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 […]
Amid COVID-19 retail carnage, Costco is managing to weather the storm well so far according to recent stock reports and recommendations. Its legendary customer service likely is leading the pack of positives. Whether or not such pandemic-related policies as mandatory masks and special hours from 9-10 AM Monday-Friday for seniors and shoppers with disabilities or […]
Amid COVID-19, mask wearing has become a huge political football. As a matter of common sense and exercising critical thinking skills, wearing a mask is not about politics. It’s about our health collectively, and about showing respect for the health of others. Period.
Robust employee training benefits all customers and preferences by improving overall productivity, performance and attitude. Its positive impact cuts across all political, economic and social lines. Better-trained employees serve customers better—so it’s a lowest-common-denominator area that companies should address regardless of other polices and protocols.
Customer service isn’t one-size-fits-all. While there are some policies that merit universal application, such as listening to and acting upon customer concerns in a caring and substantive way, preferences can vary considerably. What do companies do to best identify what most customers want and expect, understanding that not everyone will be happy? In the words […]
Centuries ago, the customer service “universe” existed of how far you could walk to do business. While choices were fewer, so were complications. Today, customer service challenges exist across the globe. When the company and customer base are relatively small, ability to be agile and make improvements quickly can be fairly robust. In part […]
In search of a qualified functional medicine specialist with whom I could partner to improve my health, I discovered a huge abyss of customer service attitudes. The first candidate lost the opportunity to serve me after saying the doc didn’t offer short, complimentary meet-and-greets to determine if a positive connection exists. Oh, and I […]
There’s been a lot of talk about over-communicating with customers during COVID to make sure they know they’re acknowledged and cared about. However, there are definite exceptions—in this case it involves a prospect but the same principles apply to existing customers. A few weeks back, I checked into Inogen, a portable oxygen concentrator company just […]
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 […]
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