For just a moment we’ll take a break from customer service to talk about one of my other favorite topics: The Twin Cities.

I travel a lot (sometimes more than I like). On one plane trip coming home I sat next to a Gen Y guy who said something that stuck with me:

“The Twin Cities is a good place to come home to.”

And I agree. I agree 100%. I won’t go into all the reasons I think the Twin Cities rocks. But I will offer links to some other peeps who agree with me:

One of best ways to teach customer service (or any behavior) is with role modeling. When you, as a leader, show the values and behaviors that lead to good service, your employees will see it. And they’ll follow your lead.

And the opposite is true.This funny example of a customer and her son tells the story well.

We see our customers as invited guests to a party, and we are the hosts. It’s our job every day to make every important aspect of the customer experience a little bit better.

-Jeff Bezos
Jeff Bezos: The Founder of Amazon.com

We all have bad days. You know them. The days we’d rather just stay home. Or be anywhere but at work. It’s normal for us to be off once in awhile. Even professional athletes have slumps. So don’t deny this. Just accept that it’s going to happen.

But that doesn’t mean you have to let it affect how you do your job. In fact, it does not give you the right to deliver lower quality service. Just the opposite. Being a professional means no matter how you feel (or how bad your slump is) you keep doing your best.

No matter what your situation is, you can always choose to be Amazing.

This video shows us what happens when someone let’s their bad attitude run amok. It demonstrates (in a funny way) how customers see us when we let our slumps affect our work.

The best way to keep your customers coming back is by giving them what they want. And the best way to know what they want is to ask them. Direct customer feedback is one of the most valuable resources your company has available.  Recently I spoke with Dan Culhane about this topic on his RadioSpectives program.

Here is a link to the audio. You can listen online.

More and more companies are using social media tools, like Twitter, to engage and serve their customers better. And Twitter is encouraging this with their recently published guide: Twitter 101 which has helpful ideas on how businesses can use Twitter better.

Over at TweetMyCustomer.com, I’m updating my recent list of companies that use Twitter. Of course, it will never be complete because Twitter is growing too fast. But it’s useful to see a cross-section of what organizations are using Twitter to engage their customers.

And you can help.

Every contact we have with a customer influences whether or not they’ll come back. We have to be great every time or we’ll lose them.

-Kevin Stirtz
Author of: More Loyal Customers: 21 Real World Lessons to Keep Your Customers Coming Back

Here is your Daily Dose of Amazing Service:

Don’t multitask while helping your customer.

And here are some additional thoughts on this topic…

Some people are good at multitasking. Some can listen while they are doing other things. But just because you CAN do something doesn’t mean you SHOULD. We all can listen better when we focus on the person we are speaking with. The only way we can operate at our best is by focusing on the customer we are with. If we try to do several things at once we risk doing none of them well. That’s okay if we’re ordering lunch or emptying the trash.

But it’s not okay if we’re helping a customer.

“We see our customers as invited guests to a party, and we are the hosts. It’s our job every day to make every important aspect of the customer experience a little bit better.”

-Jeff Bezos
Jeff Bezos: The Founder of Amazon.com

Here is your Daily Dose of Amazing Service:

Create a daily reminder of amazing customer service.

And here are some additional thoughts on this topic…

Delivering amazing customer service is not complicated. It’s something we all know how to do. The real challenge is doing it every time with every customer. Things get in the way. We get busy. We feel distracted due to stress or deadlines. Often we’re just not feeling “up to it”.

Researchers have discovered that a simple daily reminder is often enough to motivate us to do better. One experiment found when people recite the Ten Commandments they were more likely to follow them. So a daily reminder of what amazing customer service is might help us develop the habit of delivering it.

“Watch your thoughts, for they become words, Choose your words, for they become actions. Understand your actions, for they become habits. Study your habits, for they will become your character. Develop your character, for it becomes your destiny.”

-Oliver Wendell Holmes
Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.