A Happy Curmudgeon series. Alongside the lying, cheating and stealing, I’ll call out the companies doing it right, and the habits that too many others get wrong. Some companies get so big that individual customers stop mattering to them. In corporate America these days, that seems to describe more companies every year. If you’re a […]
Category: Tips
A veteran marketer contrasts Costco’s trust-first business model with the junk fees, shrinking boxes, and cancellation mazes that define too many brands. Costco proves you can pay workers well, cap markups, and still profit—while others only find their values after a viral video exposes them.
LYING, CHEATING & STEALING IN ACTION A Happy Curmudgeon series. First, a word about how these posts get made. I use Claude, an AI assistant from Anthropic, as a research and drafting partner. On a post like this one, Claude does a good share of the legwork: it digs up the facts and sources and […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
OK folks, it’s a clean slate. New Year. New ideas. New opportunities. Or perhaps it’s actually a return to old values, insights and practices that will do the most good. In customer service, bedrock practices based on historical wisdom always seem to work best. So, with the New Year, let’s look at some of those—and […]
Kind words. Acknowledgement. A big “thank you for all you do.” These are a few of the many random acts of kindness that both customers and customer service can perform to honor each other this holiday season. Then, pay it forward into the New Year. While this is the time of year when we pause […]
Everything that goes into good customer service is being tested by the Great Resignation. Adequate staffing, training, and employee engagement and longevity are among the most stressed areas. It’s hard—if not impossible—to provide top-notch customer service when there aren’t enough well-trained, seasoned, and motivated company employees in place to do the job. Adequate staffing is […]
