As things get more automated and complicated, customer service is increasingly becoming a hot commodity. People want someone to sort it all out for them. If you can fix it, make it easier, do the work for them, they will pay more for it …and return if you do it well. The problem is that … Continue reading RIP Excellence

There are three types of employees. The disengaged, indifferent ones, the minimally-engaged, compliant ones, and the fully-engaged, committed ones. The indifferent have to be told what to do, the compliant do what they know to do, and the committed take initiative, create art, and move things. The indifferent are there for themselves. The compliant are … Continue reading There are three types of employees, but only one will get you where you want to go.

Customer service departments—a name I abhor, but that’s for another post—need to stop measuring. Putting rules—they're actually limits—around call times and setting goals for the number of tickets handled does not help customers, it just turns them into faceless numbers. Customers are not problems, they are people with problems. Making them into a number on … Continue reading Some measures are just bad for business.

Can good customer service make up for a mediocre product? Not totally, but to an extent, yes. Take restaurants for example, I go to some places whose food is not as good as others. Why? Because they know me and treat me like a long-lost relative. That kind of hospitality makes the food better than … Continue reading Your Product Is More Than the Thing

Here's how to make this new year a great one. Get out of your skin, see others as people like you, and choose to be helpful. Do work that makes a difference by making lives better. Find your voice. Use that voice. Be a force. The world needs you. Go. Do. Some. Good! ==> If … Continue reading Happy New Year!