Category: Customer Service

Ask yourself three sets of questions:

1. How did the day go? What success did I experience? What challenges did I endure?
2. What did I learn today? About myself? About others? What do I plan to do — differently or the same — tomorrow?
3. Who did I interact with? Anyone I need to update? Thank? Ask a question? Share feedback?

Source: The Best Way to Use the Last Five Minutes of Your Day over at Harvard Business Review.

Here’s an excellent reminder to say important things in person or over the phone. This video (3 min long) tells you why.

Only 7% of what we say is conveyed through words, the rest (broken out below) is voice inflection and visual cues.

• 38% Tone
• 55% Visual
• 7% Words

I’ve realized something important today that I’ve known for a long time, but never really stopped to think about. Customer service starts with the founder of a company. The head honcho. The big cheese is really where it starts and ends. If the CEO of a company doesn’t care, neither will the employees.

Customer service begins at the top

I went over to The Men’s Wearhouse today, and purchased a suit. A really nice suit. I spent over $500 and walked out of there feeling like a new man. The manager of the store helped me through the process and his entire staff was behind him to help me find the best matching clothes without asking.

The manager helped me pick out a nice navy blue suit which fits perfectly. While I was changing out of the suit, one of the other staff members picked out a series of matching shirts and ties. They had asked if I was interested, and I said I was. The whole team pulled together to make me look great, and it showed. Over 6 staff members assisted me during my brief visit (less than 30 minutes). It’s magical.

On the radio for years I’ve heard the famous catch phrase “You’re gonna love the way you look, I guarantee it” which is uttered by the company founder, George Zimmer. It’s true. Customer service really does begin at the top.

How this applies to personal productivity

Happy customers return, and really happy customers tell their friends. A business grows based on the service you provide and allows your company to grow, raise prices, and be the one people tell stories about.

I’m more inspired to tackle customer service again. I feel like we have okay customer service, but sometimes it can be rocky (not because we don’t care, but because we often get too busy to spend the time that great customer service requires).

Success is largely about keeping your promises

That’s how Seth Godin defines success and I think it also summarizes what it means to be good at customer service.

More reading on customer service:

• The Art of Customer Service — A very good article with 10 important things to know about good customer service.
• The Art of Customer Service, Part II — The second part of this article actually has some great tips which the first one missed.
• Return Customer — A blog about customer service, with case studies and ideas for improving customer service.