Focused Customer Service

I had to relate a story about an employee that stole company time and was able to continue to work at the company in spite of this. This was silliness and a total disregard for real employees who act and work with integrity.

The practice of endlessly apologizing to customers is a dishonest tactic and has lost its effectiveness due to its overuse.You are much better served to agree with the customer about the poor performance of your company and offering a small token of appreciation for there loyalty as a customer.

Developing rapport and a professional friendship between your front line agent and their direct supervisor is absolutely critical for providing and maintaining great customer service. When you develop a professional friendship between you and your agent you eliminate the risk of the agent not caring about his or her job function and how they perform it.

Rapport is developed on the phone by a Professional Attitude and the ability to fix an issue quickly. In-person rapport is built by collective experience that is shared. It is much more critical in person than on the phone as customer judge support differently when on the phone. I experimented with driving Lyft and Uber and found more tips given when I sought out conversation about shared experiences.Rapport or empathy on a call is overrated as customers do not call to seek out this but look to get fixed as quickly as possible. The best way to have a good interaction with a customer is not to sound contrived by offering false and fake empathy but concentrate on the fix seriously and efficiently.

When you decide to hire, do you listen to the tone of the voice of the person you are considering? You should. If they have an accent, can your customers understand what they are saying when they speak to them? I discuss all these controversial topics. For more information on my program contact me keith@keithsmith.com 717.620.4535

In my early years in Customer Service, I learned the three lessons in Customer Service that many companies are getting too far away from they areTell the truth to your customersFix any issues that you can as quickly as possibleMake a great productI am a customer service contrarian. I believe that the scripted customer service that we have been reduced to enduring has weakened the value of many great products and services. Additionally, many companies drastically underestimate the effects on their reputation bad customer service produces. They usually assume one bad experience will tell ten of their friends and acquaintances about a bad experience. This is false. Some of the great American companies that offer great products and services have the worst reputation not by five or ten people being told buy by telling hundreds of people. We all know a thousand people and those people know a thousand people. That's a million people that are affected in some cases. That is how bad customer service reputation is explained by some of America's iconic companies. I believe that many companies would do much better and save millions of dollars by removing the ineffective practice of coaching to behaviors, calibration sessions framing issues in a positive light, coaching software, quality team structure and anything that promotes dishonest and disingenuous interaction with customers. For more information on my program contact me keith@keithsmith.com 717.620.4535

In my early years in Customer Service, I learned the three lessons in Customer Service that many companies are getting too far away from they areTell the truth to your customersFix any issues that you can as quickly as possibleMake a great productI am a customer service contrarian. I believe that the scripted customer service that we have been reduced to enduring has weakened the value of many great products and services. Additionally, many companies drastically underestimate the effects on their reputation bad customer service produces. They usually assume one bad experience will tell ten of their friends and acquaintances about a bad experience. This is false. Some of the great American companies that offer great products and services have the worst reputation not by five or ten people being told buy by telling hundreds of people. We all know a thousand people and those people know a thousand people. That's a million people that are affected in some cases. That is how bad customer service reputation is explained by some of America's iconic companies. I believe that many companies would do much better and save millions of dollars by removing the ineffective practice of coaching to behaviors, calibration sessions framing issues in a positive light, coaching software, quality team structure and anything that promotes dishonest and disingenuous interaction with customers. For more information on my program contact me keith@keithsmith.com 717.620.4535

In my early years in Customer Service, I learned the three lessons in Customer Service that many companies are getting too far away from they areTell the truth to your customersFix any issues that you can as quickly as possibleMake a great productI am a customer service contrarian. I believe that the scripted customer service that we have been reduced to enduring has weakened the value of many great products and services. Additionally, many companies drastically underestimate the effects on their reputation bad customer service produces. They usually assume one bad experience will tell ten of their friends and acquaintances about a bad experience. This is false. Some of the great American companies that offer great products and services have the worst reputation not by five or ten people being told buy by telling hundreds of people. We all know a thousand people and those people know a thousand people. That's a million people that are affected in some cases. That is how bad customer service reputation is explained by some of America's iconic companies. I believe that many companies would do much better and save millions of dollars by removing the ineffective practice of coaching to behaviors, calibration sessions framing issues in a positive light, coaching software, quality team structure and anything that promotes dishonest and disingenuous interaction with customers. For more information on my program contact me keith@keithsmith.com 717.620.4535