Author: myragolden

Myra is a favorite training partner to Fortune 500 companies with her customized, engaging, behavior-changing (and fun) customer service workshops, working with McDonald’s, Coca-Cola, Frito-Lay, Michelin, Vera Bradley and other brands.
Customer Experience Design by myragolden

Do You Recognize These 7 Mental Blocks to Successful Complaint Handling?

Stressful day at work

If you work in customer service, efficient complaint handling is crucial. One poorly handled problem or complaint can send a customer running for the competition. Consider the following:

  • A customer who goes to the effort to complain, but remains dissatisfied is usually 50% less loyal than someone who did not bother to complain.
  • Research by TARP has found that if a complaint handling system is inadequate, it will further alienate the customer, resulting in lower repurchase rates.
  • The problem is rarely the problem. The company’s response usually ends up being the real “problem.” The complaint handling process has a significant impact on customer satisfaction because customers are more emotionally involved in and observant of recovery service than in routine or first-time service and are often more dissatisfied by an organization’s failure to recover than by the service failure itself.
Continue reading Do You Recognize These 7 Mental Blocks to Successful Complaint Handling?
Customer Experience Design by myragolden

The Psychology of Customer Anger (Flashback Friday)

Flashback Friday! My kids used to post Throwback Thursday and Flashback Friday photos on Instagram. They don’t  do that anymore. In fact, they spend more time on Snapchat than on Instagram.

Well, I’m doing a Flashback post of my own – even if flashback posts are out of style.

I joined YouTube in 2007 and one of the first videos I published was “The Psychology of Customer Anger.”

That cheesy video has gotten over 60,000 views. I cringe when I look at the quality of the video and my style in front of the camera. My son laughed out loud when he came into my office last night and I had the video up.

I look so different from back then, nearly 10 years ago. I’ve lost weight, like 30 pounds. I wear my hair kinky curly. I like to think I’m more controlled and poised in front of the camera.

But my strategies haven’t changed. Not much anyway. I’m taking a risk and posting this Flashback Friday video because one, some or all of these tips just may help you get an angry customer to back down.

Try not to laugh too hard.

Continue reading The Psychology of Customer Anger (Flashback Friday)
Customer Experience Design by myragolden

The Best Advice I’ve Ever Heard For Getting Customer Service Reps to Convey Empathy

Smiling Telephone Operator

Two years ago I was working with a company to help their customer service representatives convey empathy to customers. The intended outcome of the training was for employees to speak to customers with care, concern, and compassion.

Achieving empathy in the customer experience is a bit like walking a tightrope. Too much empathy can result in longer talk times and inappropriate sharing between customer service representatives and clients. Not enough understanding and reps can sound cold and uncaring.

You have to find the right balance in empathy. Or else you fall off the rope, and the customer experience is negatively impacted.

I asked my client how she saw appropriate empathy in her company. And here’s what she said.

Continue reading The Best Advice I’ve Ever Heard For Getting Customer Service Reps to Convey Empathy
Uncategorized by myragolden

New Training Teaches Conversational Aikido to Help Those Handling Difficult Customers

Creating calm with difficult customers is not a matter of using aggressive tactics. It’s also not about letting the customer vent until they cool off or you being a doormat. There are definite tactics, deployed strategically, that will position any customer service professional to create calm, defuse anger and assertively control conversations.

Aikido

Introducing…

How to Handle Difficult Customers Using Verbal Aikido

5 Aikido Principles for Creating Calm, Defusing Anger and Moving to Closure with Difficult Customers

In this special online workshop Myra reveals the 5 Conversational Aikido principles she has adapted from her 15-year study of the martial art Aikido. Employees will walk away from this workshop with specific Aikido techniques and tactics to create calm, take control of the call, defuse anger and move the call to closure. Myra’s Aikido principles have earned rave reviews from such clients as Johnson & Johnson, McDonald’s, Coca-Cola, Ally Financial, Nationwide, the Insurance Consumer Affairs Exchange and more.

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Customer Experience Design by myragolden

3 Things I Learned About the Customer Experience During my Hike in the Albuquerque White Mesas

My family and I vacationed out west last week. We went to Albuquerque, spent 3 days there, then went on to Phoenix.

We took a tram up to the top of Mount Sandia, we toured Sedona, went off road in a Jeep to hike the White Mesas; we visited a museum, spent a full day at the Grand Canyon, and we had some fantastic food. My husband chose all of the restaurants, insisting only on local cuisine. He even made sure to select vegetarian-friendly spots for me.

Out of all of our experiences out west, my single favorite experience was the White Mesa Jeep Tour with New Mexico Jeep Tours. It was my ideal standout experience because of the company, New Mexico Jeep Tours, gave my family and me a phenomenal customer experience.

If you’ve been to one of my keynotes or training sessions, you’ve heard me talk about the 3 Elements of the Best Possible Customer Experience. The 3 Elements create what I call “The Way of Harmony.”

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Uncategorized by myragolden

You Have to Acknowledge a Customer’s Anger. Here’s Why.

A common mistake I hear customer service professionals make when I perform quality checks is ignoring the customer’s expression of anger.

Great Day-2

There is something known as the communication chain. When people communicate, they expect the person they are communicating with to respond or react…this response is a link in the communication chain. A failure to respond to communication leaves the communication chain broken.

For example, If I open a customer service training with “Good morning!”…and the audience is dead silent, they’ve broken the communication chain. And that leaves me feeling awkward, perhaps embarrassed. I’d have the uncomfortable feeling that the workshop would not go well, based on the lack of acknowledgement.

If a customer expresses anger and we fail to respond to it, the communication chain is broken and the customer feels like they are not getting through. The customer might become even angrier and more difficult, as they are resorting to whatever it takes to feel heard and understood.

Continue reading You Have to Acknowledge a Customer’s Anger. Here’s Why.
Uncategorized by myragolden

Q & A on Millennials In the Workplace

Portrait of a smiling business woman with an afro in bright glass office

 

Millennials, born between 1980 and 2000, are stereotyped for having a poor work ethic, being job hoppers and not respecting authority. But are these generalizations true?

Stereotypes or reality, you will have to be ready to embrace millennials because most generational researchers estimate that by 2020, millennials will make up half of the US Workforce. In this article we will answer your most pressing questions about millennials, set stereotypes aside and look at what research says about the newest and largest generation in the workplace.

Q: How long should we expect Millennials to stay on the job?

Continue reading Q & A on Millennials In the Workplace