Here is your Daily Dose of Amazing Service:

Face the person you’re speaking with

And here are some additional thoughts on this topic…

How often have you been in a retail store, restaurant, hotel or other business (as a customer) and the employee helping you doesn’t even look at you? Sadly this has become all too common. While I won’t speculate about why it happens, I will suggest that it stinks.

Customers consistently tell us they want to be listened to. They want to be acknowledged. All other things being equal, if your employees fail at this you will lose customers. If you refuse to look at someone, if you choose not to face them while talking with them, you risk sending this message: They don’t matter.

“Giving frees us from the familiar territory of our own needs by opening our mind to the unexplained worlds occupied by the needs of others.”

-Barbara Bush

Play two or more games of solitaire. Make a meal. Watch a complete TV show. Go to the bathr…never mind. These are a few things people claim to do while waiting on hold for customer service, according to a recent survey reported by Reuters.

The survey suggests customer service is not getting better in the USA. Almost half (43%) of us feel it’s gotten worse during this recession, contradicting what many of us feel should be happening.

Wait times (for human customer service – not robots) seem to be getting longer. Add this to our growing predilection for multi-tasking and you have a buffet of activities people might engage in as they wait to be served. Some clean the house. Others read. Some probably exercise and others text or chat while they wait.

Twitter keeps getting more popular, more useful and more valuable to companies. It is becoming a rock star in the world of customer engagement tools.

But many people are skeptical, or at least unsure. Is it mostly hype? Will it fade away? Or is it a serious tool I should be using in my business?

Here are six reasons you should consider

Here is your Daily Dose of Amazing Service:

Reward yourself when you deliver Amazing Service.

And here are some additional thoughts on this topic…

One of the most effective ways to encourage a person to do something is to reward them when they do it. As humans, we love recognition. It helps affirm what we are doing is right. It gives us one more reason to continue.

“Kindness is in our power, even when fondness is not.”

-Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson: A Biography

Here is your Daily Dose of Amazing Service:

Make it personal but don’t take it personally.

And here are some additional thoughts on this topic…

One of my favorite lines in one of my favorite movies (You’ve Got Mail) is when Meg Ryan’s character says:

Whatever else anything is, it ought to begin by being personal.

Customer Service Book Review: Super Service: Seven Keys to Delivering Great Customer Service… by Jeff Gee and Val Gee

If you’re looking for a book with basic, useful, down to earth customer service advice, you should look at this one. It’s a veteran and it’s written by customer service veterans who know their business. This book is a fast reading one but it has a lot of punch for the price.

They start by talking about Service. Not customer service but the true meaning of service, that is, helping others. They help us understand right away, we’re all here to help others.

“We can believe that we know where the world should go. But unless we’re in touch with our customers, our model of the world can diverge from reality. There’s no substitute for innovation, of course, but innovation is no substitute for being in touch, either.”

-Steve Ballmer, Microsoft

Here is your Daily Dose of Amazing Service:

Be or know the go to person.

And here are some additional thoughts on this topic…

There’s one in every organization. Someone who knows how to get things done no matter what the situation. Often it’s someone who’s been around a long time. They know all the “ins and outs” of the company. Other times it’s someone who knows everyone. They seem to have the ability to find just the right person to get something done every time.

One of the most powerful uses of Twitter is it’s ability to help businesses organizations and their customers connect. Other social media do this well. But none has shown the quick and strong impact in customer service as Twitter has. So I am busy talking to people whose organizations use Twitter for customer service. And, I am compiling a list of the many companies who use Twitter to connect with their customers.

“Delighted customers are the only advertisement everyone believes.”

-Ron Kaufman
Author of: UP Your Service!