leadership

Thoughts on leadership, teamwork and managing change

April 8, 2012

One of my favorite movies is Coach Carter. It’s based on the true story of a high school star basketball player who comes back to coach at his old school. The team was on a losing streak with few prospects for improvement. Coach Carter steps in and makes some radical changes to help the players [...]

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23 Ideas to be a better boss

March 30, 2010

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 [...]

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Three things you can do to improve customer service

February 15, 2010

As I work with companies to help them improve their customer service, some things stand out. These are things a lot of organizations don’t do consistently. Yet if they did they’d find the quality of their customer service would improve and their customer loyalty would increase. 1. Know what your customers want. The first thing [...]

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President Obama offers useful customer service lesson

January 8, 2010

When discussing a recent national security issue, President Obama offered a useful lesson for anyone who works with customers. He focused his efforts on finding solutions rather than blame. And he took responsibility for moving toward a solution. Although the mistakes that happened were not his direct fault, he made it clear, national security was [...]

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Customer Service Quote for October 13, 2009

October 13, 2009

If you wish to be a leader you will be frustrated, for very few people wish to be led. If you aim to be a servant you will never be frustrated. -Frank F. Warren

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Customer Service Quote for September 11, 2009

September 11, 2009

The true leader serves. Serves people. Serves their best interests, and in doing so will not always be popular, may not always impress. But because true leaders are motivated by loving concern rather than a desire for personal glory, they are willing to pay the price. -Eugene B. Habecker

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Leaders: Match Your Words and Actions

July 31, 2009

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 [...]

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Customer Service Quote for June 25, 2009

June 25, 2009

“Let me pass, I have to follow them, I am their leader.” -Alexandra Ledru-Rollin

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Here’s a Textbook Example of How to Chase Away Customers

April 3, 2009

Last week I was reminded of how expertly and efficiently a company could drive away a new customer. It was a classic example of a company doing almost everything wrong – and losing a customer in the process. The company offers teleconference (and other related) services. I found them through a web search and they [...]

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AOL Tops in Customer Service, aka the “Best of a Bad Bunch”

March 30, 2009

In a recent report published by Forrester, AOL earned the top score among the USA’s largest Internet Service Providers. This seems like something to crow about until you look at the details, as Larry Dignan (of ZDNet) did. What he found took most of the air out of AOL’s sails. AOL did in fact have [...]

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Trump Teaches Apprentices about Customer Service

March 13, 2009

Today’s lesson on customer service comes from an unexpected source: Donald Trump and his show, “The Apprentice”. This week’s episode saw the project leader (popular skater, Scott Hamilton) get fired because he ignored a cardinal rule of customer service: give them what they want. The project this week was to create a cartoon character (for [...]

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For Better Customer Service, Affirm Your Company Values

February 27, 2009

Earlier,  I wrote about a hotel where the staff routinely lied to their customers.  They misled them by booking their reservations for a building that was not available. They let their customers believe they were getting a certain “product” even though they knew that product was not available. I consider that a lie. In cases [...]

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8 Reasons to Feel Good About the Economy

February 22, 2009

Despite all the bad news we hear in the media, there are good things happening in our economy. You just have to look past the popular headlines. Before I go any further, I’ll say this. I am NOT a financial or economic expert. Not even close. So, please don’t take what I’m saying as gospel. [...]

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The Secret of Barack Obama’s Success

December 29, 2008

By now we all know President-elect Barack Obama has stormed the American political scene like a hurricane, a tornado, a typhoon and a tsunami all rolled into one. In a few short years, he has gone from “Obama who?” to the President-elect of the USA and a hugely popular man both in the US and [...]

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A lesson on changing your organization

December 16, 2008

In my work, I spend a fair amount of time helping people bring change to their companies. That’s what improving customer service is all about. The companies that make a substantial and permanent improvement in how they serve their customers have discovered how to change their organizations. Seth Godin has some useful things to say [...]

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Target Stung by Customer Service Mishap

August 14, 2008

This morning I read a surprising story in my hometown newspaper, the Minneapolis StarTribune. A Target store manager threatens to call the police on a 79 year old customer, has her hauled away to a hospital for a mental evaluation and then files a trespass order barring her from returning to the store. All this [...]

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