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Affirming the Customer with Empathy - 4/14/26


We’ve spoken and written about empathy for the 20+ years of these customer service tips, noting empathy as the most important quality any individual can have if they want to be great at customer service.  We’ve shared that - in order to serve our customers most effectively – it’s Read more

The Power of Teaching While Helping - 4/7/26


If you’re trying to develop a relationship with the customer rather than just simply handling their transaction and moving on, you are taking a long-term view.  You realize that that individual is someone you want to keep with your business for months or years to come, so it’s a Read more

Bear with Me - 3/31/26


As a customer, you’ve probably called a company and heard the phrase “bear with me.”  At that point, you know there’s going to be some sort of delay.  The CSR is giving you a heads up that there’s going to be additional wait time.  Essentially, they are trying to Read more

Slowing Down the Fast Talker - 3/24/26


Jeffrey had always been told by his manager to figure out the issue quickly and wrap up the conversation as fast as possible.  So, Jeffrey was hyper-focused at finding that one key word that could identify the issue and help him to transition quickly to what might be some possible Read more

Don’t Bury the Lede - 3/17/26


Mary was working at the office, and she received an e-mail alert from the water company.  There was a water outage in her neighborhood.  It looked like it was going to be a couple hours to fix the issue. Sure enough, a few hours later around mid-afternoon, Mary received another Read more

Confirm the Real Issue Before You Start Solving - 3/10/26


Have you ever gone “down the rabbit hole?”  It involves going deep into some topic, some discussion – with analysis that creates complexity as much as it resolves it.  And that dive into the rabbit hole often starts with a simple question. Going down that rabbit hole takes time and Read more

One Question to Prevent a Follow-up Call - 3/3/26


The way some performance metrics work, you would think companies would prefer for their staff to talk to the same customer 4 times on the same topic for 8 minutes each rather than talking to them once for 10 minutes.  Many management metrics are too focused on average length Read more

Stay Calm When the Customer Isn’t - 2/24/26


There are all sorts of others’ emotions that you have to deal with as a customer service professional.  The other person could be anxious or upset, they could be angry or agitated.  It can run the gamut of emotions, but for you to deal with them in the best Read more

Don’t Begin with the Dead End in Mind - 2/17/26


Habit #2 of Stephen Covey’s “Seven Habits of Highly Successful People” is “Begin with the End in Mind.”  It speaks to the need to have a clear vision or goal for what you’re trying to ultimately achieve, so you understand the purpose of what you’re doing.  It helps you Read more

Explain without Over Explaining - 2/10/26


The customer has a question, and we have an answer.  They need to learn something, and we’re in the position to be the educator.  There’s a process they have to go through, and we need them to understand. We know so much, and we could impart so much, but sometimes Read more

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Great Service Still Exists

Posted on October 19, 2011 in Business Advice, Carolinas, World of Customer Service 2 Comments

When the customer visited the Oreck store on Hanes Mall Blvd. in Winston-Salem, NC, earlier this month, she needed service on a vacuum. It wasn’t an Oreck. It wasn’t purchased at the store. It was only one month old.

The customer brought it to Oreck because the manufacturer said not to ship it back to them for repair – instead the customer should bring it to a local repair center. The customer had driven past the Oreck store before and was familiar with the quality of the brand, so that was the first place that came to mind.

The cord wouldn’t unwind fully, so a vacuum that should be able to clean several rooms without plugging and unplugging could barely do one room. It was a vacuum that would run, but it was a hassle to use.

The Oreck store asked if they could hold the vacuum and work on it later, and the customer said that was fine. Later, an employee from Oreck called the customer and said the cord issue was resolved. He had worked on the cord, getting it untangled and testing it about 10 times to confirm it worked well.

“How much do I owe you?” the customer asked.

“Not a thing,” the employee replied.

The customer had an issue; the company provided a resolution, and it didn’t cost a dime.

