Based on the premise that all stakeholders are essentially “customers,” both Twitter and Meta are doing a poor job of customer service. Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg are displaying some of the egregious behaviors of 19th-century robber barons, who ruled ruthlessly—often squashing customers and employees beneath their feet. A Britannica.com citation addresses the offenses: “robber […]
Category: Good Content
This is a follow-up to my People who need people post. As the previous post addressed the need for real, live people in the customer service mix versus all-digital, this one discusses the digital versus hard-copy issue. For those firmly committed to all-digital, all the time, good luck. You’re gonna need it. My recent technology […]
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 […]
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, […]
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 […]
As companies grow bigger and more global, customer service in many quarters is feeling more like dealing with a caring mom and pop enterprise than a mega-company. That’s clearly the attitude of such companies as Costco, which has been making me feel right at home since 1999. (Full disclosure: I’m an unabashed, biased Costcophile with […]
As important as providing and documenting great customer service is, discovering and acting upon customer dissatisfaction may be even more important. According to a recent business2community.com article: “Customer complaints provide valuable data…There are more of these than you may realize. A study by 1st Financial Training Services found that 96% of unhappy customers don’t complain, however, 91% […]
Hopefully, one of the most enduring COVID-19 crisis legacies will be a corporate culture where customer service reps offer an open hand to help versus a clenched fist. For far too long, corporate America has largely embraced the clenched-fist policy, in which customer service is provided in as small increments as absolutely necessary. In many […]
Gotta admit it. Last week was a roller coaster. Had some down times coupled with exhilarating discoveries. I mention the down episodes because I believe they’re just as important to an overall sense of wellbeing and positivity as happy meanderings. The “power of positive thinking” is positive in part because of the ability to discern […]
Any company taking, storing and processing customer information is risking their reputation and the customer’s financial wellbeing every day. One data breach can undo many years of reputation-enhancement and consumer confidence. And now, even when there isn’t an acute problem, many consumers fear one may be on the horizon. Notes Forbes’ Shep Hyken: “Are you […]
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