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From Conversation to Connection: Defining Customer Engagement - 1/7/25


Maggie was sitting in the Service Excellence Training class, and the instructor kept talking about staying engaged with the customer.  Proactively engaging the customer.  Being fully engaged in the conversation. After hearing this same phrase (“engage”) used in various ways, Maggie raised her hand and asked a question probably several Read more

Self-empower for the New Year - 12/31/24


Jeff joined the company, in part, because he loved their approach to culture.  Leadership tried to create an empowerment culture.  They tried to develop an environment where, within certain parameters, individual team members could make a decision and feel confident that they would be supported by leadership. The reality was Read more

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

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Build a Retention Program

Posted on February 2, 2011 in Business Advice, World of Customer Service Please leave a comment

You have a marketing plan, a social media presence, and sales program. But do you have the same structures in place for retention?

In a recent Body Shop Biz article, the Toronto Area Dealer Association’s “Renewit program” is noted because it focuses on how the association is helping members to increase customer retention, sales, and profits. Among other features, the program directs the customer’s vehicle back to the dealership after a breakdown or wreck.

Now whether the program turns out to be as great as advertised is not yet known, but there is much to be learned from the program.

First, you have to have solid data on the customer and the product/service they purchased in order to communicate most effectively with them – make sure these details are acquired during the sale and effectively flow to your customer service systems.

Second, make it easy for the customer to contact you back if they have an issue. You’d rather resolve the issue and keep the relationship than have them go elsewhere today for support, since that might make them go elsewhere tomorrow for a product.

Third and more broadly, view your customer service functions as revenue-building entities that should have the goals, technology, people, and processes that focus on staying in touch with clients, meeting after-the-sale needs, and deepening relationships.

Build your own great customer service body shop.

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

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


Is Patient Satisfaction More Important Than Clinical Care?

Posted on January 18, 2011 in Business Advice, Healthcare Please leave a comment

In the Healthcare Leaders Media article titled “Editor’s Note: Patient Satisfaction on the Rise,” a New England Journal of Medicine article is referenced since it noted that patients feel that the non-clinical experience is “twice as important as the hospital’s clinical reputation.” In other words, patients feel that the level of clinical care is less important than the other aspects of the experience such as customer service, communications, timeliness, processes, etc.

While I wasn’t surprised at the findings (we’ve discussed it on this blog previously), what is surprising is that the author seemed to say that this fact is actually a concern. He stated that healthcare organizations need to essentially educate the patients on healthcare quality so that they understand the greater importance of and distinctions of quality clinical care in comparison to the non-clinical experience.

Let’s look at this a different way. Let’s say that customers prefer Google over your search engine because it’s faster and easier than yours. But you feel that your search engine has prettier colors on the home page. So your approach is to educate Google customers that they need to view the colors on the home page as more important than the speed or ease of use of a search engine.

Huh?

Companies that want to retain customers will be metaphorically banging their heads against the walls if they strive to change what the customer feels is most important. The customer decides what they care about, what they feel is most important.

It’s then up to you and me to be as great as possible at delivering what the customer feels is important.

So is patient satisfaction more important than clinical care? The answer: Whatever the customer feels is most important is most important.

Don’t tell the customer what they care about isn’t that important. That’s an EASY way to lose a customer.

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

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


3 Key Predictions for 2011 in Customer Service

Posted on December 10, 2010 in World of Customer Service 1 Comment

Understanding current trends in customer service as well as in the economy as a whole has led Customer Service Solutions, Inc. to identify three predictions of what we foresee happening in the world of customer service in 2011:

· The term “Social Media Customer Service” will become more consistently defined, and that definition will involve a focus on more clearly articulating how Social Media customers differ from those who look elsewhere to interact with businesses. But with each new entrant into the Social Media space, companies will struggle with how to address additional customer service touch points consistently and efficiently.

· As the economy continues its struggle to gain footing, companies will become more strategic and targeted on which customers they want to keep and how to reduce the cost of serving low profit customers. Arguments will rage over whether to and how to “fire customers.”

· Fearing employees are at a breaking point with being asked to continue to do more work while still retaining customers, businesses will invest more heavily in morale-building culture initiatives and process redesign and reengineering activities.

In other words, 2011 will be about enabling employees to be successful with limited resources, being more targeted in when/where/how to serve customers, and learning how to engage the social media world with customer service that is consistent and efficient across the enterprise.

What do you think about these predictions? What do you think will happen?

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

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


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