Customer Service

Customers may ask you a lot of questions, but they don’t always know the right questions to ask. And even if you give them answers to all the questions they ask, if you leave unspoken the answer to the question they should have asked, you could have an upset customer before too long. Truly customer-focused…

You may be familiar with the “4 P’s of marketing”: Product Price Place Promotion But do you know the 5th “P”? It’s Personalization! Personalization has been around as a part of business for a long time—whenever you’re relying on your memory of past customers and welcoming them by name and building rapport, you’re using personalization.…

Sometimes thinking small is the best way to make a big improvement. Think about customer service. If you’re just a little bit better than average, all the time, that adds up. Even if you’re just 1% better than average, but you’re consistently 1% better than average every single time without fail, that will help you…

Many problems that cause customer complaints boil down to a failed process. Good intentions can be ruined by human error, and create a bad experience—a Moment of Misery—for your customer. And what’s worse, most of those customers won’t tell you about their problem. They simply won’t come back—and throw in a little negative word-of-mouth for…

Is honesty really the best policy? In customer service, the answer is yes! Our relationships with our customers are important, and they want (and deserve) the truth, no matter what. We can approach subjects with tact and empathy, but must still be honest. If there’s a problem, be upfront about it. The customer will find…

Things change quickly in business today. Innovations in technology touch on almost everything we do. So naturally, many people ask me about how customer service is changing. They’re thinking about things like artificial intelligence, or social media, or online chat, or email. Whenever I hear that question, though, I can’t help but think that for…

Is there one person in your organization who, above all others, drives your customer service culture? That person is The Force Within. Their extra effort stands out, and their enthusiasm for serving customers is contagious. In this brief video, you’ll hear a story about a recent experience on an airline where The Force Within made…

When a customer tells you that their experience was “fine,” what does that mean? Oftentimes, “fine” doesn’t really mean fine! When you hear someone say things are fine, it’s time to dig deeper to understand how the customer really feels. Because in customer service, fine often means okay at best—average, unimpressive. You might not be…

What’s the best customer service line you’ve ever heard? Is it empathy for a customer’s problem? An explanation of the problem? A timeline for a solution? In conversation with the leader of social media customer service for a major cable television provider, I heard an unexpected answer—but a brilliant one. Learn why the best response…