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Poor service is our policy

This post is the third in a series that will identify 10 different obstacles that have emerged from my analysis of customer satisfaction data. Maybe you will have encountered one or more of these obstacles in your own business? The third obstacle is customer-unfriendly policies. I recently stayed at a

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Cupcakes, and buttons, and posters! Oh my!

If you’ve been following my blog for a while, you may recall my 2009 and 2010 posts that were critical of Customer Service Week (October 3-7, 2011). While I have no issue with celebrating customers, I do take exception to the hypocrisy of those companies who participate in Customer Service

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What training?

This post is the second in a series that will identify 10 different obstacles that have emerged from my analysis of customer satisfaction data. Maybe you will have encountered one or more of these obstacles in your own business? The second obstacle is insufficient employee training. Recently a large family

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Apathy

This post is the first in a series over the next 10 weeks that will identify 10 different obstacles that have emerged from my analysis of customer satisfaction data. Maybe you will have encountered one or more of these obstacles in your own business? The first obstacle is apathy. Apathy

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Obstacles

The statistician W. Edwards Deming once said, “In God we trust; all others must bring data.” When I begin a project, the first thing I do is gather data to assess the current state of service quality. I do so by interviewing stakeholders such as managers, hourly employees, and, when

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Who’s to blame?

The other day, I trailed a King Soopers employee as she returned about a half-dozen shopping carts from the parking lot to the store. She pushed the row of carts into another row of carts inside the store and then, with a dreary facial expression and a heavy sigh, returned

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Volunteers Needed

I recently came across a list of attributes possessed by volunteers—whether candy stripers at a local hospital, political activists along the campaign trail or parents donating their time at their children’s elementary school. The list included: Passion: Authentic energy and enthusiasm in support of a cause Commitment: The act of

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Social customer service’s rightful place

In the 1990s, I worked for a hands-on general manager named Mark Conklin who frequently attended morning pre-shift meetings throughout the hotel. At one such meeting in the housekeeping department, I was invited to deliver a short presentation on delighters—those “little extras” that would pleasantly surprise or even “Wow!” hotel

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The Revelation Conversation

The Revelation Conversation is Here!