Tag: Customer Service

This One Tip Will Instantly Make You Sound Friendlier On the Phone With Customers

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One of the easiest ways to make your conversations with customers more conversational and friendly is to speak in complete sentences.

It is so familiar to hear interactions like this:

Last name? First name? Zip code?

It’s undoubtedly efficient to ask customers questions in this manner. However, it’s not the friendliest approach. In this article, I’ll talk to you about instantly improving your ability to connect with customers and sound friendly by just speaking in complete sentences.

Yes, speaking in complete sentences will take a few more seconds, but it’s so worth it because of how the conversation will flow and how your customers perceive you.

When you have to ask your customer questions, I want you to do two things:

What a Makeup Artist Taught Me About Customer Service

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This week, I’m filming video training for a client in Southern California. Each morning before we shoot, I get treated to makeup art by Christina, a talented, gorgeous and charismatic makeup artist.

The first day I worked with Christina, she asked me about what I teach in my videos and training classes. “I help frontline employees deliver the best possible customer experience,” I said. “Usually, I’m focused on helping people show concern and empathy and on handling difficult situations with diplomacy and tact.”

It turns out, Christina is not just an amazing makeup artist; she knows a thing or two about customer service. “When I worked at Nordstrom,” she told me, “I would notice how stingy my employees would be when customers would ask for makeup samples. But then if the same employees had a friend or their mother come in, they were so generous, friendly and fun. They’d be like, ‘Mom, you have to try this; let me give you these to take home!’”

How to Talk to Your Employees About the Way They Talk to Customers

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My husband helping our son with homework a couple of nights ago

Story highlights

Maintain employees’ esteem when giving constructive feedback, so you protect the relationship and get behavior change

I’m sitting on my patio, with my feet up. It’s cloudy, and there’s a light breeze. Such a contrast to the oppressively hot and humid summer we’ve had

Sitting here on my patio I made a list of 50 things that I’m happy about right now. I do this exercise from time to time, whenever my mood needs lifting. Some of the things on my list are:

  • I got all of the wood polished.
  • Though Warren’s team lost, his spirit remains high.
  • ClearCorrect trusted me to train their team for the second time, and I’m fully prepared for the big day!
  • We had a fantastic getaway to Dallas, and I’m so glad Dad was able to join us.
  • My homemade lunch, Portobello Mushroom Burgers, and Sweet Potato Fries were amazing!
  • Michelle’s Dad’s cancer is gone! God is good!
  • My lunch yesterday with Toneille at the Vault was fantastic! The vegan food was fabulous, and I loved catching up with Toneille. 

My husband is one of the coaches on our son’s football team. We got beat 43 – 0 on Saturday. The loss felt as bad as it sounds. Right now my husband is sitting in front of the computer with my son watching game film. He was pointing out everything my son did wrong.

My son’s body language and tone told me my husband was bringing him down. That’s why I’m on the patio. I had to get out of the house.

Yield to Callers (Don’t over talk or interrupt)

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I couldn’t remember the last time I got a really good photo of my daughter, other than the many snaps I take on my phone, so yesterday I grabbed my camera and had Lauren join me in the front yard.

“In front of the bird bath,” I told her. “That way the evergreen will be in the background, and it will be gorgeous.” She’s 16, and that means she’s tethered to her phone. Instead of posing for me, my daughter posed for the camera on her phone. Her smile was real and perfect. Her eyes lit up, and she was clearly enjoying the photo shoot, her photo shoot. Alas, the “Selfie Generation.”

In rehearsal for this week’s keynote

In rehearsal for this week’s Women’s Conference for the women of DFW Airport. They are going to LOVE this keynote! And I am loving this hotel. The Hyatt Regency DFW had these healthy and sweet […]

TD Bank Turns ATM into Automated Thanking Machine

So, it’s time for some good news in customer service. One of my clients just emailed to share with me how TD Bank ATMS gave out surprises that stunned customers. The acts of surprise made […]

This customer recorded his call into a cable company. I listened. What I heard made me say wow. Just wow.

So this call was bad. Really bad. All the customer, Ryan Block, wanted was to cancel his Comcast service. Ryan shared 8 minutes of the call on Sound Cloud for all of the Internet world to hear. My favorite phrase from the call is, “Help me understand why you don’t want faster Internet?” I’m still laughing!

Listen to this nightmare of a customer service call and then be thankful that you train and monitor your employees. You do train and monitor your employees, right?

Ryan Block, the customer