walk home.

In case it’s not obvious, this is a slight twist on the Abe Lincoln story. But it goes to show that he wasn’t just a great President; he was also great at customer service. He enjoyed the job, looked at it as a learning experience, performed well regardless of the role, and enjoyed engaging his customers. He wasn’t perfect, but he resolved issues quickly, he didn’t make excuses, and he – literally – went the extra mile for his customers.

Abe wasn’t just “Honest.” He was also a really good customer service rep.


Steve Wynn and Caring About the Customer – 5/20/14 TOW

Posted on May 20, 2014 in Customer Service Tip of the Week Please leave a comment


Steve Wynn, the Las Vegas casino mogul, was talking to his staff about the keys to transforming his culture. No, he wasn’t discussing gambling, upcoming ventures, or new revenue ideas.

He talked about getting every employee to feel good about the good they do for customers.

“If you make someone feel good about themselves, they will love you for it,” Wynn said. “Forget the crystal chandeliers, the hand woven carpet, and the marble. It means nothing. All of a sudden you’re engaged with someone who cares about you.”

He uses the example of a couple who had left their medicine (including diabetes meds) at their home five hours away, and Wynn notes the bellman who drove to the couple’s home to pick up the medicine from their housekeeper. He mentions the card dealer going on break who noticed two customers looking confused. The dealer engaged the customers, asked if they needed help, and then walked them to the conference room they were looking for which was located about five minutes away.

But then Wynn talked about how the organization uses existing shift change meetings that happen all throughout his hotels – in housekeeping, the kitchen, the front desk, and the casinos – as a place where supervisors ask for these success stories and use the stories to immediately recognize staff via their intranet and break room postings.

Wynn focused on transforming the organization by going to the heart of the organization – its customers and employees. He prioritized making customers feel special, and then making those employees feel special for what they did to serve customers.

Whether your organization has the glitz of a casino or not, ensure that every customer walks away knowing that you care about them. Encourage employees to make customers feel appreciated, and then appreciate your staff for doing it.

“If you make someone feel good about themselves (customer or employee), they will love you for it.”


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