July 2008

Eight Customer Service Secrets to "Jumpstarting" Your Customer Service During Challenging Times!

Outstanding customer service is the key to creating a successful organization during any economic time... but especially during challenging economic times.

It's amazing how most organizations will invest millions, if not billions, of dollars on new computer systems, new displays, new phone systems, and new marketing campaigns to try to acquire new customers. The moment of truth comes, however, when the new customer has first contact with these organizations. If the customer is ignored, disrespected, and disappointed with the customer service experience, that customer may never come back. When this occurs, these organizations apparently haven't heard the old saying, "You only get one chance to make a great first impression."

What about the present customer base? Many times these customers are treated with indifference and, in many cases, quietly go away to do business with a competitor.

Why not jumpstart your organization's success with outstanding customer service? It doesn't matter if you are involved in retail, restaurant management, consumer products, or even the government, customer service is being recognized as the key to increasing productivity, decreasing employee turnover, and increasing an organization's bottom line. Especially during challenging economic times, the quality of your customer service determines if you remain in business to serve customers or cease to exist.

The following are eight secrets to giving outstanding customer service so that your organization will be successful:

1. Hire Right for Outstanding Customer Service
   Organizations that give outstanding customer service invest in hiring right each and every time. They realize that they want the best employees interacting with their customers. Who is the best customer service employee to hire? Hire for attitude, not for aptitude. Hire the employee that has a great customer service attitude and has a great personality, takes initiative, has great communication skills, can show empathy, and has an eye for detail. If a prospective customer service employee has a great attitude, you can always train that employee to learn the skills. Also, the employee should be a solution creator, not a problem maker.

2. Make Outstanding Customer Service Your Mission
   What is your organization's mission statement? What does the mission statement say about how you should treat your customer? Are you communicating this to all your employees, no matter what position they have in the organization? Take the time during meetings, e-mails, phone calls, and other communication opportunities to express the mission statement and how it relates to giving outstanding customer service. Ask during your meeting, "What did we do this week to live our mission statement and its customer service values?"

Go to the following link to read the rest: Jumpstarting Customer Service

Randy Pausch of The Last Lecture Passes Away

Randy Pausch, a Carnegie Mellon University computer scientist whose "last lecture" about facing terminal cancer became an Internet sensation (see previous post) and a best-selling book, died on July 25. He was 47.

What a great gift of hope and inspiration he left with us before and after his passing.

What Would You Do If You Had Two Months to Live?

What Would You Do If You Had Two Months to Live? Would you forget about the little things in life that hold you back? Would you change the way you think and decide to change your life? Take the time to invest in your success by watching the following eleven minute motivational video:

or watch full 76 minute lecture at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji5_MqicxS

Customer Service Expert Ed Sykes Shares How You Can Give Great Customer Service on National Public Radio Program

I recently had the pleasure of being on the popular National Public Radio program, HearSay with host Cathy Lewis. The theme of the program was customer service.

Customer service expert Bob Livingston and I discussed how to provide great customer service so that the customer experience brings the customer back again and again.

To listen to the customer service tips we shared on the program, please click on the following link:

Customer Service Tips

Happy 4th of July!

Wishing everyone a happy and safe 4th of July!

This is a time to reflect on our blessings and ask ourselves the following questions:

What does independence really mean?

Does it mean freedom of thought? Does it mean freedom of action? Does it mean the freedom to express yourself?

Take time to appreciate the independence we experience and fight to maintain this independence! It takes true leadership to hold yourself and others accountable for this high standard.

Enjoy the 4th of July!