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Be Supportive, Not Defensive - 10/7/25


[An employee on the phone with a customer…] Who told you that you didn’t have to submit that form? … Bob?  Oh brother!  You see Bob is our “special” co-worker.  He seems to always tell customers the wrong thing to do, and we’re having to clean up after him.  Read more

Some Customers LOVE Predictability - 9/30/25


I was facilitating focus groups of businesses that utilize local government services.  The phrase that popped up multiple times was “Time Is Money!”  What these municipal customers were conveying was that their time was valuable, and delays were wasting their time.  But the conversations were not just about how Read more

Find Your Special Sauce - 9/23/25


When I watch a football game and I see a great quarterback (somebody who may be considered a “Star”), he might be an excellent runner, have a big arm, be able to diagnose the defense and get his team into the right play.  But he’s likely not great at Read more

Gain Control of the Conversation - 9/16/25


The customer’s angry or upset or they have a complaint.  They’re very chatty or very wordy or they just want to talk to somebody.  You’re on a time crunch, and the customer obviously is not. There are times when you need to gain control of the conversation.  It’s important for Read more

Complement with a Compliment - 9/9/25


We perform many tasks for our customers every day, and when we’re done with a step in the process, oftentimes we will tell the customer what’s been done.  But if we want to create more of a WOW experience, if we want to make the customer feel a little Read more

When Patience Begets Patience - 9/2/25


Jennifer, the server, walked toward the couple in the restaurant.  The customers had been seated for a minute or two, and they noticed the server was walking briskly toward their table.  Jennifer recognized the couple she was about to serve, because they had been in the previous week. Since the Read more

Address the Expectations that Were Set - 8/26/25


Before the caller ever got to Marco – the customer service representative, the customer had been working with the company for months.  They had read the marketing brochures, had a conversation with a sales rep, reviewed the new customer information on the website, and read all the information e-mailed Read more

When Technology Fails the Customer - 8/19/25


Technology is a wonderful thing…until it isn’t.  The website is down, the mobile app won’t work, the system keeps kicking them out of their account, or they received a spoofing phone call supposedly from your department. If you’ve ever been manning the phones or managing the department inbox, you know Read more

The Misunderstood Physician - 8/12/25


I was speaking with one of my personal physicians years ago, and when we were talking about my work – particularly customer satisfaction research - he started talking about online physician ratings.  He lamented that a few low ratings were dinging his overall score.  Then he shared that the Read more

Uncover Silent Concerns - 8/5/25


One of the customer service statistics we have quoted many times over the years is:  For every complaint you do hear, there could be 26 other customer issues that you don’t hear. And when we bring up that statistic, we bring it up because we want to make sure companies Read more

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Student Success – Align to Achieve

Posted on September 5, 2013 in Business Advice, Education Please leave a comment

It’s a core management belief – if you want to change the behaviors of employees, you need to reward and recognize those desired behaviors, because some people are motivated by the carrot, by the incentive.

Benedictine University is applying that philosophy to its customers – namely, its students. In the article Benedictine University Announces Student Success Award, one the approaches that Benedictine is taking to improve Student Success is highlighted. The University has enacted a program for “students in good standing (a GPA of 3.0 or higher) who are on track to complete their online degree within a designated period of time.” Essentially, if they meet the criteria, the University may offer awards that defray from $1,000-$10,000 of their remaining tuition.

If you read many of the studies and best practices about Student Success, particularly in community colleges, the vast majority are internally focused on programmatic, orientation-based, or advising-related initiatives. But if we view Student Success as a partnership between the college and the student, community colleges also need to look about how they can affect student behaviors, how they can motivate the students to Succeed, how they can align student “incentives” with organizational goals.

When you’re planning your Student Success strategy, ask yourself “How can I motivate the students to succeed?”

Learn about our CSS Education services at: http://cssamerica.com/cssed.htm

Interested in improving your educational organization’s customer/student satisfaction? See our other blog posts at: http://serviceadvice.cssamerica.com/category/education/


Schools Should be in the Business of Providing Customer Service

Posted on February 15, 2012 in Business Advice, Education Please leave a comment

In a New York Times School Book article titled “Parents Deserve the Best Customer Service…,” a New York City Charter school principal – Jim Manly – tells parents “you deserve the best customer service on the planet.” (I should just say “Amen,” but that would be too short a post).

We’ve performed customer service training and even mystery shopping for K-12 schools, community colleges, and universities, and the reason is that some educational organizations do “get it.” They realize that – when parents base decisions on where to send their child, or what attitude they’ll have with an employee, or the opinion about the school that they’ll share with a friend – they base those decisions, attitudes, and opinions on the people they interact with, what’s it like to work with a school, and the quality of the education itself.

So the quality of the education is important, but the respect conveyed, responsiveness to needs and inquiries, timeliness of action, and ease of doing business with the school also matter to most parents. Therefore, schools, community colleges, and universities must have a competitive attitude of “I need to earn the parent’s trust” and “I need to earn the right to teach their child” and “I need to earn their respect by how I interact with them, work with them, and teach their children.”

These tenets of great customer service apply to most any business. If more businesses felt like it was up to them to earn the trust, the business, and the respect of their customers, then we would all be providing truly GREAT customer service.

Use customer service to earn your customer’s respect and repeat business.

Listen to our latest podcast episode of “Stepping Up Service” on The MESH Network at http://themesh.tv/stepping-up-service/

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


Who is Your Retention Director?

Posted on November 2, 2010 in Business Advice, Education Please leave a comment

Lamar University was just nominated for an award by the State of Texas. In the article titled “Mentoring program selected as finalist for Texas Higher Education Award” (http://www.lamar.edu/newsevents/news/207_8985.htm), Lamar’s African-American Male Professional Connections Mentoring Program is in the running for the prestigious award.

There are two especially interesting points in the article. First, the person interviewed from Lamar references how the sense of community on-campus (while the individual is a student) helps to lead to long-term involvement of alums post-graduation. So that sense of community is a huge driver of retention.

Second – and equally as compelling – is a point only referenced once in the article but which is key to any successful retention program. The individual from Lamar who was interviewed is the “Interim Associate Provost for Student Retention.” That’s right, his title puts him in charge of retention.

Think about all the initiatives that organizations have underway to improve the customer experience, or to retain students, to renew season ticket holders, or to enhance customer service. The ultimate goal of each is client retention and growth. But who is truly accountable in your organization for client retention and growth? Is it a committee, a team, a group…anybody?

By having someone with the title, an accountability structure is put in place, priorities are set, resources are dedicated, time is allotted. In other words, this University must be serious.

Make sure your organization is serious about retention. Make sure you have a designated team or person who is your Mr. or Ms. Retention.

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

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