helping

There I was, standing in the Burnsville Post Office, staring at a pile of work. I had 21 books to mail that each required 5 stamps. (Yes, that’s 105 stamps total.) It was 5:36 pm and the deadline for pickup that day was 5:45. The clock was ticking so loud I could barely think straight. I felt dizzy and unsure of myself. There was no way I was going to get these stamped and in the mail slot in time. Arrggh! Then, through the door walked the answer to my dilemma, though I didn’t yet realize it. She walked past [...]

Focus on Solutions for Your Customer, Not Dead Ends

by Kevin Stirtz on July 8, 2009

Here is your Daily Dose of Amazing Service: Focus on solutions for your customer, not dead ends And here are some additional thoughts on this topic… When you fail to help a customer, you’re giving them a dead end. When all you do is quote policy or simply tell them “we’re all out” of whatever they want, you’re giving them a dead end. Dead ends give customers only one option: Go somewhere else to get what they want. Dead ends push customers away. On the other hand, if you focus on solutions, you’ll build customer loyalty. Your customers will see [...]

Serve your customers

by Kevin Stirtz on June 25, 2009

Here is your Daily Dose of Amazing Service: Serve your customers And here are some additional thoughts on this topic… We’ve all dealt with people and companies that try to sell us what they want us to buy. They try to fit our need to their solution. They send us away with no help if what we want is something they cannot quickly and easily do. Their entire focus is on what they want to accomplish. They are not delivering customer service. They are only serving themselves and their company.

Be Interested in Helping Your Customers

by Kevin Stirtz on June 2, 2009

Here is your Daily Dose of Amazing Service: Be interested in helping your customers And here are some additional thoughts on this topic… It’s easy for us to get distracted. We all have many things to accomplish in addition to helping customers. And we know if we don’t do them, no one else will! But we need to stay focused. When we are helping our customers, that’s where 100% of our attention and energy should be. Our intent should be

This Company Cares About Their Customers

by Kevin Stirtz on December 23, 2008 · 1 comment

Yesterday a massive fire engulfed a large apartment complex in my city. While fire fighters from 6 communities fought the blaze, residents shivered in sub-zero temperatures. It was three days before Christmas and everything they owned was going up in smoke. It was a miracle nobody was injured. But the tragedy is still monumental for the people who lost their homes. And, for a business, it’s hard to imagine a more difficult situation to be in.

Quote of the day: 12-7-08

by Kevin Stirtz on December 7, 2008

“Successful people are always looking for opportunities to help others. Unsuccessful people are always asking, ‘What’s in it for me?’” -Brian Tracy Author of:  Reinvention: How to Make the Rest of Your Life the Best of Your Life

I saw this on the KSAX TV website. An unemployed contractor donated a custom trailer he owned to a nonprofit agency that provides service dogs for people who are deaf or disabled. A week ago (on Thanksgiving) someone had stolen the trailer owned by the nonprofit. Without it

Help your customers get the outcomes they want.

by Kevin Stirtz on July 3, 2008

Kevin’s Amazing Customer Service rule# 22: Help your customers get the outcomes they want. Our customers come to us for something. They want to prevent something bad from happening. Or they want to make something good happen. Either way they’ve come to us for help. So we need to help them get what they want. But too often we become focused on what we want. We create policies and procedures that help us but do nothing for our customers. It’s easy to get so focused on managing our businesses that we forget what our purpose is. We want to be [...]

Too often I hear people give bad advice to others about how to talk with new potential clients. Rather than focus on what the customer is trying to accomplish now, they try to get their foot in the door for a long-term relationship with the company. It’s like talking about marriage, kids and and the white picket fence before the other person has even committed to a first date. I know why they do this.

Ask Open-Ended Questions

by Kevin Stirtz on May 28, 2008

Amazing Service Rule# 13: “Ask open-ended questions.” One of the most important ways we serve our customers is to help them get what they want, even if they don’t know exactly what that is. They rely on us for knowledge about our product or service. They come to us for expertise they cannot get anywhere else. A great way to learn what your customers are trying to accomplish is by asking questions that get them talking. These open-ended questions require more than a “yes” or “no” answer so they help you and your customer have a useful conversation. Conversations like [...]