Not all customers are nice. Strong, assertive people will chew people up and spit them out if your employees are slow, weak, or incompetent. Very few employees know how to handle an irate or difficult customer. Many employees just hang up the phone. In person, they might call the police. With Virgin Airlines, I called ... Read more The post Handling Irate Customers and Difficult Situations appeared first on Service Quality Institute ..read more

I have been skiing in Vail Colorado, one of the best skiing areas in the world, for over 50 years. George Gillett originally built Vail Resorts. When I first met George in 1978  I asked him what he does and he said, “I am in customer service.” George also has an endorsement in my book, Achieving ... Read more The post The Cost of Losing Your Brand Around the Customer Experience appeared first on Service Quality Institute ..read more

I started focusing on customer service in 1979. I released Feelings the world’s first customer service program in January 1980. I think today’s customer service is worse than 46 years ago. COVID gave everyone an excuse to abandon good customer service. AI is giving firms another excuse to push the customer out the door. The ... Read more The post Is Superior Customer Service Important in 2025? appeared first on Service Quality Institute ..read more

Very few organizations understand the Power of the Service Strategy. In 1979 I decided to develop the world’s first customer service program because I saw firms working night and day to drive customers away. It’s worse in 2024 than in 1979. There is more hype and more BS today. By Service Strategy I mean how ... Read more The post Superior Customer Service Pays Off appeared first on Service Quality Institute ..read more

Across the world, few organizations are willing to invest in developing a high-performing customer-driven workforce. Too many employees just show up with poor attitudes and work habits. Educational institutions never teach customer service. In last month’s article, I talked about why companies are rapidly firing Gen Z employees. Manufacturing firms spend millions of dollars on ... Read more The post Developing High Performing Customer Driven Employees appeared first on Service Quality Institute ..read more

In a recent study from Intelligent.com, “After experiencing a raft of problems with young new hires, one in six bosses say they’re hesitant to hire college grads again. Meanwhile, one in seven bosses have admitted that they may avoid hiring them altogether next year. Three-quarters of the companies surveyed said some or all of their ... Read more The post Young Men in Retreat in America: Gen Z Grads Fired Months After Hiring appeared first on Service Quality Institute ..read more

I have speaking and writing about customer service since January 1980. There are only a handful of companies that have been Relentless and kept their focus on incredible customer service. COVID gave most firms an excuse to say “To Hell with the Customer” Costco is one of only a handful of companies that has never ... Read more The post Costco: A Proven Customer Service Role Model for Over 40 Years appeared first on Service Quality Institute ..read more

I find that most CEOs and top management believe their organization delivers awesome customer service. If you ask all 330 million people in the US to identify 5 customer service leaders most would not be able to come with 5. I started developing in 1979, Feelings the world’s first customer service program. It was released ... Read more The post Why do Companies All Believe They Deliver Awesome Customer Service and 99% of Customers Disagree appeared first on Service Quality Institute ..read more

Amazon has spoiled all of us. Today people want everything now. Organizations that want to survive have to dramatically increase speed.  If it takes you 48 hours to process an order speed is 2 hours. If it takes you 6 days to ship, speed is shipping the same day. We have several obstacles. Internal barriers are the mindset of employees which tends to be slow. Employees know if they have 4 days to process a loan they wait until the 4th day day and then they say I didn’t know I would snow or rain. Almost all employees take their time and procrastination reigns. The other obstacle is the la ..read more

Are your employees empowered to make decisions on the spot in favor of the customer? Your single goal should be to have over happy customers. Too many things go wrong each day. You want your employees to understand they are in customer service and their number one responsibility is to take care of customers. If they fall in love with you your competition is dead. It often takes 2 miracles at one time to get an employee to spend $10 on a customer. The Ritz-Carlton allows any employee to spend up to $2,000 to take care of a customer. What is your ceiling? Most employees do not complain. They jus ..read more