Long Live Customer Service… If you’re reading this, you’re probably subscribed to my customer service list. So maybe it saddens you to hear that this thing you thought was so valuable, this thing you staked your future on, is now deader than the dinosaurs. But fear not! There’s hope yet. Read more
…from your problem customers. (Do this instead.) Anyone who has worked in customer service, whether for themselves or just as a job, knows the feeling I’m going to describe today. The shitty customer. But it’s worse than that. That person who is so unreasonable, unpleasant, unbearable that you find yourself Read more
And everything in life… There’s a lot of advice out there about how to provide good customer service. Some of it is decent, a lot of it is pure crap. But like so many things, these so called experts are out there peddling “tactics” and “techniques” and “secrets.” When what Read more
At least when it counts… It’s no secret we live in the information age. But that doesn’t mean all information is good information. You CAN have too much of a good thing, whether it’s discussing your grandma’s sex life, or telling your customers what’s going on. In the movie The Read more
And the ONE Secret to Customer Service Emails That Actually Get Read… Got your attention, didn’t I? Love him or hate him, we all know the name Donald Trump for a reason. Not the news. Not the huge buildings. Or the billions of dollars. Or the various TV game shows. Read more
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
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
I’ve saved the worst for last here, people… Today’s email is part 5 of the 80/20 Service series Things Problem Customers Say. Find the whole series here. Sell a product or service long enough and you’ll get these people. Run a subscription model and you’ll learn to despise them like Read more
“What good is a phone call if you are unable to speak?” Today’s email is part 4 of the 80/20 Service series Things Problem Customers Say. Find the whole series here. Some companies seem to take a perverse pleasure in making people call them on the phone. Why else would Read more
“Computers are hard!” Today’s email is part 3 of the 80/20 Service series Things Problem Customers Say. Find the whole series here. As my readers should already know, the best approach to customer service is to prevent problem before they happen. To keep things simple. It’s in the spirit of Read more