Customer Resources

Due to increased responsibilities in my current employment and other writing commitments, I am regretfully unable to continue updating this information on a regular basis.  However, while I am no longer actively adding information to this website, I encourage you to take some time to browse through the archives.  It is my sincere desire that something in these pages may spark an insight, or create some motivation that will help you increase your ability and commitment to satisfy your customers.

You may always feel free to contact me at steve@thinkcustomersatisfaction.com for any additional assistance or insights, and I will respond to all emails as soon as I can.

All my best,

Steve

Because of the customer...

On a recent visit to a UPS store, while we were having some packages shipped, I noticed a little saying that was prominently posted near the cash register. I asked the owner if she would share it with me, and she did. See if you think it matches what we do as customer service professionals:

• Because the customer has a need, we have a job to do.
• Because the customer has a choice, we must be the better choice.
• Because the customer has sensibilities, we must be considerate.
• Because the customer has an urgency, we must be quick.
• Because the customer is unique, we must be flexible.
• Because the customer has high expectations, we must excel.
• Because the customer has influence, we have the hope of more customers.
• Because of the customer, we exist!

“It's not just customer service, it's the best customer service. It's serving your customer so well, they tell others about your products, services and customer service. Your customers should never want to stop doing business with you. Their interactions with you should make them feel they're interacting with family.” --Mike Bova

The customer satisfaction mission is not necessarily impossible

Daily ingenuity wins every time.

The old "Mission: Impossible" TV show was a great standard that has since grown into the multi-million dollar movie franchise with Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt.

What was cool about the old TV show was that, while every mission was different, the plot of the show always took the same path: there was the very cool “self-destruct” aspect of receiving the mission; then the villains and objective of the mission would be described to the IM team via a slide show or photographs (so we knew what all the bad guys looked like); then the team would describe some creative initial plan where they cover every possible contingency as to what they were attempting to accomplish.

Then, halfway through the show, some unexpected villain would show up at the critical moment, or some unforeseen glitch would happen with a technical device, and the team would be exposed and holding their breath until…the commercial. Then, when the action resumes, they would improvise some way around the danger, on the spot, and then the plan could resume to its inevitable success.

"Seemingly impossible achievements are accomplished by people who refuse to yield to obstacles that can get in the way of the objective."

Even though viewers knew this is the general format of each story, it still held their interest. Why? Because the team would always accomplish something that everyone else said was impossible to do? Mostly. (Plus there were all kinds of cool spy gadgets). But even beyond all that, the reason I personally enjoyed the show was that regardless of all of the planning and research, the success of the mission would typically rely on one critical moment of creative ingenuity to keep the mission moving forward. There was always some unforeseen occurrence that would need to be overcome.

What makes any mission impossible? I believe it’s that people think it’s impossible, or that they will not even try to come up with a solution. Then it really is impossible. However, seemingly impossible achievements are accomplished by people who refuse to yield to obstacles that can get in the way of the objective. Then, and only then, the impossible things transform into improbable things, and improbable things that happen regularly then move into the realm of the possible, and eventually become routine.

Hassle-free customer service can seem impossible, but it’s not. What does it take to move our impossible things into the realm of the achievable, and then ultimately into the routine? Answer: your creative ingenuity on the spot at each seemingly impossible hurdle that needs to be overcome. Then repeat that each day.

Only try to get it done before the commercial. I hate suspense. 

‘The difficult we do immediately; the impossible takes a little longer.” – a US Air Force motto

Overcoming challenges: What are you made of?

Your level of character, and mine, and our ability to handle difficult situations, comes through the challenges we face.  This is where the rubber meets the road, where we find out what we’re made of.

"The question is, what have you learned, and what can you improve on?"

While few people like to be challenged, no one cares to be overloaded to the point of frustration and hopelessness.  However, in times of challenge, our attitude can be strongly affected by having a deeper understanding of the struggles we face.  By understanding that something different and more refined can come of this, the struggle becomes a little easier; the burden a little easier to carry.

We all can take pride in the abilities we’ve demonstrated in navigating through the many changes that have occurred recently due to economic factors and re-alignment of business focus.  The question is, what have you learned, and what can you improve on?  Once you know what you’re made of, you know exactly where have the capacity to grow.

“In every crisis there is a message. Crises are nature's way of forcing change--breaking down old structures, shaking loose negative habits so that something new and better can take their place.”  --Susan Taylor

One way to please customers...and more.

The most important attitude adjustment you ever make will be the one you make today, in yourself. Your attitude today will define how you act, and how you act will define what you do, and what you do will define what gets done, and what gets done will represent who you are.  When you boil it all down, the success of any company hangs entirely upon an attitude today.

It’s not about how you feel about yourself, but about how you perceive what you can accomplish throughout this day.  If you have no desire to achieve, then you have no passion for what you do.  Passionate people know no other way than to be the best at what they do, every day, even when they don’t feel like it, especially when they don’t feel like it, because there is no other way to be the best.

If you have no desire to be the best at what you do, no one can convince you.  Oh, you may be able to accomplish tasks and keep schedules and goals moving forward, but if, at the end of the day, you have no thought whatsoever on how things either could have been better today or should be better tomorrow, but instead you only complain about how everything is an insurmountable problem, and how nothing ever seems to improve, then you most likely have little or no passion and are just showing up for work.  And probably not for long.

If, on the other hand, you wrestle with ideas and concepts on how to improve and refine systems; if you suddenly brainstorm over dinner on a problem you’ve been working on that day, and you can’t wait to see how it can be implemented to make your job easier, or the product better, or a communication stronger, or to improve your life and the lives of others in some distinctive way, then you are demonstrating a desire, nay, a passion, to achieve something so much more significant than simply earning a paycheck: you want to succeed.  And when you succeed, your company succeeds, and when a company succeeds, its customers share that success with others.

And that causes everyone to succeed even more.

Therefore, you customers’ gratefulness, and the company's collective continued success, is totally based on your attitude, your passion . . . today. 

Just for fun...

Revised definition: Abdicate, v.: To give up all hope of ever having a flat stomach.