I’ve come to think that the old adage, “The customer is always right!” is only useful for someone just learning service. It’s a safe way for a new or entry-level employee to operate. In my role handling escalations, responding to complaints and maintaining a company’s reputation, I have come to a deeper understanding, and you […]
Read MoreMost of us have jobs that involve customers and customer service, even if that is not in your actual job title. My question to you today is when is it appropriate to do something extra-ordinary? Chances are, “Do something special for customer,” is not on any forms at your organization, unless you work at Zappos […]
Read MoreThe dual Christmas and New Years holidays serendipitously fell on two consecutive Monday and Tuesdays. This meant: 4 day weekends, slow work weeks, and lots of time to celebrate and relax with my family. For the first time since my maternity leave, I had a lot of quality time on my hands with my son. Email notifications […]
Read MoreI recently moved. You know the story: packing everything I own, finding a day I could coordinate everyone I needed to help at the same time (and a truck, and a trailer), cleaning crevices in my house that haven’t seen daylight for the better part of two years (who cleans the top of the molding […]
Read MoreThe holiday season brings family together, rewards some of us for enduring cold weather, and carries on traditions. It’s the most wonderful time of the year… especially if you are a football fan like me. Football is a tradition and a passion among many in my family, with my coworkers, and with our customers (right, […]
Read MoreAs the air develops a cool crispness and the trees begin turning yellow and red, it means it is time for more than just football and pumpkin spice lattes. It’s college-campus-visit season. As a father of both a college sophomore and high school senior, I have been on my fair share of college campus tours. […]
Read MoreWhile job searching a few years ago, I kept saying, “I don’t want to work in customer service.” I was several years into taking sales and customer service calls involving lots and lots and lots of angry customers. I was worn down from dealing with unreasonable requests, “No, I cannot overnight a 280lb item,” “No, […]
Read MoreNowadays contact with your favorite (or least favorite) brands is only a tweet away. We’ve all seen it: a customer is angry with a product or service and they take to Twitter to call out a bad experience. I’ve done it myself. This gives the brand a chance to fix the problem, to make things […]
Read MoreMy family recently hired a company, let’s call them ABC Siding, to put new vinyl siding on our house. In addition to that, the company we chose provided an excellent lesson in an extraordinary customer experience. During our initial meeting, the company was certainly “salesy”, they had a product to sell, and we had a […]
Read MoreWhen working on either routine items or a very special request, my goal is to always focus on the experience at hand, to make it the best experience possible, go the extra mile, spend the extra minute, and most importantly, CARE. You never know how—and who—you will positively affect with even the smallest effort. While […]
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