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 […]
Category: Opinion
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 […]
I’m so accustomed to citing Costco’s legendary customer service that it’s hard to fathom that other retailers are making their own contributions. Two grocery store experiences over the last couple weeks deserve high praise for service above and beyond. While vacationing in Florida, I went to Publix (largest employee-owned US company according to Forbes) in […]
Near-term, commerce will see marketing and customer service conjoin—defined as “to join together (things, such as separate entities) for a common purpose.” Ultimately, I believe the two will conflate—viewed as combining two or more ideas into one. It’s kind of like the difference between a strategic partnership, where two companies work together toward a common […]
Companies continue to think they can BS and bluster their way through our human instincts and convince us of their customer service excellence—no matter what’s really happening. A recent article by ZDnet contributor Chris Matyszczyk illustrates the point poignantly when addressing one of the most important stakeholders deserving solid customer service—employees themselves. This interesting story […]
Micah Solomon’s headline above and column on Forbes.com really hits the nail on the head about customer service being everything to a company’s wellbeing. In the article, he notes, “Customer service is the essential growth engine for any company finding its footing in the entrepreneurial world. You don’t have the luxury today of building a […]
Customer service, especially a perceived lack of it, can impact a company’s reputation—and profitability—in no time flat. In part, this is why customer service really is a company’s “everything” at this point in time. Marketing campaigns unsupported by stable or stellar customer service are proving a waste of time and money—as consumers see through marketing […]
Customer service complaint regulation may be coming to a business near you. According to an article in Forbes.com, “Stricter regulations will force businesses to focus on complaints management…With the new Australian regulation RG 271 having gone into effect on October 5, 2021, we predict that similar regulations will continue to expand around the globe — […]
A December 2021 Godaddy.com article that addresses “10 ways to create better predictability in customer service” notes, “Creating predictability in customer service is one of the most challenging things to do for small business owners. It’s one thing to do customer service yourself when you’re just starting your business. But as you scale and hire […]
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