Sometimes great customer service isn’t about what happens during the sale or even what happens after the customer leaves your store. Sometimes truly great customer service is about your taking the effort just to do something for someone else. It’s about caring more about meeting the need of a customer than making a nickel off a transaction. It’s about taking a situation that presents itself – like a customer you’ve never met who needs help – and doing what’s right for the customer.

Take a lesson from this Winston-Salem Oreck store. Focus on what’s in it for the customer first, and worry about what’s in it for you second.

And who knows, you might get some positive word-of-mouth out of the experience.

Read our New Book – “Ask Yourself…Am I GREAT at Customer Service?” http://www.amigreatat.com/

Listen to our latest podcast episode of “Stepping Up Service” on The MESH Network at http://themesh.tv/stepping-up-service/

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


A Day at the DMV

Posted on August 24, 2010 in Business Advice, Government Please leave a comment

The thrill of victory…the agony of the DMV.

For the first time in 5 years, I had to get a new driver’s license. Being out of practice at this activity, I got to the DMV office right when it opened – a colossal error! With this being the best day of the week on my schedule to get the driver’s license renewed, when I arrived at 8:00 a.m., there were already close to 100 people in line; unfortunately, my schedule wouldn’t let me leave.

If patience is a virtue, then there were hundreds of very virtuous people experiencing the DMV today.

But why the wait?

Too few employees for the number of customers. Too few offices for a city the population of Charlotte, NC. Too many steps in the process. Patrons not educated on the best day-of-week or time-of-day, how they needed to prepare for the visit to the office. I could go on and on.

I stood outside for nearly 2.5 hours, entering the office just before 10:30 a.m. When my number was finally called 30 minutes later, it took about 4-5 minutes to do the test. Then I had to wait again for my picture. I left the office at 11:15 a.m. So I had over 3 hours of wait time for about 7 minutes of activity.

What’s worse is that I was just renewing. There were 30+ people who entered the office before me who were getting a permit or a new license, at least 25 of which were still there when I left.

We can all learn from our experiences – good and bad. Learn from my experience to reduce steps in a process, staff appropriately, educate customers in advance, and create fast-track processes for people with minor needs.

Learn from my nearly half-day at the DMV.

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

Check out our new customer service book at http://www.amigreatat.com/


Be an Everybody Business

Posted on June 18, 2010 in Business Advice, Carolinas, World of Customer Service Please leave a comment

Pizza…Yum! I was getting a takeout order at Hawthorne’s Pizza in Charlotte, NC, for the first time. As I walked in, the hostesses greeted me with a smile, asked how they could help, and showed me to the counter where I could pick up my order. As I approached the counter, two staff walking by made eye contact, smiled and said hello. I was greeted by an employee at the counter who asked how he could help – he smiled, confirmed my order, noted he’d get my order together and get right back to me. As I stood for a few seconds, I noticed that ALL the employees were moving, working, processing orders, taking food out to the tables…and smiling.

They were having pleasant conversations with each other and operating efficiently at the same time. Another employee walked up to me and asked if I had been helped. When the individual who was getting my order came back, he took the credit card, engaged me in light discussion, and closed the conversation with a smile and appreciation.

As I turned to walk away, another employee walked past me, made eye contact, smiled and said hello, and as I walked out of the restaurant, the hostesses smiled again, thanking me for coming in, and holding the door open for me.

I was in the restaurant less than 5 minutes, but one thing was obvious. This was an “Everybody Business.” Everybody smiled. Everybody worked efficiently. Everybody engaged me. Everybody seemed to be having fun with what they were doing and/or with each other.

When you experience an Everybody Business, you have to realize that this is not by accident. It’s by design. To have everybody operating in the same positive manner – naturally, smiling, engaging customers – that happens only because management wants it to happen. They hire staff with that attitude, train them on how to interact, and model those behaviors themselves.

They don’t leave it to chance that you’ll get good service with Employee “A”, but you could get bad service from Employee “B”. They don’t want that risk. They want to be an Everybody Business so that every customer has the same great experience.

Be an Everybody Business.

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


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