If you like this tip, I know you'll enjoy my book, "Influence with Ease". I've gone through all the tips that I've written over a 10 year period and, based on reader feedback, selected the best-of-the-best to merit inclusion in this book. In all, you get 101 of my most popular thirty-second tips. Plus, it's sprinkled with light hearted chuckles and cartoons to help lift your sprit - much needed when you need to deal with other humans!
Choose the CDrom version of Influence with Ease and you'll receive over 200 individual tips in a format that you can print-off and post in your workplace or forward by email to your team members.
Customer Service Blog by Jeff Mowatt
The worst way to break bad news
January 26th, 2012 by Jeff Mowatt No Comments
Chances are one of your least pleasant tasks at work is breaking bad news to customers or co-workers. I’m referring to times when you need to communicate delays with projects, unexpected costs, or what that person wants simply isn’t doable. To avoid the unpleasant reaction of the recipient, we may be tempted to send a written correspondence; be it letter, text-message or email. That’s the worst way to break bad news. Text is cold, and often leads to more correspondence and an escalation of the problem. Instead, take the grown-up approach and either go talk to the person or at least pick up the phone. Then, if you need to for the record, you can follow-up with a brief written message. Even a 30-second voice mail message briefly explaining the situation will have more impact than a 1000 word email. It takes less time, conveys more meaning, and is more likely to maintain your positive relationship.
Find more customer service training tips, tools, and resources at www.jeffmowatt.com
I’m not your Buddy
January 12th, 2012 by Jeff Mowatt No Comments
Here’s a scenario you may find to be helpful with some of your team members. A manager of a computer helpdesk team, explained to me that some of his younger technicians; particularly the males, are too casual in their client conversations. Trying to be friendly and disarming, they routinely address male customers as ‘buddy, ‘bro’, or ‘dude’. The manager was hoping that in customizing my seminar for his team, I could address this issue so his employees could get that this is inappropriate.
I focused the half day seminar on how to be perceived by customers as a trusted advisor. I pointed out that helpdesk team members are like medical doctors diagnosing problems and finding solutions. “As trusted advisors, doctors don’t try to position themselves as your buddy,” I explained. “Imagine if after examining you, the doctor asked if you wanted to go for a drink later on. That would be weird.” They had a chuckle. More importantly, they got it. I suggested an easy way to avoid the mixed message is to simply drop the dude, buddy, pal, terms and instead just use the customer’s name
Find more customer service training tips, tools, and resources at www.jeffmowatt.com
Attitude test – what are you like on bad days?
December 7th, 2011 by Jeff Mowatt No Comments
Typical customer service training programs tout the importance of being passionate about your job. In my seminars – not so much. Fact is, I don’t know of anyone in the real world who loves every aspect of their job. There are days when you’ll deal with customers or coworkers who are tired, rushed, or stressed. Check out this 3 minute video where I share the secret to being perceived as being positive and helpful – even when you’re having a bad day.
After viewing, please help me – post a comment, click “Like” and “Share” with others who you think could use a boost.
Find more customer service training tips, tools, and resources at www.jeffmowatt.com
What makes you different?
November 17th, 2011 by Jeff Mowatt No Comments
Customers are now getting too much information. When they consider buying, they can search Google and get thousands of pages of information in under a second. That means whether you are submitting a written proposal, deciding what to include on your website, or having a buying conversation with a customer, you need to help make their decision easier. That’s why, of all the info you can provide, here’s perhaps the most useful… Explain (without naming names) what most other providers of your type of product or service supply. Continue by briefly explaining the downside of this approach. Tell the truth. Don’t exaggerate. Then explain how your product or service is different. Again, tell the truth. Don’t exaggerate. That’s it. You’ve now done the comparison shopping for the customer and conveyed the implied risk of going elsewhere. Customers need clarity not clutter. Help them understand what makes you different.
Find more customer service training tips, tools, and resources at www.jeffmowatt.com
We’ve gone Tubular, Dude!
November 2nd, 2011 by Jeff Mowatt No Comments
that is. Check-out my new 5 minute video where I tell a mountain bike story about building trust with customers. After viewing, please help me by checking “Like”. Then post a short comment and “Share” with it others in your email list. Enjoy!
