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What Annoys the Customer? - 9/19/23


Domino’s Pizza had TV commercials years ago where they promoted how they trained their employees to “Avoid the Noid.”  The “Noid” was basically an annoying person or thing that would disrupt the delivery driver, possibly making the driver drop the pizza on the way to your door.  The goal Read more

Lift It Up - 9/12/23


I worked with a great client for several years who was in a leadership role in the education industry, and she was the executive champion for a culture-strengthening initiative.  We were the outside firm helping to develop the overall strategy and facilitate the teams addressing the various aspects of Read more

Addressing the Horror Story that Wasn’t - 9/5/23


You may have seen the commercials for one of those garden hoses that fits in your pocket.  When you put it on the valve outside your home and turn on the water, it expands to 50 feet.  When you’re done and turn off the water, it contracts and fits Read more

Be There ALWAYS for the Customer - 8/29/23


In healthcare, the patient experience mantras often include the phrase Always, such as: We have an always culture.  This gets at frequency of action.  Instead of service excellence being a most-of-the-time occurrence, some-of-the-time occurrence, an occasional or rare occurrence, the idea in an Always Culture is that the organization Read more

Respect, Regardless of Rank - 8/22/23


I was reading a management book written by a former naval officer.  He was given a leadership role over a ship that had been underperforming and had low morale.  One thing he did to turn around the performance, to improve morale, was instill in everyone onboard the principle that Read more

Move on to the Next One - 8/15/23


The ultimate game in professional American football is the Super Bowl.  In this past year’s Super Bowl, James Bradberry of the Philadelphia Eagles was called for a penalty with less than two minutes to go in the game.  The penalty gave the other team a first down; the other Read more

How to Rise to the Occasion - 8/8/23


In the movie Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium, Mr. Magorium – played by Dustin Hoffman – tells his protégé that “Your life is an occasion.  Rise to it.” He’s conveying a big picture life lesson – don’t let fear and apprehension keep you from living. Rising to the occasion is also something Read more

Thanks for Reading - 8/1/23


My company, Customer Service Solutions, Inc., just celebrated our 25th Anniversary!  We love the work we do for our clients, and we definitely love our clients.  We’ve developed many friendships over the years, and we’ve tried to provide consistently high quality and personal support for whatever may be their Read more

Share the Why to Value the Customer - 7/25/23


We encourage our clients to explain “The Why behind the What” to the customer.  Usually we suggest that staff explain Why so that the customer understands the reason for a change or can buy-in to a particular solution. However, explaining the Why is also effective when you’re doing some very Read more

Navigate their New Experience - 7/18/23


Everything is changing for customers.  How they buy products and services…how they get customer service…where they get information from, and who provides the information. So, confusion and frustration can ensue.  Let’s help customers navigate our new world, our new systems and processes.  It’s about Empathy and Expectations; it’s about Input Read more

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How Many Customers Did You Lose Today?

Posted on March 24, 2011 in Business Advice 1 Comment

They’re walking out the door, never to return.

According to a recent study conducted of 22,000 consumers, 22% of customers will stop buying from you because of a bad experience. Some of the top reasons for the customer exits included 34% leaving because of interacting with a rude or disinterested employee. When you compare that to the statistic we’ve quoted often during the years (that 68% of lost business was due to the fact that the customer perceives the organization to be indifferent), then you can surmise that approximately half of that perception of indifference comes from employees just being blatantly rude or seeming like they’re disinterested.

We’re talking about customer service basics, which too many organizations don’t understand. They think it’s all about the product or the price or the design of the shop or the website, but so much of what drives customers away is about the employee – how they’re perceived, whether they appear engaged, whether they use the right tone and body language, whether they talk about you and your needs or themselves and their personal issues. So much of customer retention comes down to hiring and training, motivating and rewarding, challenging staff to be great and holding them accountable to your standards.

Look at your organization, asking yourself these basic questions:

· When hiring staff, do we test/gauge an applicant’s ability to communicate effectively (orally and in written word)?

· Do we assess how prospective employees come across with their tone and body language?

· Do we have basic customer service standards, those expectations of the bare minimum of what we expect in terms of how they’ll treat the customer?

· Do we train them (continuously) on customer service standards, skills, principles, and techniques?

· Do we monitor performance, rewarding and recognizing excellence, and holding accountable when standards are not met?

· Do our leaders model what we expect of staff?

Limit the number of customers you lose because you answered “No” to these questions.

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/


Where are all the fans?

Posted on March 8, 2011 in Business Advice, Sports Please leave a comment

There’s a reason why fan retention is so low among many sports teams, and it’s not just bad play on the field or a bad economy.

It’s about a core lack of understanding about what drives fan satisfaction and loyalty. Too many individuals who are charged with keeping up revenues are purely marketing or sales-driven. The key word is “purely.” Executives in these roles don’t often enough have training in client retention, understand a strategic view of retention, or think “long-term” when they map out retention plans.

Maybe it’s because MBA schools rarely teach customer service and customer retention principles. Maybe it’s because serving someone isn’t as sexy as closing a new deal. Maybe it’s because they don’t understand the true financial impact of retention strategies, research, and structures. Maybe it’s all of the above.

But if organizations want to be successful long-term…consistently…they need to understand external retention strategies and the internal structures and culture to drive those strategies.

They need to have dedicated leadership in charge of retention, incented on retention, trained on retention, and motivated by relationship-building and retention.

Rethink retention.

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/


Horton Hears a Stakeholder?

Posted on February 1, 2011 in Business Advice Please leave a comment

Do you remember the Dr. Seuss story about an elephant named Horton who believes he hears the voices of an entire village of people (the "Whos") on a speck of dust? Only Horton could hear the Whos. All the other animals in Horton’s kingdom thought he was crazy. To keep Horton from wasting his time protecting the Whos, a mean kangaroo and some crazy monkeys tried to boil the speck of dust.

Just before the dastardly deed was to be done, a small boy from Whoville added his voice to the other Whos, and his yell enabled the Whos to be heard by all in Horton’s Kingdom. It was a little voice, but when added to the rest, it helped the Whos break through the sound barrier. It worked because every person in the village, and let me emphasize EVERY person, had a common goal.

Think about all the voices in your organization, in your business life. Are you tapping into all the resources available to you for advice, guidance, input, and resources? Are you able to get all your key stakeholders and staff on the same page, or are assignments made with the mere hope that everybody gets their job done?

Unfortunately, most companies that tout customer service in marketing, or preach customer service internally, don’t leverage their key sources of ideas – customers and staff. But you can and should tap these resources.

Survey and/or interview your customers and your employees. Ask them to reveal their minds and hearts. What do they see as the most likely changes to the business environment over the next 3-5 years? What do you need to do now to be successful then? And ask what must be done in the short run to lock-in employees and guarantee customer loyalty now so that change won’t bring lost business and lower revenue.

Use this research to learn and to create a common direction and a common focus. Make sure you’re getting all the input you need, down to the last Who in Whoville.

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/


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