Spending too much time putting out “customer service fires”? Proactive customer service is the solution. Putting out “customer service fires” is something all businesses do. Yet many businesses — yours, for example? — spend way too much time extinguishing “customer service fires.” Time that could be spent on cultivating — instead of consoling — your…
Looking for interesting and engaging books about customer service to inspire you and your team? Here’s our top recommendations. Every now and then, businesses and organizations solicit our advice in regards to books about customer service. Sometimes, it’s an individual at a business who wants to expand his or her knowledge about customer service strategies;…
Does your business or organization have a process to identify your customer service heroes? If not, consider this brilliant, simple, and cost-effective strategy. Several years ago, I attended a conference in Branson, Missouri. One of the “perks” included free admission to Silver Dollar City, a theme park that features a variety of rides, attractions, shopping,…
Amping up your customer service empathy will elevate your organization’s customer service from “good” to “great.” Many of you have probably heard of the book Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap…And Others Don’t by Jim Collins, who researched the pivotal characteristics between “good” and “great” organizations. In other words, Collins theorized why some organizations…
Does your business or organization inadvertently create customer misperceptions of poor or mediocre customer service? A few weeks ago, my wife and I visited a local franchise to order food to take home. When we entered the restaurant, we took our place in line behind two other customers. My wife knew the customer directly in…
Unless you want to “turnover” your customers to the competition, avoid these three common customer service penalties. It’s Super Bowl time again, and although I’m not a huge fan of professional football (I prefer college and high school football), the annual event nevertheless sparked some thought about penalties – not football penalties, but rather customer…
This true and inspiring customer service story evidences the benefits of striving for emotional satisfaction, not just rational satisfaction. During customer service training sessions with businesses, I consistently emphasize the importance of striving for not only rational customer satisfaction, but also emotional customer satisfaction. This is because, as I previously wrote, rationally satisfied customers are just as likely…
These seven phrases will help you gain customer compliance without ruffling your customers’ feathers. A few weeks ago, we focused on customer compliance. Businesses and organizations routinely need their customers to comply with various rules, processes, or policies. Even customer service powerhouses – such as Disney and Southwest Airlines – require customer compliance, particularly in…
In order to gain customer compliance without creating unnecessary conflict, avoid these confrontational phrases. Earlier this year while standing in the TSA security line at Orlando International Airport, my family and I witnessed two distinct approaches to gaining customer compliance: one effective, and the other horribly counterproductive. That summer morning, the airport security lines were…
Effective customer communication depends not only on what to say, but also which communication channels to use with customers. Last week, we addressed customer communication, and, while doing so, we identified the three primary channels of communication that businesses and organizations use to communicate with customers: the visual channel, which refers to our body language,…