Find more customer service training tips, tools, and resources at www.jeffmowatt.com
What others are saying about you
October 19th, 2011 by Jeff Mowatt No Comments
One of my favorite humorists and professional speaking colleagues, Bob Murphy, used to finish his speeches on a more serious note with this advice: “Take care of your reputation. Your reputation is like a shadow; it precedes you and determines how those you have yet to meet will welcome you. And like a shadow your reputation remains after you leave.” Bob passed away but his wisdom now seems prescient. With the proliferation of social media, we are blogging, tweeting, and posting comments about each other in unprecedented numbers. If you inadvertently offend or disappoint a customer and they spread the word on line, wouldn’t you want to know so you could either rectify it or explain the misunderstanding before it goes viral? Consider using “Google Alerts” to inform you when you or your organization’s name is posted on line. Your reputation is worth protecting.
Find more customer service training tips, tools, and resources at www.jeffmowatt.com
$180 Million Customer Service Foul-up
October 6th, 2011 by Jeff Mowatt No Comments
It used to be that an angry customer would tell approx 8-16 people. What would the fallout be if an unhappy customer told 3 million? It happened for real when Dave Carroll got fed-up because United Airlines broke his guitar in baggage and refused to replace it. He wrote a song, “United Breaks Guitars” and posted it on YouTube. Within 10 days the video had gone viral with over 3 million views. United’s share value dropped by $180 million! That’s an expensive guitar. Savvy managers recognize that they are expected to manage risk. It does indeed cost money to properly train employees on recovering customer goodwill after a mistake. That investment however, is a proverbial drop-in-the-bucket compared to the risk of not training. With the explosion of social media, one disgruntled customer can do serious financial damage. When was the last time your team had a customer service tune-up?
Find more customer service training tips, tools, and resources at www.jeffmowatt.com
That’s not my job!
October 5th, 2011 by Jeff Mowatt No Comments
I was dreading the labour of picking-up the paving stones (literally) at Red Deer’s Canar Rock & Landscape Supplies. Canar had salvage the discontinued pavers, and offered them to me for next to nothing. At that price, I was pretty sure I’d be doing the loading myself – especially since I needed to pick the sizes individually. To my delight however, when I arrived “Kim”, who was the acting manager on site, greeted me warmly, left the front office, grabbed another employee and completed loading in under 20 minutes. Apparently, at Canar the THAT’S NOT MY JOB philosophy isn’t embraced. WestJet is similar… between flights all crew members – including pilots – help groom the plane’s interior to speed-up flight turnarounds. Perhaps the lesson is that yes, employees have different job titles. ‘Customer Service’ however, is not a department; it’s a vital part of everyone’s job.
Find more customer service training tips, tools, and resources at www.jeffmowatt.com
It’s on the house
September 8th, 2011 by Jeff Mowatt No Comments
Whether traveling for business or pleasure, there comes a point where eating in restaurants becomes tiresome. And predictable. That’s why it came as such a refreshing change this summer in Dover, England when we visited La Scala Italian restaurant. As he served our 8 and 10 year old girls, the proprietor added, “If you finish all your supper, I’ll bring you some ice cream.” He looks at Lydia and I and adds, “…on the house.” After the main course, he offers Lydia and I some cappuccino; again, “on the house.” Finally, he brings gelato for the girls, and lemoncellos for Lydia and I. The liqueurs are naturally ‘on the house.’ The bill was not cheap, but all the extras made it seem like a bargain. The proprietor knew the value of being REMARKably different. What are you providing for your customers ‘on the house’?
Find more customer service training tips, tools, and resources at www.jeffmowatt.com
What’s mood got to do with it?
July 6th, 2011 by Jeff Mowatt No Comments
“It’s no big deal that we made the error; the customer wasn’t upset.” Is that the criteria your team members use when deciding how to deal with mistakes? One of the tips I share in my seminars is how to recover trust with customers when things go wrong. Unfortunately, the common practice in many organizations when they make a mistake is to do the minimum required to fix the problem. Especially if the customer isn’t particularly upset. The right thing to do when there is a problem is not just fix the problem; it’s also apologizing and providing something extra to address the additional time, hassle, and possible money the customer had to spend to finally get what they originally paid for. The mood of the customer has absolutely nothing to do with it. Do your customers need to be angry before you do the ethical thing?
Find more customer service training tips, tools, and resources at www.jeffmowatt.com
