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“Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work.” ~ Aristotle

Now and in the future, customer experiences will focus on emotions, not logic.  In any given sales or service situation, employees choose their own behavior for the best possible outcome for the customer experience.  We should treat consumers the way they want to be treated—and primarily that means they want to be respected and they want to be listened to without interruption.

For too many years, the customer service industry has been guided by archaic rules and processes that don’t suit today’s digital age.  It is important that every organization’s updated customer service philosophy and vision be read, understood, embraced and fervently practiced by your frontline staff, managers, volunteers and the entire C-Suite.   It is equally important to articulate your company’s expectations for ensuring a positive customer experience with every interaction.

Isn’t it exciting to experience a new year with new opportunities to share your customer service philosophy with consumers and to give them outstanding customer experiences at every turn ?

Maybe in 2015 you experienced a few negative reviews or customer service complaints.  But think of it this way: your organization has a new opportunity to review and re-evaluate the training curricula you provide your employees.  You see, I believe that a customer complaint should be used as a springboard for a teachable moment to staff and C-Suite alike.  Never waste the moment !

It is a rare occurrence for an airline pilot to return to the gate once it has pulled away, not to mention almost reaching the point to take off and returning to the gate.  Well, that is exactly what happened for an Arizona family who gave thanks and praise to the pilot and Delta Airlines for delaying takeoff so that they could board the plane to be on time to make their father’s funeral.

Missing the flight was no fault of the family.  A 90-minute delay in their flight from Phoenix did not give them enough time to make a connecting flight so that they could be on time to board the Memphis flight.  Memphis is where they would say their last “goodbyes” to their father at his funeral which was scheduled for the following morning.  If the pilot had not made the decision to return to the gate, they would have been devastated and missed it.  You see, that was the last flight of the day to Memphis.

We have all seen it.  A well-established company making an unintentional blunder which causes, at the very least, a retraction and in some cases, settlement cases valued in the millions of dollars.

The New Year is Almost Here !

The new year is less than two weeks away.  By now, you have probably finalized plans on how to ring in 2016. You probably have given considerable thought to what you will wear, who you will be with, where you want to celebrate and perhaps you have set a budget on how much you will spend to celebrate.

Now, let’s talk about how you can apply the same energy to reviewing, updating and implementing your organization’s customer service philosophy and action plan.  Many organizations understand the importance of making customer service a philosophy, not just a department that reacts to complaints.