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Cultivating Positive Relationships Customer Service General Marketing Kudon'ts Opinion

 Pay Attention!

Aliens ‘neurolyze’ attention spans? The “Men in Black” movies featured neuralyzers capable of erasing memories. I’m wondering if aliens got hold of the technology and have a launched a worldwide invasion to compromise memories and attention spans in everything from writing and editing to technology and communication. Along the way, inattention, uncaring, and sloppiness are […]

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Cultivating Positive Relationships Customer Service General Marketing Kudon'ts Opinion

 Artificial Intelligence creates unreal expectations

Proper role is support vs. supplant The more we rely on artificial intelligence (AI)-driven systems to make our lives more efficient and competent, the less efficient and competent our lives are becoming. This adversely impacts customer service and support in many sectors. In many cases, AI itself can be flawed—creating all sorts of havoc. In […]

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Cultivating Positive Relationships Customer Service General Marketing Kudon'ts Opinion

 Technology sloppiness, poor due diligence ruin customer service

We’re being assaulted by technology over-communication, poor due diligence, and sloppiness—much of it coming from inconsistent monitoring and attention to detail. This afflicts many tech sectors, including “CRM” apps, “customer service” chatbots, and IT/customer support staffs unable or unwilling to pay attention. A former telecom tech specialist lamented to me that many apps get rolled […]

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Cultivating Positive Relationships Customer Service Empowerment Techniques Good Content Kudos Opinion

 ‘People who need people’ once were ‘the luckiest people in the world’

In the 1964 Broadway musical Funny Girl, star Barbra Streisand introduced the song “People.” In part, the lyrics went, “People who need people are the luckiest people in the world.” From live phone customer service support to grocery checkout, increasingly the default is to push everything to technology: email, chatbots, text, grocery scanners. When it […]

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Cultivating Positive Relationships Customer Service Empowerment Techniques Good Content Kudos Opinion

 Bob Burger Recreation Center scores customer service victory

Lafayette, Colorado’s Bob L. Burger Recreation Center is the best community fitness facility I’ve visited in 45 years. And I’ve had some type of fitness membership—from private clubs to community rec centers and everything in between—during that entire time. The delightful customer service experience was even more impactful given the current trend toward stupid, inattentive, […]

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Cultivating Positive Relationships Customer Service Empowerment Techniques Good Content Kudos Opinion

Customer service, employee empowerment, and pro-planet movements coalesce around B Corp 

As Mark Lusky Communications celebrates 40 years in business and the fourth anniversary of the happycurmudgeon.com Customer Service blog, we pause to honor the evolution of the international B Corp movement, and one of B Lab’s Global Stewards, thought leader Jared Meyers. He founded Legacy Vacation Resorts (B Corp); is a Co-Founder of Florida for […]

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Cathenry Cultivating Positive Relationships Customer Service Guest post Hospitality

Are you your business’s own worst enemy or its best advocate?

Guest post by Cathenry. The ninth and final lesson in the Forbes article Nine Impactful Customer Service Lessons That Can Change Your Business Approach is “Customer Service is Actually about You.” I often see myself as the director of first impressions for my business. I try to avoid coming across with a fake personality or […]

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Cathenry Cultivating Positive Relationships Customer Service Guest post Hospitality

Are You Listening?

Guest post by Cathenry. The eighth lesson in the Forbes article Nine Impactful Customer Service Lessons That Can Change Your Business Approach is “If you always think you’re right, you’ll never learn anything new” and it reminds us how important it is to listen. Recently, I needed some unresolved printer help.  I bit the bullet […]

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Cathenry Cultivating Positive Relationships Customer Service Guest post Hospitality

Encountering a Variety of Expectations

Guest post by Cathenry. The seventh lesson, “You’ll Encounter a Variety of Expectations” in the Forbes article Nine Impactful Customer Service Lessons That Can Change Your Business Approach reminds us how different expectations can be from one client to the next. As a result of the current pandemic, clientele expectations are changing. Business practices pre-pandemic […]

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Cathenry Cultivating Positive Relationships Customer Service Guest post Hospitality

Pushing Back Respectfully

Guest post by Cathenry. “Customers Will Respect You if You Push Back with Good Reason” is another lesson cited in the Forbes article (Nine Impactful Customer Service Lessons That Can Change Your Business Approach) worthy of consideration. It is difficult to be all things to all people while keeping the quality and best interest of […]