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Narrow Your Focus to Seek Excellence - 4/1/25


You’ve probably heard companies use phrases such as: “We want to go from being good to great.”  Maybe they’ve said: “We strive for perfection, and although we’ll never reach perfection, maybe we can achieve excellence along the way.” These organizations find some kind of a catch phrase or slogan, but Read more

Avoid the Unfriendly Ghost - 3/25/25


Last week we talked about the qualities of “PERKI Customer Service,” essentially what attitudes and actions are characteristics of those who provide great customer service.  This week, let’s take the opposite approach.  What are some of the mistakes that people make?  Maybe these are mistakes of omission or commission; Read more

PERKI Customer Service - 3/18/25


After having worked on hundreds of projects over the years with thousands of thousands of individuals, some things become pretty clear. There are certain traits held by people who are great in customer service.  Look at this list, and do a self-assessment.  Which apply to you? Positive and Patient Do you Read more

It Helps to Downshift - 3/11/25


One of the first tips I heard when I was learning how to drive related to what to do when the brakes fail - downshift.  Shifting into a lower gear can slow down a moving vehicle.  I would explain this in technical terms to you, but considering I’m not Read more

Patience is… - 3/4/25


Patience is a…pain in the neck.  Why is it so hard to be patient?  Those of us who work in customer service know that we constantly have to show patience with our customers.  We’re ready to move to the next step or the solution because we’ve heard this issue Read more

Everybody Doesn’t - 2/25/25


Joey received the compliment, but he was confused.  Paula, his boss, and Joey had their monthly one-on-one meeting, and Paula noted that, although he was new, Joey was already doing a great job!  While there were learning curves on some of the organizational policies and the technology that he Read more

A Simple Phrase to Transform Your Customer Feedback Approach - 2/18/25


I went to a restaurant called Big Ed’s (no relation) in Raleigh, NC recently.  It’s basically country cooking with fantastic breakfast options!  On the menu there was a quote that said: If you enjoyed your meal, tell a friend.  If not, please tell us. That was an excellent statement that embodies Read more

What Phones and Football Have in Common - 2/11/25


Congratulations!  You made it through weeks/months of hype for football’s Super Bowl!  You made it through hundreds of pregame shows and podcasts, endless debates on things endlessly inconsequential, 10 hours of pre-game shows on Sunday, what seems like 100 commercials designed specifically for the “Big Game,” and the longest Read more

Create Awareness of Alternatives - 2/4/25


Sandy was hungry, and she was on the move.  Driving between meetings, she saw the restaurant sign and pulled in.  The fast-food restaurant had two drive-thru lanes.  One was for any customer who wanted to place an order on the spot. The other was for mobile orders only.  The Read more

Listen with Your Eyes - 1/28/25


Out of the corner of his eye, Patrick saw the customer enter the lobby.  The customer was carrying a large shoulder bag with several papers in her hand.  The customer was shuffling the papers and looking down; then she stopped, looked up, and saw the staff navigator sitting at Read more

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Narrow Your Focus to Seek Excellence – 4/1/25

Posted on April 1, 2025 in Customer Service Tip of the Week Please leave a comment

You’ve probably heard companies use phrases such as: “We want to go from being good to great.”  Maybe they’ve said: “We strive for perfection, and although we’ll never reach perfection, maybe we can achieve excellence along the way.”

These organizations find some kind of a catch phrase or slogan, but the crux of what they’re trying to do is to get better.  They’re trying to improve.

When we used to conduct assessments for companies 15-20 years ago, we would identify a laundry list of things they needed to improve.  We’d note the 60, 80, 100 different recommendations.  Some were very tactical in nature, while some needed to be addressed over a period of several months or a year.  Others were very strategic in nature.

What we found was that the more we categorized, organized, and consolidated those recommendations, the less daunting the list appeared to the client, the more manageable the list was to address.

Now, the maximum number of top priority recommendations we typically provide is 20, and more likely we’ll have 5-10 key focus areas.  So, if you want to get better, if you want to become great, if you want to achieve excellence – particularly as an individual – identify some broad but important areas of focus.  Here are 3 quick examples:

Could You Communicate Better?  This could involve improving your communication skills, your business writing effectiveness, being more intentional about the words you use or more cognizant of your body language and tone of voice.

