Customer Service

It might sound like a cliché, but it’s true: you’re only as strong as your weakest link, and that saying holds true for your business and your brand. Even if 99 employees are great, but 1 is not, what happens when a customer encounters the one? It hurts your brand reputation, at least for that…

Have you ever noticed the subtle differences between how employees ask you questions at different businesses? Servers at one restaurant versus another, for example? The differences can be subtle, but those differences matter! The words you say can be the difference between a satisfactory and an amazing customer experience. Think about the words and phrases…

We’ve all heard the saying, “Never judge a book by its cover.” That rule is very important in customer services. Sometimes people make the mistake of prejudging a potential customer based on outward appearances—what they’re wearing, what car they’re driving—and can miss out on good business! Treat customers like customers, unless proven otherwise, not based…

There are surely questions that you hear a lot in your business. If you run a restaurant, it might be, “What’s the soup of the day?” or, “Is the fish fresh?” But no matter what you do, there are always questions that come up a lot—and it’s important to get them right. And it’s not…

Have you ever seen someone who was clearly just going through the motions? Someone who mindlessly asks you a question that you’ve already answered just because it’s the next question in their script? Or asks a question that is clearly irrelevant to your situation? Many people start to go through the motions, especially as the…

There are lots of ways that we can show appreciation and offer congratulations to people—clients, employees, partners, or anyone else we encounter. But there’s something special about the personal handwritten note. Some of my colleagues and I have had experiences where we received handwritten notes in various situations, and I can tell you they really…

A customer-focused mindset means more than just customer service training in all the how-to’s of providing great customer service. And it means more than just having a positive, warm attitude. It includes all those things, plus a deep, ingrained understanding of why we want to deliver a great customer experience, every time. Some of the…

National Customer Service Week is coming up soon, the first week in October. It’s a great time to think about what it is that makes for good customer service! In truth, it’s impossible for us to determine among ourselves whether we have good customer service. It’s really all up to our customers and their perception…

What kinds of complaints do you hear from your customers? Are you frequently hearing the same complaint, over and over again? If so, stop it! Now that might be over-simplifying things, but the point remains: if you keep hearing the same thing repeatedly, daily, maybe even many times each day, then you need to get…

You need your customers to trust you. But that has to go both ways. You also have to trust your customers. Are there rules or processes that you’ve put in place, perhaps with good meaning, but unintentionally tell your customers that you don’t trust them? Even worse, are your customers insulted or offended by some…