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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

Have a Game Plan to Address Their Anxiety - 10/8/24


It seems like we all get deliveries - whether it is UPS, USPS, FedEx, Amazon, the local courier, or all the above.  We order.  They deliver.  Or do they? It’s times like these, when we’re expecting that package, that item that we’re looking forward to or need urgently or are Read more

How Persistence Saved the Day - 10/1/24


Sherrie saw the customer walk into her store holding his cell phone, and Sherrie immediately knew that was William.  She had spoken to William on the phone about an hour ago, he said he would be at Sherrie’s cell phone store in less than an hour, and there he Read more

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Use AI to Improve Your Performance – 7/23/24

Posted on July 23, 2024 in Customer Service Tip of the Week Please leave a comment

Many companies are integrating Artificial Intelligence (AI) into some aspect of their business.  This could greatly change how they operate, how they communicate with customers.

This AI wave reminds me of a story from 20+ years ago when a stock brokerage firm launched a new website that greatly enhanced the information available to its clients.  The company thought they would need fewer call center staff, but what they realized was the additional information it provided clients created more in-depth and challenging questions from customers.  It turned out that the company needed roughly the same number of staff, but the staff had to be more knowledgeable.  What was expected of them was higher-level.  The basic questions were handled by customers on their own, so now they had deeper, more complex questions to be answered.

That story addressed the company view and how – in the end – the website impacted what was expected of employees, how their expertise had to improve.  The same thing will occur with AI.  Companies will use AI to do the basic things, the more monotonous things, the more time-consuming, lower-level activities.  Our tasks will require more expertise, more knowledge.

Free Up Your Time, Expand Your Knowledge

So, let’s be proactive, and let’s see how we individuals can use AI to actually free up some time for us to focus on the higher level, the more complex, and position us more as consultants with our clients.  Here are three ways each of us can tap into AI to better ourselves.

Create Your Own FAQ Responses

Identify 5-10 core questions that you’re asked, and use AI to give you a draft set of responses for those types of questions with the specific types of customers who pose them.  Then you can tweak the draft AI responses to meet your needs.  Save yourself time by creating your own FAQs.

Develop Draft Messages/Documents

If you have typical e-mails or documents that you send to clients – whether it’s a meeting follow-up, a request for information, or details you’re providing them about a process, use AI to start the template.  Emphasize to AI that you want it to be professional and courteous, succinct and clear.  Use AI to be more consistent in typical communications.

Train Yourself

Identify some aspects of your job where you are not yet proficient or you’re not at the expert level.  Use AI to identify a list of resources or a set of information you can review to enhance your skill set.  It might be about a particular situation, type of customer, type of technology.  Let AI get you started on personalizing a professional development plan so you can more quickly learn and excel.

Use AI to save yourself time and help you speed up your own performance improvement.

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The New Burger Experience – 7/16/24

Posted on July 16, 2024 in Customer Service Tip of the Week Please leave a comment

Floyd loves a good hamburger. Any chance he gets to try a new spin on an old standby, he takes it. Recently, a burger joint opened near his house, and Floyd was very excited! It was owned by and named for a world-renowned chef, so it had to be good – expectations were high!

Wanting to do takeout, he hopped on the restaurant’s website at dinnertime, but there was no order online button. He did find a phone number, so he called; the system said they would send him a text with a link to the ordering page. He immediately received the link, immediately clicked it, and immediately realized the link was broken. He clicked over and over again, and it was broken over and over again.

Hurry Up and Wait

Well, the restaurant was only open for about 2 weeks, so he assumed they might not have gotten all of their technology together, or maybe they were overwhelmed by people wanting to check out the restaurant. So, Floyd decided to drive and order in-person. He packed his patience just in case the place was bombarded with customers wanting to check out the new restaurant.

When he arrived, Floyd’s assumptions were confirmed.  The line was at least 30 people long, with 10 standing outside.  As his place in line finally got inside the front door, he noticed that the kiosks that were set up within the restaurant for ordering were offline. Everyone went to the same sole cashier to order.

Employees Shine!

But then Floyd noticed some other things, as well. Staff were constantly engaging the people in line. They were bringing the food to the patrons and calling them by name. They were periodically giving an overview about the unique qualities of the restaurant and the unique ingredients used in the recipes. It was highly engaging and made the time go by fast. Despite all the activity and stress on the workers, they were making the restaurant shine.

In the end, there was a 45-minute wait from when he first got in line to when he finally got his food. Floyd tasted the burger, and it was OK. He tasted the fries, and they were OK. He tasted the shake, and it was fantabulous!

The next day, Floyd, burger-lover that he is, reflected on his experience. The place was basically brand new, so their technology was down. The lines were excessively long – all that was understandable. The food was adequate, so this is probably not going to be a place he frequents. But it was interesting that despite all of the glitter of this being a famous chef’s restaurant and all of the hype about the quality of the ingredients, the best thing about the experience was the people he encountered – the energy and positivity of the employees despite slow processes, bad technology, and a product that was middle of the road.

Sometimes you are serving customers, and you’re not always serving them top quality products or merchandise. Sometimes you’re dealing with processes or technologies that bog you down or bogged the customers down. So sometimes, the best part of the experience, is you.

Even if the rest of the experience is not memorable in a good way, do your best to make sure that the memories of you are positive.

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Challenges Create Opportunity, People Create Change – 4/20/21

Posted on April 20, 2021 in Customer Service Tip of the Week Please leave a comment

There are so many great things that have been said over the years about overcoming challenges, pushing aside the roadblocks of life, dealing with difficulties.  And these are important points of discussion because challenges are all around us.  There are challenges with our personal health or in our personal lives.  We could have the challenges of dealing with mean or angry individuals at work.  It could be the challenge of trying to support a customer but not getting the support of your co-worker.  The challenges could be inconsistent communications or ineffective systems and processes.  Maybe our challenge is due to our own personal burdens or biases or lack of professional development.

We have these challenges, but to overcome them or push them aside or deal with them, people have to take some action:

  • You’re dealing with essentially the same complaints from customers in your office every day. What can you do to reduce the number of those complaints that you have to deal with each day?
  • You’ve been given bad directions to a customer’s home 4 times this week – it wasted your time! What can you do to make sure it doesn’t happen 4 times next week?
  • You deal with an issue where you’re just not comfortable or confident. What can you do to become more comfortable and more confident?
  • The system is not intuitive for you. It takes you much longer to accomplish your work than it should.  What can you do to become more proficient?
  • The frustration of that angry customer gets to you. You get flustered and you get defensive, and the next thing you know you’re in a 10-minute conversation that never seems to go anywhere.  What can you do to manage your own emotions better?

We’re always going to have challenges.  We are human, and the people we work with are human, as well.  The systems that we work with are FAR from perfect, too!

Identify 1 or 2 of the challenges that cause you heartburn.  Then determine 1 or 2 actions you can take so that these situations happen less frequently or you’re more effective at dealing with them in the future.

Challenges create opportunity.  Be one of the people that creates change.

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