Could You Become a Better Planner?  You could identify what needs to be done by when, what your priorities may be.  Then, lay out your work over a period of days or weeks or – for big projects – over months in order to ensure you’re not having to scramble at the end of a project to meet the deadline.

Could You Better Prepare Your Customers?  Do you send information to the customer expecting an immediate review or quick turnaround?  Instead, lay out what the process is going to look like for the customer, what you expect of them, what they can expect of you, when those activities will happen.  Lay it out so the customer’s not put in a position of having to be ultra responsive to you without any forewarning.

Identify a few broad but important areas where you can be better.  Then use them as an ongoing focal point to continuously improve, to seek excellence.

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When You’re the Educator, What Should You Teach? – 1/21/25

Posted on January 21, 2025 in Customer Service Tip of the Week Please leave a comment

The best customer service professionals are also excellent educators.  Not only within the organization, but I’m talking specifically about the role they play as educator with their customers.  With all the self-service options that technology provides, customers often have the opportunity to do things on their own, to investigate on their own, to address issues on their own.

Unfortunately, technology is not always self-evident.  It doesn’t always think like customers think.  It doesn’t often convey what the customer needs to know when they need to know it in a way that the customer can absorb, understand, and use moving forward.

So, if we want to be the best of customer service professionals, we need to be excellent educators.

Let’s say we have a customer named Christopher.  About what do we need to build Christopher’s awareness?  What does Christopher need to know to get things done?  What knowledge does Christopher need to build in order to have the best experience possible with our organization?

Ask yourself (or your customers) these types of questions, because these questions build your understanding of what content is required in your educational endeavors with customers.

Does Christopher need to be more aware of technology options such as mobile apps, self-service website functions, chat functions, automated phone options?  And does he need to know how to navigate those mechanisms?  Does he need to know how to place in order, how to check status, how to follow-up directly with the right person, how to see if a service is completed or a delivery has been made?  Does Christopher need to know the services available, the features available, the different ways to experience your product or your service, your event or your facility?

To strengthen your role as an educator of customers, first identify what the key content is where they need to be more knowledgeable or better trained.

Identify what THEY need to know in order to have the best experience possible.

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Wrap It Up Right: Why Follow-Up Communications WOW Customers – 1/14/25

Posted on January 14, 2025 in Customer Service Tip of the Week Please leave a comment

Dena had some questions about her water bill, so she looked for answers on the utility’s website.  She didn’t find specific answers, and she really didn’t want to get on the phone with somebody at the time and risk staying on hold.  She had lots going on, but she noticed the opportunity to use the chat function.  So, she clicked in.

When the chat conversation was done, Dena signed off.  Immediately afterward, she received an e-mail.  It was a transcript of the chat.  She had never used the chat before, and she was surprised to receive the e-mail.  But once she reviewed it, she loved it!!

Whether you – as a customer service representative – just completed a chat with a customer, ended a phone conversation, or wrapped up a face-to-face conversation, these follow-up communications are often exceptionally helpful to the customer.  There are several ways that your customers benefit from chat transcripts or other documented follow-ups to your conversations:

  • Documentation: The customer has a record of the conversation, the issues, potential solutions, and the actions to take.
  • Trust-building: The customer sees that the company also has documentation, and they are willing to stand by what was communicated during the encounter.
  • Quick Access: The customer can easily find a record of the prior communication.
  • Accountability and Follow-Up: It offers a checklist of what the customer or the company are expected to do next.
  • Time-saving: Customers are less likely to have to repeat their story during the next encounter, since they can just reference the transcript.
  • A Sense of Feeling Valued: Customers feel like they’ve been heard, and the conversation was important enough to the company to document.

 
When you complete that encounter with the customer, if you want to build their trust, make their life a little bit more simple, build in some accountability on next steps, save them some time, and help them to feel valued, provide an immediate follow-up communication.

Wrap it up right.  Use follow-up communications to WOW customers.

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