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Your Customers Deserve Answers

You ask your customers to tell you how you’re doing. You send surveys, invite reviews, and encourage them to share their concerns. But once that feedback arrives, what happens next? If you record it in a report and move on, you may leave your customers wondering why you asked in…
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Small Things Done Well

Your customers have choices. Regardless of the industry, there’s almost assuredly a crowded marketplace vying for your customers’ attention, offering similar products and services, comparable prices, and equally convenient hours. How do you stand out from the rest? You actually have an opportunity to distinguish yourself in every interaction by…
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The Best Time to Address a Bad Experience? Before the Review

Your customer expresses a concern. Your employee explains the policy. Your customer doesn’t think the situation is fair, and then your employee gets defensive. By evening, the conversation has moved to Google—and suddenly, everyone has a front-row seat. In “The Power of a Negative Review,” customer service expert Shep Hyken…
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Your Employees Know the Policy, But Do They Know the Reason?

Greet every customer promptly. Ask open-ended questions. Follow up with prospective customers. These are all perfectly reasonable customer service standards. You may have some version of them in your own employee handbook or training materials, or even have them printed on poster hanging in the breakroom. But there’s an important…
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When Friendliness Falls Short

Imagine a customer calls your business with a question. Your employee answers promptly, speaks pleasantly, and seems genuinely interested in helping. They don’t know the answer right away, but that’s okay. They promise to look into it and call the customer back. The customer hangs up feeling pretty good about…
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Your Most Important Competitor Is “Yesterday”

If you’ve ever played golf, you know there are two different ways to keep score. The first is simple. Every hole has a target number of strokes called par. It’s the standard every golfer is trying to achieve. The second score is often the one that matters most to amateur…
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The Real Test of Customer Service Starts When Something Goes Wrong

No business is perfect. Products arrive damaged. Employees make mistakes. Technology fails. Policies create unintended consequences. Even companies with exceptional customer service occasionally disappoint a customer. The question isn’t whether your business will experience service failures. The question is what happens next. In a recent article, customer service expert Shep…
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Customers Shouldn’t Have to Repeat Themselves

You know the pain of calling a business with a question or problem. You explain the situation in detail, answer a few questions, and provide the information they need. Then you hear the dreaded words, “Let me transfer you to someone who can help.” A few moments later, the next…
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Customers Don’t Want Excuses

Customers are often more forgiving than businesses realize. A delayed order, a long wait time, a scheduling mistake, or a billing issue usually will not destroy the relationship by itself. What damages trust is when the customer feels like nobody wants to take ownership of a problem. They don’t want…
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