In the last two months, I’ve experienced shipping mistakes and delays with FedEx, USPS, and UPS. Initially, FedEx never delivered a client check because they never picked up the check from the drop-off box. When the second delivery supposedly was sent with overnight priority, it showed up several days later. A one-day USPS check delivery […]
Tag: #customerservice
Great products are part of a great customer experience. Costco has figured this out. In addition to favorable pricing and excellent treatment, Costco has earned a reputation for carrying reputable products. While it’s not a perfect system, more often than not customers can buy products with confidence—figuring that only the crème de la crème will […]
Emotional intelligence can take many forms, from admitting a mistake to giving consumers an enlightening experience. Siggi’s Yogurt did the former. T-Mobile gets a shout-out for the latter. Within a week of starting to consume Siggi’s Yogurt, I received the following email: “We heard you loud and clear…In our never ending quest to lower sugar, […]
As anyone who hangs with me knows, I love Costco. For two-plus decades, they have personified emotionally intelligent customer service across the board. That’s due to a caliber of the people they hire, and how they train them. During a recent visit to the Parker, CO store to get my new glasses adjusted, I was […]
A couple weeks back, I ordered two items on Amazon. When the delivery failed, I requested and immediately received a full refund. I re-ordered the items. Two days later, the “undeliverable” items showed up. I likely could have kept quiet and gotten everything free. Instead, I called and explained the situation. At first, the rep […]
A key tenet of successful customer service is the level of emotional intelligence or ignorance that prevails. This pervades all facets of customer service, but one where much improvement is needed is the written word. Especially now, amid major stress, anger, and frustration, corporate America could do itself proud by communicating positively and supportively. Instead, […]
I got a reminder last week about the importance of “training” communications channels right along with reps to accurately inform and educate. The matter seemed to be simple: I wanted to donate an old flat-screen TV. After a couple hours calling around, based on website-based policies for such items, I learned that many communications either […]
Forbes Senior Contributor Micah Solomon addresses a great question about customer service standards falling as a company scales up operations. He notes: “Is such lowering of standards irreversible, the inevitable status quo as a company continues to scale? Decidedly not—if you relentlessly resharpen your focus and tenaciously stick to your guns once again in only […]
In today’s complex, fast-scaling work environments, competent and ongoing training is an absolute requirement to achieve customer service success. Without it, workforce attitudes and aptitudes suffer—with consequences impacting customers in frustrating ways. To provide complete and accurate information to would-be as well as present customers, companies must ensure that their customer service reps know the […]
Customer service representations that don’t hold up to actual performance are worse than no customer service at all. My Nextdoor post last week addresses my frustrating “Starry Snafu” experience: “As a backup to CenturyLink Internet/landline, which I’ve had nearly 5 years, I ordered Starry on a trial basis. When I put in the order, I […]
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