Posts by Shep Hyken

I’m a big believer in the “One Thing Question.” When you’re surveying customers, I love to ask the follow-up question, “Is there one thing you can think of that would make doing business with us better?” If you have a lot of customers suggesting the same thing—especially customers who already give you high ratings—you should…

Is there a single moment in your life that you can look back on and see that it helped define who you are today? For me, it’s the Snow Plow moment. It all goes back to when I was just 16 years old, plowing driveways during snowstorms. But I think we can all identify the…

Have you ever tried to report a problem and gotten the response, “Don’t blame me, I just work here!”? Maybe it wasn’t those exact words, but you can recognize the sentiment behind them. If you or anyone on your team ever gives that response, it’s a big mistake. There will always be problems—it’s how they’re…

You’ve likely heard the saying, “The more you give, the more you get.” Giving is an act of kindness. But is it truly an act of kindness if you know that you’ll get something back, even if you don’t know exactly what it is? I would say yes, especially if the act of giving has…

Will you go the extra mile to amaze your customers? Personalization is all about making the customer feel like their experience is unique to them. And I had a recent experience that demonstrated that…in spades! It was such an amazing experience that I had to seek out the person responsible to give them my personal…

More and more companies are blending digital and human experiences in their customer service efforts. The problem is that neither solution is ideal 100% of the time. Sometimes the digital experience goes awry, and just doesn’t have the answers to the precise questions that are being asked. Sometimes a live person isn’t as good an…

The old saying goes that the three secrets to success in real estate are location, location, and location. But I have to say, the three secrets of customer service success are similar: consistency, consistency, and consistency. When you’re delivering a consistent, predictable experience, that creates customer confidence, which leads to trust and loyalty. In this…

When you think about companies that are “disruptive,” you probably think of huge companies that have disrupted entire industries, like Uber, Walmart, and Amazon. But you don’t have to be a big company to be disruptive! You just have to disrupt your competition, and do something noticeable that pulls customer to you. In this week’s…

The Director of Offering Management at IBM, Brian Chaput, has a great quote: “Your brand is the sum of all your customer interactions.” It’s so true! Every member of your team should know how they contribute to the customer experience, whether it’s direct interaction with customers or behind the scenes work—it all impacts the customer…