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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

Notice the Little Changes - 9/24/24


“My, how times have changed.” Yes, times have changed.  As a matter of fact, one of the biggest reasons why an organization’s customer service deteriorates is that times have changed…customers have changed…and the company has not… If we think about customer service delivery today v. decades ago, changes in technology alone Read more

Don’t Hurry…Be Quick - 9/17/24


No, this is not a take off on the Bobby McFerrin song:  Don’t Worry Be Happy. It’s actually a take off on the John Wooden quote:  Be quick, but don’t hurry. When I read Wooden’s book with this title, I liked the concept, and not just because John Wooden was a Read more

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Facial Recognition is the Future of Customer Service – 3/26/19

Posted on March 26, 2019 in Customer Service Tip of the Week Please leave a comment


According to a recent New York Times article, facial recognition is the future of retail customer service. A trend in technology for retail businesses is to utilize facial recognition technology in order to better know who is entering your business. The idea is that if somebody within that store can instantly know as much about you based on a picture of your face that is run against a database, they can instantly tailor their sales or service encounter to you.

This “revolutionary” approach to better knowing the customers without them knowing that you know them (hope that wasn’t too confusing) includes utilizing your phone GPS trackers to tap into your social apps to learn about you immediately upon your arrival at the store.

Before this sounds too “Big Brother-ish,” the only thing truly revolutionary about this is the technology piece. Facial recognition is something that every customer service employee in every organization should know how to do for customers that are walking through their door. It’s important to be able to look at someone and gauge whether they are happy or angry, they’re confused and looking around or confident and moving toward a particular area, whether they are disinterested parties following their spouse around or people who are lighting up at the environment that they just walked into in the store.

These are skills that every employee needs to have because every customer is different. Employees need to be aware of the body language, aware of the expressions, aware of the movements of the individual and their gestures – because having some sense of what these mean gives you some insights into how to approach and address a customer.

Before we wait until that time where we walk into any store and immediately every sales representative pulls up a detailed personal bio that makes a ton of assumptions about who we are as a person based on what website we went to 3 days ago, let’s first make sure our employees truly understand how to read somebody that’s standing in front of them. Let’s ensure that we care enough to view the uniqueness of any customer in a way that no app can truly convey.

Technology facial recognition maybe the future of retail customer service, but customer recognition is the past, present, AND future.

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Customer for Life – The Second Step – 3/19/19

Posted on March 19, 2019 in Customer Service Tip of the Week Please leave a comment


Two weeks ago, we shared a Customer Service Tip on how to get (and keep!) a Customer for Life. We addressed the First Step, Knowing what you need to know about the other person. Now, we’re sharing the Second Step. To develop a relationship with anyone, there has to be some semblance of ongoing communication. There has to be some kind of dialogue that is not all about you. It’s about listening to the other person, about seeking them out and sharing something of value, or listening to something being shared by them.

For those of us that are trying to deepen relationships with our clients and grow our business with them, oftentimes we can get into a habit of communications being all about selling. Communications become all about pushing information. It gets to the point where, whenever they hear from us, they’re hearing about us and our products and services.

But think about what makes for a good relationship. There is informal as well as the more formal interaction. There are not long periods of dead silence. There are enough ongoing communication touches that the relationship never goes stale.

The Second Step in gaining a Customer for Life is to have a strategy that you implement that ensures that you don’t go too long between communications with the other person. This strategy has a mix of formal and informal touches. You’re not constantly pushing information to them, and sometimes you’re just engaging them in informal discussion.

Sometimes you’re asking them questions to learn more about them. Sometimes you’re requesting information or being inquisitive. And sometimes you’re providing something just because it’s the right thing to do even if there is no direct tie into a new sale.

In other words, care about them as an individual enough so that more than half of your communications with them are either helping them out, generally keeping in touch, or asking them about themselves.

To create a customer for life, take the second step. Make it about them, and never let the relationship go stale.

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Same Product; 2 Totally Different Customer Experiences – 12/15/15 TOW

Posted on December 15, 2015 in Customer Service Tip of the Week Please leave a comment


Debra’s home heating unit went out in the dead of winter – LOUSY timing! But it was an 18 year old unit, so it was definitely…well, time.

Two vendors came the next day to give an estimate. Al’s ACME Repair (the name has been changed to protect the guilty) sent two salesmen who spent 15 minutes in the house. They walked around, noted how cold it was inside, took a few measurements, and looked at the old system. They then went back to their vehicle, spent 30 minutes writing up a quote. They gave Debra a quote with three lines of information on the unit type and cost, and they left.

A couple hours later, Jeff from Harvey’s HVAC House came to provide a quote. He spent 50 minutes with Debra, asked lots of questions, took pictures of the old unit, described the process for installation of the new unit, mentioned the experience of the installers, and offered to provide a quote via e-mail later that evening with multiple options for Debra to consider.

Her takeaway? If Jeff’s quote comes in anywhere near Al’s ACME Repair, she’s going with Jeff.

Jeff offered details on 3 options (Good, Better, Best), “Better” was right in line with the other company’s quote, and she went with Jeff.

True story – and truth in the lessons learned: Conveying patience, being inquisitive, educating the customer, building-up co-workers, and offering options are all vital to customer service success.

Be like Jeff – learn from the tale of the two talks.

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