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Building Bridges Cultivating Positive Relationships Customer Service Empowerment Techniques General Marketing Healthcare Kudon'ts Kudos Leverage Opinion

COVID crisis highlights customer service Catch-22

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 […]

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Building Bridges Business Development Cultivating Positive Relationships Customer Service Empowerment Techniques General Marketing Good Content Healthcare Leverage Opinion Social Media

Crisis frustration provides roadmap to better customer service

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% […]

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Building Bridges Cultivating Positive Relationships Customer Service Empowerment Techniques General Marketing Good Content Healthcare Kudos Leverage Opinion

Customer service reps offer a hand instead of clenched fist

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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37 and Counting Building Bridges Business Development Cultivating Positive Relationships Customer Service Empowerment Techniques Opinion

Customer service is marketing that continues post-crisis

Customer service is marketing. Talking about it is marketing on steroids. We all are learning lessons from the COVID-19 crisis. One that came into focus is the incredible importance of treating people right ALL the time—when times are bad, when times are good, and everything in between. An article in business2community.com reinforces the even more […]

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Building Bridges Cultivating Positive Relationships Customer Service Empowerment Techniques General Marketing Healthcare Kudon'ts Kudos Leverage Opinion

Crisis customer service builds bridge to future

Have you gone out of your way to provide more compassionate and caring customer service during the COVID-19 crisis? If so, those efforts can become a cornerstone of customer loyalty and buying. In addition to those who already know, tell the rest of the world about it! This is a case where prior “good acts” […]

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37 and Counting Cultivating Positive Relationships Customer Service Empowerment Techniques Healthcare Opinion

As stay-at-home rolls off, life rolls on

In this last installment of self-administered customer service, I turn to flowers. After all, Mother’s Day is the planting signal through much of the country. As with so many other things during the pandemic, I did my usual planting—which always inspires and delights me—with a small twist. I had purchased some artificial desert-type plants a […]

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37 and Counting Cultivating Positive Relationships Customer Service Empowerment Techniques Healthcare Kudos Opinion Social Media

Tom Foolery on YouTube: All I can say is WOW!

Recently, I received a link to a four-minute YouTube under the “Tom Foolery” banner. This installment, entitled “The Great Realisation,” addresses the days when COVID-19 attacked the land. It’s a look back from the future. Amid all the conflicting overly-sanguine and gloom-and-doom reports about the pandemic and lack of certainty about its spread, containment and […]

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37 and Counting Cultivating Positive Relationships Customer Service Empowerment Techniques Healthcare Kudos Leverage Opinion

Best customer service resides in our hearts and minds

I had a huge revelation this past week. Beyond all the CRMs, company pronouncements about serving customers, and even our own “self-administered” customer service, there’s an inner strength that can endure when all other efforts falter. Here are a couple thoughts on the matter: You’ve just been ignored, dissed or misinformed by a “customer service” […]

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37 and Counting Cultivating Positive Relationships Customer Service Empowerment Techniques Good Content Healthcare Opinion

And the beat goes on…

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 […]

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37 and Counting Cultivating Positive Relationships Customer Service Empowerment Techniques Healthcare Opinion

Hunting and gathering gives way to cooking

Three of my favorite pastimes are shopping (a/k/a hunting and gathering), cooking and hosting small dinner parties. As I’ve not yet pursued virtual social engagements, this past week focused on the first two. Having discovered ample supplies of toilet paper at a Walgreen’s near me and being well-stocked with hand sanitizer and disinfectants, I turned […]