Sound Wisdom Blog
How to Handle Difficult Customers by Shep Hyken
Not long ago I covered six ways to handle angry customers. Often an angry customer and a difficult customer are the same. But that’s not always true. Sometimes difficult customers aren’t angry. They are just tough and demanding. That said, the techniques I cover in both of these posts can work, with a little tweak or variation depending on the situation. So, after you read this, I urge you to go back and read the original article. This is a follow-up with another half dozen techniques to manage angry and/or difficult customers.
Customer Service versus Customer Experience…What’s the Difference? by Shep Hyken
“Customer service is not a department that deals with problems and complaints. It’s a philosophy to be embraced by every employee.”
Some say that customer service is what happens when the customer experience goes wrong.
That’s part of it, but it’s not the whole picture. If you’ve followed my work, you know that customer service is not a department that deals with problems and complaints. It’s a philosophy to be embraced by every employee, from the CEO or owner to the most recently hired. It’s how you interact with people, both your internal and external customers.
The Most Important Measurement in Business by Shep Hyken
It’s important to know how customers feel about the experience they just had. We should always be looking at those experiences and finding ways to make them better. Feedback and ratings will help drive that effort. But in the end, knowing what percentage of customers come back, how often they come back, and how much they buy when they do come back, is a metric to pay close attention to.
Here’s How to Get Customers to Say, “I’ll Be Back!” by Shep Hyken
Many companies think they have to compare themselves to their competition. They want to know what the competition is doing that they are not. And when they figure it out, you know what they do? They copy them.
It’s not a bad idea to do that, but it’s not the best idea either. If all you do is compare yourself to your competitors, you may be missing your best opportunities to create the best experience for your customers.
Why Today’s Businesses Must Be “Uncopyable” by Steve Miller
Why do your customers do business with you? I bet it’s because of your excellent customer service, right? Or maybe it’s that innovative product you just launched. Guess what? Your competition is saying the same thing about their company.
Businesses today need to rethink their competitive strategy in order to create a true advantage over the competition. You need to be Uncopyable.
Are You Accountable to Your Customers? by Sam Silverstein
If a company is more concerned with its immediate bottom line than it is with the customer’s best interests, that is a short-term decision, and a poor one. That company is maximizing a short-term profit in exchange for a long-term loss. When that company stops looking out for its customers, it might maximize its profits that month, that quarter, or maybe even that year—but there are going to be long-term problems down the line…and if the company ignores those problems for long enough, its survival will eventually be at stake!
Enhance the Service Experience of Your Untapped Customer Base: People with Disabilities by Jennifer Janechek
The sixth Convenience Principle in Shep Hyken’s new book, The Convenience Revolution, is Access. This principle is about “removing unnecessary friction from the typical customer’s day.” According to Hyken, the three factors that contribute to it are availability, communication, and location.
A large and growing percentage of the population has a disability, and these customers contribute greatly to the economy. However, many businesses do not make an effort to be accessible to customers with disabilities, which, on top of being unethical, can be really detrimental to their company. It’s important to consider how your business—and the businesses you support—make themselves accessible to their customers who have disabilities, whether visible or invisible, physical or mental. Using the three components of Access that Hyken mentions in his book as a framework for this discussion, let’s reflect on the various ways that companies can enrich (or harm) the customer experience of people with disabilities.
What Losing My First-Class Seat Taught Me about Customer Service by Simon T. Bailey
As a person who prides himself on giving great customer service, I learned three ways to create superb customer service after a recent experience I had with Delta Airlines. I made three observations:
It doesn’t matter what happens. It’s all about the recovery.
If you hear it, you own it.
Customer service is not a department; it’s a mindset.