Does your business have a formal and systematic second-chance customer process to encourage disappointed customers to provide your business with a “second-chance”? According to a popular proverb in aviation, “There are two groups of pilots: those who have landed gear-up, and those who will land gear-up.” The lesson, of course, is that if an airplane…
Email communication with customers is appropriate in these three — and only these three — situations. When we provide customer service training, one of the first topics we address is communicating with customers through email. Specifically, we share one of Tim Sanders‘ fundamental rules governing the appropriateness of email communication. But before we reveal Tim’s…
The worst response to customer complaints on social media is no response at all. What’s worse than customer complaints? Customer complaints on social media, where virtually anyone, including prospective customers, can read about the unfortunate experiences of others at your business. Indeed, with respect to customer complaints on social media, we have both “good” and…
We call BS on the common business practice of requiring a customer to jump through hoops in order to resolve an issue. Like most customer service representatives, you probably receive numerous customer questions or concerns through a variety of communication channels. For example, you might receive a telephone call from a customer about a billing…
Learn how to place callers on hold with this simple three-step strategy. While attending Florida State University, I volunteered as a telephone crisis counselor with Telephone Counseling & Referral Service — now known as 2-1-1 BigBend — a suicide prevention hotline in Tallahassee. The experience not only provided me with valuable communication skills, but it…
Avoiding unprofessional words, phrases, and body language gestures — such as “you guys,” “folks,” and pointing — is more about professional, rather than political, correctness. Communicating professionally with customers is a core customer service skill. For example, customers become uncomfortable, if not offended, when customer service representatives use profanity. Although customers might be accustomed to…
Exceptional customer service isn’t possible if your business spends too much time fighting customer service wildfires. We recently facilitated a time management learnshop that focused on the importance of shifting from a reactive to a proactive mindset: whereas a reactive mindset involves relentlessly responding to crises — metaphorically known as “putting out fires” — a…
When genuine confusion arises between your business and a customer, apply a longstanding informal rule in sandlot baseball: a tie goes to the customer. Last month, I had the opportunity to visit Florida for a few days before helping drive my parents back to their summer home in Iowa. The day after I arrived in…
Why some customers don’t shop local, despite aggressive “shop local” marketing strategies. We’ve debated writing this post for several months. Why? Because the post tends to “call out” lackluster customer service practices in communities — particularly rural communities — that pursue “shop local” marketing strategies. Indeed, we’re from one of those communities whose businesses sometimes…
What we have here is a lack of trust. A few days ago, my wife and I made our weekly trek to the grocery store. This time, though, we armed ourselves with a $5.00 coupon that was included in a merchant discount book we had purchased during a school fundraising event. Little did we know…