Don’t make them think too much… People like choice. Don’t they? Henry Ford once famously said the customer could have whatever color car he wanted, as long as it was black. Nowadays we can get almost anything completely customized to our liking. But that’s not the same thing as choice. Read more
It’s WHERE you spend your time that matters… I know… yesterday I said it shouldn’t take more than an hour a day. And I mean that. But before you get to that point, you need to do some work. You need to see exactly what your customer are contacting you Read more
An hour a day is pushing it… Customer service should NOT be a full time job. Not if you do it right. And this is coming from someone who has spent years with customer service as my full time job. Fact is, most customer issues are easily solved. They’re even Read more
Nature’s own incentive scheme… We’ve all been there… You call a big company about some issue. You jump through the usual bullshit hoops. Eventually you get connected to NPC #47893 and it reads it’s little script at you. Follows it’s program and begins dispensing “customer service” at you. Your problem Read more
These people WILL destroy your business if you let them… This is something I get asked about a lot. “How can I spot problem customers before they cause problems?” And the answer is… there is no foolproof answer. Bad customers come in every shape and size, and you’ll never be Read more
Time to take out the trash… Today’s email is inspired by a question I answered on Quora. The person asked how they should respond to a customer who accused them of “false advertising” for not including an end date on a promotional email. First of all, the premise here is Read more
How to profit from what people naturally do anyways… I was in Iceland last month. Great country. My wife and I stopped for a few days on our way back from a European trip. Beautiful landscapes, friendly people, and delicious food (including whale meat, which is incredible.) We rented a Read more
When you do things right, people won’t be sure you’ve done anything at all… I answered an interesting question today on video. Why do we only remember bad customer service experiences? (You can watch the video below) As I’m sure you already know, bad customer service stands out because of Read more
Your worst customers make themselves known with one question… “What’s your refund policy?” The REALLY bad ones ask follow up questions from there. “Can I cancel renewals as soon as I sign up?” “What happens if I cancel on the 364th day? Do I get a prorated refund?” “Do I Read more
And yes, people WILL return used underwear… There’s a lot of talk about refund policies. Should you offer one at all? How long? Most people, being average, settle somewhere in the middle. 30 or 60 days are common. Some keep it short. Some, especially on monthly continuity products, don’t allow Read more