Onboarding employees is an extremely important and often neglected practice. All too often employers simply show new team members where the paper clips are and how to use the computer system, but they don’t show them the organization’s service standards or how to treat customers. The first days on the job are often no different […]

I had the pleasure to catch up with my friend and brand expert Denise Lee Yohn at Medallia’s recent Experience 17 conference (to which Medallia provided me a free ticket). Denise spoke at the event about the key concepts in her book What Great Brands Do. Denise’s seven tenets of what great brands do are as […]

In this installment of our “Expert Interviews” series on YouTube, I interview Phil Gerbyshak. Phil Gerbyshak teaches sales people and leaders to position themselves as an expert in their niche to up their influence, impact and income. He is one of the people who teaches social and truly walks the social talk. In this interview, we chat about […]

What are the qualities of a great customer service manager? Those who manage customer-facing teams need a broad range of not only qualities but skills. They need to be great at motivating, coaching, and managing their teams, and they have to be ready to jump into the fray to handle the issues that their teams can’t solve and […]

In this installment of our “Expert Interviews” series on YouTube, I interview Adrian Swinscoe. Adrian is a customer experience consultant and advisor. He is the author of How to Wow: 68 Effortless Ways to Make Every Customer Experience Amazing (Pearson) and has worked with brands such as Shell, FT and The Economist Group. Adrian’s book How to Wow covers a […]

It has been an exciting time for our customer service and customer experience podcast, Crack the Customer Code. We recently crossed the 200 episode threshold, hit #4 in the business category on Overcast.fm, and doubled our listenership in the last month. We’ve had some fantastic discussions and amazing guests, and I thought this would be […]

I had the great pleasure of speaking with self-success speaker Joy Marsden about motivation, perseverance, and the power of keeping moving. Keep Stepping to Succeed Joy believes that we need to keep moving forward, to keep stepping, into the midst of challenge. And while not everyone may lead others or want to, we each must lead […]

Frontline reps require a wide range of customer service skills if they are going to deliver Hero-ClassTM customer service. Like a father with his children, I don’t like to play favorites, but at some point, I must acknowledge that one skill is more important than all of the others. That skill is communication. Powerful, effective communication is foundational; […]

Hiring frontline reps is one of the most important parts of the customer experience process. Bringing someone in with the wrong attitude, skill set, or cultural outlook can be toxic to a team, wasteful of time, and damaging to the customer experience. So, what characteristics should you look for when hiring for entry-level customer service? […]