Every day there seems to be a new story about an irate customer behaving badly. These unfortunate situations create psychological stress for frontline employees and additional pressures for businesses. What can employees and companies do to provide Legendary Service while facing the headwinds of the pandemic? Hard Times Demand Legendary Service We’ve all been struggling…
A couple of years ago I was speaking at a conference for university facility managers and learned something new: most students make their decision to attend a school within the first hour of their visit to the campus. I was interested in the topic both personally and professionally at the time, as both of my…
One of the perks of my job is that I get to travel to many fabulous places in this country and abroad. In my travels, I have experienced all types of customer service. On a recent business trip to Iowa, I was told by the woman at the hotel front desk that the pizza at…
If your company is like most, you are always looking for ways to lower your costs and improve the bottom line. The challenge is to make sure your people serve customers at the highest level while keeping their eye on costs. But could your employees actually be costing you money? Let me give you an…
Who are you as an organization? What are you known for? What will people remember about you? It always brings me back to what I was taught when I was young—the importance of making a good first impression. That old adage rang true for me today as I was on a phone call with an…
In our new book, Legendary Service: The Key is to Care, Ken Blanchard, Vicki Halsey and I use a parable format to teach some very important—and often surprising—elements of creating a customer focused culture within a company. Even though we use a fictional story to get the point across, all of the examples and lessons…
Have you ever had employees in your organization argue over customers? I was recently working with a client in Toronto where one of the company’s salespeople was emphatic that a certain customer “belonged” to him, not to the organization. The organization, on the other hand, tried to get the employee to see that while he…
I recently had a potentially bad experience that turned into a great customer service story and restored my faith in humankind! A couple of months ago I was flying from Savannah, Georgia to Chicago on a business trip. I made it to the Savannah airport in time to call a client while waiting for my…
I was working with a client recently on implementing leadership training into her organization when she shared this story with me. We all can learn a lesson from the lack of leadership she received. Years ago, the woman had worked as a barista at a coffee house. The holidays were just around the corner and…
Customer Service—it is found in every industry, every company, every person’s job, at every moment. If you don’t deal directly with the external customer, you interact with and serve your internal customers throughout the day. What I love the most is when people get it—when they take pride and ownership in what they do, and…