I love the movie, Office Space. It's a comedy set in a soul-sucking office. There's a famous scene where an employee named Peter is scolded for not putting the new cover sheet on his TPS report. It’s hilariously awkward. It also highlights a problem with expectation setting. Bill, Peter’s boss, relied on a memo to set the new cover sheet expectation. "Did you see the memo about this?" he asked while looming over Peter’s desk. Watch the short scene here: Expectation setting is essential for customer-focused teams. Employees perform more consistently. They make fewer mistakes. And you spend less ..read more

The feedback session was going poorly. A quality assurance analyst was reviewing a contact center agent's calls. The agent was upset about her quality score. The agent bristled at receiving zero points for friendliness. The analyst pointed out that the agent sounded disinterested. Irritated at times. There was no warmth in her approach. "Well, that's friendly for me," was the retort. The analyst was stymied. The agent clearly wasn't friendly. But a specific, observable, and measurable description of “friendly” was elusive. You might face that problem, too. Hiring, training, and giving feedback ..read more

I bet I can diagnose your learning style with three questions. Where do you sit when you attend an in-person meeting? What do your eyes do when you're explaining something? How do you take notes in a training class? It was a fun trick I discovered as a new trainer. I usually got it right to the mild amusement of my learners. Years later, I was chastened to learn my hocus-pocus wasn't real. Learning styles don't exist. Even worse, using learning styles can have a negative impact on your customer service training. I don’t want you to make the same mistakes I made. In this article, I'll a ..read more

I love In-N-Out for its remarkable consistency. The service is the same every time I go. There's a warm and friendly greeting. The cashier takes my order and confirms it. They conclude the transaction by handing me my receipt, telling me my guest number, and thanking me. It always happens. Each step has a purpose. The greeting establishes rapport and makes me feel welcome. Carefully walking through my order ensures they get it just right. The conclusion ends the transaction on a positive note. The steps also promote quality. I've only experienced two errors over a lifetime of going to In-N-Out ..read more

Your customer struggles to describe the problem over the phone. "The doohickey won't connect with the thingamajig," they stammer. Their words don't make sense. You try to walk them through some diagnostics. It's equally muddled. The customer can’t see something that should be right in front of them. Are you two even looking at the same thing? This would be so much easier if you were face-to-face. You could see exactly what the customer was talking about and vice-versa. In this post, I'm going to share three techniques you can use to solve this problem when serving customers via phone, email, o ..read more

You're a customer service trainer. You care deeply about helping employees develop customer service skills. It bothers you when employees' managers aren’t nearly as invested. These managers take a "fix my people" approach. The manager delegates customer service training to you and expects you to do all the work. They fail to reinforce the training and employees quickly go back to their old habits. It's a broken model. This problem plagued me for years until I found a solution. It's a simple worksheet that you use to complete an action plan with the employees' manager before training. Let's tak ..read more

A customer calls your company for service. After the call, they get an email asking them to complete a survey. The survey is intended to evaluate overall customer service and the individual rep's performance. A host of problems hurt that mission. Response rates are too low Survey scores are notoriously inflated Reps get blamed for factors outside of their control A new metric called the sentiment arc can solve those problems and eliminate annoying surveys. It works by tapping into your existing data to answer a fundamental question: Is the customer happier at the end of the contact th ..read more

Imagine two customers call a contact center at the same time. They're both experiencing the same issue—a promised discount wasn't applied to their last order. The two reps taking their respective calls follow the same routine: Listen to the customer Apologize for the issue Solve the problem The only difference is how each rep communicates. Alton uses general language. "I'm sorry for the error. Your account will be credited within 3-5 business days." Laura uses more concrete language. "I'm sorry the promotional discount wasn't applied to your order. You'll receive a $25.37 credit back t ..read more

A customer walked into Nordstrom with two tires and asked for a refund. Nordstrom doesn't sell tires, so the customer clearly didn't buy the tires from that store. Yet the associate gave the customer a refund anyway. The story became a legend. You need legendary stories of your own if you want to deliver legendary customer service. This guide will show you three things: What makes a great customer service story. Where to gather your own legendary tales. How to use stories to inspire your team. We'll also break down the Nordstrom tire story to see why it works so well at Nordstrom, but ..read more

You want your team to grow their customer service skills. The challenge is finding the right skills to focus on. There seems to be a million different ideas out there. Which ones are the most essential? My advice is to focus on three fundamentals: Rapport Listening Problem-solving These skills are the foundation of consistently great service. Each of them has endless permutations and combinations, so they can be adapted to any situation. I'm going to show you what each skill entails, why they're essential, and how you can train yourself or your team to master each one. Rapport Skills B ..read more