a couple of weeks ago, I had to call my local telco, always a dreaded experience. After I had finally gotten through the levels of the voice response menu and got a person, it was: CS Agent: Thank you...
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The weather is good and the days are still long. Believe it or not, it's time to start your holiday business plans. In particular, I'm thinking about customer gifts, cards, and other forms of...
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All I want after I make a retail purchase is a sincere 'Thank You' in fact I would even settle for an insincere 'Thank You.' Unfortunately I cannot remember the last time I heard a...
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A recent conversation I had with my wife: Jim: I just had a great experience with my webhost. Amy: What happened? Jim: I noticed I was getting server errors on one of my sites. I opened their Live...
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Another small business front closed their doors recently. It was a photography studio and I imagine the owner blames chain competition, the economy and the War on Terror for the decline in their...
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Thoughts on phone calls from Zane Safrit's Blog Phone etiquette should by now be hard-coded into our DNA. After nearly a century of speaking on the phones, we as a sub-species here in the US...
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I was thinking today about successful businesses and what makes them successful. I don't think there's a general rule of thumb or universal standard for all markets - that was my first...
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Keeping customer-focused can be difficult without some simple reminders to help us do so. Use the questions below to evaluate your company's service attitude. 1. Do we survey our customers to find...
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In tough economic times, how we serve our clients is more important than ever. One of the critical elements to serving our clients well is listening to them, not just before they buy but continuously...
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While I'm on a customer service kick, let me add one more thought. If there is one thing you can do in support of building a quality customer service organization it would be this - answer every...
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I've written that all you really need to do to give great customer service is care. And I recently wrote of the need to have an escalation procedure and how having such can boost customer-vendor...
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It sounds obvious, but do you have an escalation procedure for how to handle a customer service issue? If not, it's a great idea to spend some staff time developing one. Every business ought to...
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In challenging economic times some businesses cut costs by cutting corners on their customer service. That is exactly the wrong thing to do. In tough economic times, how we serve our clients is more...
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I'm somewhat amazed at how many businesses, large and small, don't offer multiple ways for a customer or prospect to reach them. And how few businesses offer and set expectations on their...
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If you closed business today and never opened again, how long would it take your customers to find-out? What would be the impact on your customer's business if you disappeared and never returned?...
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I see this all the time, a business racks up customer and after customer, year after year. They collect names, addresses, email addresses, telephone numbers, etc. And never once write, call, solicit,...
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It's the little things you do that matter the most, especially when added together. More accurate, it's the little things you don't do that count most - cluttered office, unkempt lobby,...
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Let's be honest. Complaints are a reality of business. Every company, no matter how great, responsive, or caring, receives some number of complaints - email, phone calls, letters, blog posts,...
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Filed in archive Customer Service
by on October 10, 2005
A pretty smart guy reminded me recently of the reason we're in business. He said it's to "create customers." I thought about that and decided I had to agree. Our businesses exist...
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If you want to deliver excellent customer service, there is one simple thing you can do that will aid you in good times and bad - set realistic expectations. That's it. Setting realistic...
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I met with a prospective client recently that had something are their disposal that almost had me salivating - a registry full of handwritten names, addresses, and telephone numbers of their...
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