It begins innocently enough. The reservation got messed up. Your agent put down 10 p.m. instead of 10 a.m. It is a minor slip of the keyboard, a single letter. But you are in the airport car rental business. 12 hours is a gulf the size of the ocean. Fortunately, your confirmation system sends the […]

As I read an article this morning about the Boston marathon bombing, I realized that it has been a long time since I have done a nonprofit spotlight. For those of you who are not familiar, occasionally, I will use this blog (or the previous incarnation) to highlight a nonprofit organization. Technically, today’s spotlight is […]

We are pleased to announce our new video series, Inside Customer Service! The purpose of Inside Customer Service is to create short, easily digestible interviews with business professionals that get to the heart of what customer service is all about.  We wanted to hear from not only customer service and customer experience experts but also […]

On June 7, 2012 we discussed the ways we can all be better customers and increase our chances of getting great service. The original post was titled How to Be a Good Customer: 16 Ways to Not Be a Jerk and is one of our most popular posts to date. We thought the post was […]

You cannot discuss online rating systems without mentioning Amazon.com. As the largest online retailer, Amazon has always been at the forefront of online shopping and it’s comment system is one of the most, if not the most, sophisticated out there. Amazon has introduced numerous innovations over the years to add credibility to its rating system: […]

I enjoyed this excellent infographic from the folks over at Help Scout. The infographic, originally posted by Gregory Ciotti on the Help Scout blog, curates a number of well-known statistics with some lesser-known data to synthesize a graphic that shows how costly customer service can be. A few standout takeaways serve as great reminders: Enjoy […]

Okay, I will admit it: one of the guilty pleasures in my household is a show called Doomsday Preppers. To begin, I have always been interested in preparedness, and modern disasters like Katrina and Sandy have only helped to reinforce that interest. Both storms exposed a concern that was previously disregarded as a paranoiac fantasy: […]

The concepts of primacy and recency dictate that in any encounter we tend to remember what happened first and what happened most recently. Exceptions abound, but the law of primacy reminds us that first impressions matter — in life and in the customer experience. While optimizing the customer experience should generally be approached holistically — […]

Scripts have a bad rap in the customer service field. No matter the format — speeches, blog posts, chats — it is common to hear customer service professionals say things such as… And they are right… For the most part. Why Scripts Suck Who doesn’t hate having a semi-skilled customer automaton robotically read a canned […]