The biggest reason we don’t accomplish what we want in our businesses (and, in our personal lives) is we’re not always willing to change when we should. It’s easy for us to keep doing what we’re doing. It’s habit. It’s comfortable. It’s known. Our brains are hardwired this way for some very good reasons. But this can also be an obstacle to growth and improvement. Too often our habits stop us from making internal changes in response to external changes the world had brought to our door. They can blind us to how the rest of the world has changed, [...]
Improve Customer Service
Learn how to improve your customer service with these free articles, tool-kits and other training resources.
Every company is (or should be) concerned about how they serve their customers. But many company leaders and managers have no idea what their customers want from them. They don’t know what customer consider good or bad) customer service. And it can be hard to really, truly know what your customers want. Until now. Below are results of my many conversations with people about customer service. The first is a list of the most common things people tell me create good customer service. The second list contains those things employees do that create bad customer service. (The items listed re [...]
I have to admit, I don’t read a lot of blogs. There are less than 20 I read on a regular basis. But one blog I watch regularly is written by Guy Kawasaki. I like Guy’s blog partly because you never know what he’s going to write about. For example, earlier this year, Guy wrote about his trip to Minnesota (which he calls his new adopted state). Since I’m from Minnesota this caught my attention. What is memorable about his post though, is that he writes about a grocery store he visited while here in MN. The store was Byerly’s, [...]
Earlier this year I was talking with a business owner about his company’s business planning. He had spent a fair amount of time looking ahead and thinking about the revenue he wanted his company to produce this year. Planning like this is good when it helps us focus on the things that make our business better. But often, we focus on the wrong things, like revenue. Understand, I’m not suggesting revenue is unimportant. Of course it’s important. But I am suggesting it’s wrong to focus too much time, energy and planning on it. Revenue is only an outcome. It’s an [...]
The only way to have a healthy, sustainable business is to be a good leader for your employees. You need them to run your business, so the success or failure of your business comes from how well you take care of your staff. If you take care of your employees, they will take care of your customers and your business. Here are some ideas to help. First, you want to avoid the things “bad” bosses do, like these: Yell at your employees (It’s amazing but this still happens.) Treat your employees worse than your customers Think being a boss is [...]
Much of how we help people deliver better customer service is with examples. These are fun and useful because we all have them (since we’re all customers.) And sometimes it helps to look at examples of things we shouldn’t say to customers. That is, if we want them to keep coming back. So, here is my top 10 list of things you should never say to a customer: 1. “Now just calm down.” Is there ever a situation where this has the intended effect? I can just see it: “Oh thank you Mr. Customer Service Rep. for helping me realize [...]
Don’t insult your customers. I know this sounds pretty obvious. Why would any of us insult our customers on purpose? But it happens more than we realize. Here’s a recent example. I’m ordering a sandwich at my favorite sub shop. As I’m chatting with the sub-maker, the co-owner walks over. She notices that I’ve had the roast beef in my sandwich cooked so it’s brown, not pink (just how I like it). Her face gets a pained look and she says: “Oh, that hurts”. Then she went on to explain how she prefers her roast beef rare. I ignored her. [...]
One of the best ways to keep customers coming back more often is by living the old Boy Scout motto: Be Prepared Be prepared to take care of them better than anyone else can or will take care of them. If every customer you work with is impressed at how knowledgeable you are, they’ll tell others. If you are able to help them get what they want every time without fail and without hesitation, they’ll come back. But we know every organization has a lot of information buried inside. For you to be prepared to help anyone, you need to [...]
Last night I had a fun (and lengthy) text conversation with one of my nieces. She’s in college and 5 hours away so we don’t see her as much as we’d like. And being a busy college kid, phone conversations with her are not very common. In fact, our “kids” (12 nieces and nephews) are the primary reason my wife and I both upgraded our cell phones and plans to make it easier (and affordable) to do a lot of texting. Other than live visits, text message conversations are the most common way we can stay in touch with them. [...]
“I’m not that kind of angel” -John Travolta in “Michael” One of my favorite actors is John Travolta. He’s bright, he’s talented and he’s very good at what he does. Travolta has done a lot of fantastic movies and one of the best is called “Michael”. It’s about a quirky angel (Travolta) who finds he really enjoys certain aspects of this world, much more than a “traditional” angel might. He smokes, he drinks, he dances and fights and, he seduces the ladies. In this movie one of Travolta’s recurring lines is: “I’m not that kind of angel”. He says it [...]
