Being personal

Customer service is a person-to-person interaction.  Computers have a hard time resolving problems and that is why when we are faced by the dreaded robotic answer tree we get more upset.  People can respond immediately, not only because they are thinking about what we are saying but because they are able to pick up cues [...]

Saying it nicely

Given a choice in customer service help, would people choose someone that is pleasant or someone that is not pleasant, all other issues being equal? The answer is a no-brainer. Most people choose to do business with people who are pleasant. Of course, if someone is pleasant but inefficient or incompetent, we’d rather put up [...]

Three steps to correcting poor customer service

Every company, even those with a strong customer service avocation, has had a situation where a customer was unhappy or displeased with a situation. Can a company company correct this situation, after the fact? Emphatically, the answer is yes. Companies can always improve a bad customer service interaction. Here are three crucial  steps to resolving [...]

What to do and what not to do

Welcome to a new year and decade! We start with a cautionary tale of what not to do in customer service.  We found this through the website Consumerist, which aims to present the customer’s side of the story, especially when there is a problem. The power of Consumerist is that many, many people visit this [...]

Going above and beyond

One of the biggest frustrations that customers face happens when a customer service person says that he or she can’t do anything about the situation. Many times, customers ask someone for help and they get this answer:  “That is not my job,” or “I don’t work in that department.”  This does not help customers, and [...]

Customer service must be defined by service

Often, people think about customer service as what you get when you have an issue to be resolved. Say you bought a product that is defective and you need a replacement or you were overcharged and so forth. But, the truth is, customer service is about attending to the customer. This means checking in with [...]

Are you available 24-7?

Some customers are demanding. They want to be able to contact you 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Is that possible? Is that feasible? It depends on your business but according to Kelley McGuire writing for the TMC website, it can increase customer satisfaction. (Here’s a link to the article.) McGuire argues that [...]

Improving customer service in a bad economy

Obviously, we think that customer service should always be a priority for business. In a bad economy, the tendency is to want to cut where you can.  However, maintaining a high level of customer service ultimately helps your bottom line. We came across two articles that we’d like to share with you. This one, from [...]

Person to Person

In large part, customer service is about the personal touch. It is about people getting attention from other people. It stands to reason that certain businesses are more about personal relationships than others. For instance, this article from the British website Moneyfacts, reports that to British bank customers, personal service is still very important. Customers [...]

Don’t cut here!

The U.K based The Retail Bulletin reports that one in three organizations will cut customer service training in order to save money. This is not good news for customers or for the organizations. The Institute for Customer Service, also based in the United Kingdom, conducted the study reported in The Retail Bulletin.  It found the [...]