Site Map

Training Tip of-the-week

• Customer Service Blog

Individual Interested in Professional Development

• Overview

Sales and Customer Service Practices

• Enhancing Cold-Calling Results
• Enhancing Telephone Skills
• Managing Customer Waiting Lines
• Greeting Customers and Establishing Rapport
• Subtle Influence and Persuasion Skills
• "Up-selling" Without Being Pushy
• Dealing with Upset People
• Enhancing Your Professional Image

Leading a Sales and/or Service Team

• Key Leadership Qualities
• Juggling Projects, Customers and Administration
• Improving the Sales and Service Culture
• Retaining and Motivating Frontline Staff

Complete List of Customer Service Articles

Managing Customer Waiting Lines

• Managing Multiple Customers - 5 tips for juggling customers, callers and walk-ins
• Yes, I Mind Waiting - 10 ways to reduct lineup stress for staff and customers

Greeting Customers and Establishing Trust

• For Openers - Five greetings that bost sales to walk-in visitors
• Getting Your foot in the Door - 7 steps to successful cold-calling
• Grand Intentions to Greater Sales
• Making Connections - How to creat rapport with anyone in under 30 seconds
• The Shocking Truth About Your Image - Four bizarre reasons customers may not like you
• Test Your Telephone Effectiveness - Find out if your phone practices are winning or losing customers

Influence and Persuasion Skills

• 30 Seconds to Significant Sales - How to up-sell without turning off your customer
• Creating a Customer Feeding Frenzy - Four tools that make you simply irresistible
• Crucial Questions to Superior Sales
• Selling Yourself Short? - How to stand-out without lowering your price
• Phrases That Pay - Simple statements that increase your perceived value
• The Humility Advantage - How Less Ego Creates More Sales
• When Talking to Strangers - 3 reasons potential customers may distrust you
• Your Irresistible Offer - Proposals that convert prospects into buyers
• Million Dollar Conversations - How to grow your business with your best cusomters

Dealing with Upset Customers

• 10 Ways to Break It to Them Gently - Diplomacy tips that keep customers
• Keeping Customers When Things Go Wrong - Five keys to turning upset customers into fans

Customer Service Trends/Strategic Planning

• 7 Keys to Creating a Customer Focused Culture - Walking the Talk of your Mission Statement
• Boosting your Business in a Slow Economy
• Buying Trends - the Shift to Hassle-Free
• Chili and Your Intuition - 8 ingredients for making better strategic decisions
• How not to Plan your Company's Future - 5 common mistakes when identifying customer needs
• Management Lessons from a Car Wash Guy
• Risky Business - How repeat customers may jeopardize your future
• Speed Kills - The service standard that does more harm then good
• Telus' Leadership Lesson in Brand Mismanagement
• The Future of Customer Service
• The Myth of Treating People Fairly and Equally
• When the Cat's Away - Getting better frontline decisions - without you
• When You're the Top Dog - Three keys to leading like a professional
• What Boomer Women Want - new rules for retailing to these harried customers
• When 60 Minutes Calls - How to handle the media during a customer service crisis

Juggling Projects, Customers and Administration

• Are You Too Busy to Be Productive? - Why customers shouldn't be your first priority
• How to Work Less and Get More Done
• Managing Multiple Priorities - How to juggle projects, customers and admin - and still have a life

Retaining and Motivating Frontline Staff

• Are your People Problems really the issue? - Take this Mini Quiz
• Becoming the Employer of Choice - How to boost staff loyalty - without buying it
• Making Attitude Adjustments
• Motivating your Sales Team - Making More Sales with Fewer Calls
• Staffing Shortages? Maybe You're the Problem
• Tea and the Secrets of Staff Retention
• Watch your Language - the truth about language, diversity, and customer service

Complete List of Customer Service Training Tips

Tips on How to Make a Positive First Impression

• Get in-sync with customers
• "Hi, Have you been here before"
• Avoid telling the world your troubles
• Avoiding Wardrobe Malfunctions
• Learn the Local Language
• What Neatness Really Means
• Is Your Public Behavior Remarkable?
• Casual Elegance or Casual Sloppy
• When Does a Sale Begin?
• What's in a Name?
• Business Etiquette - Are you On Time?
• It's OK to Fake it Now and Then
• Great Service despite Bad Days
• Looking for love in the Wrong Places
• I'm not your Buddy
• The Most Powerful Words in Customer Service

Tips on How to Improve Customer Service

• Two words to boost your Business
• I'll be "Happy To"
• "No Problem"
• "Sir and Madam" (Politeness that's Considered Rude)
• Answer the Question, then Elaborate
• Ask if it Would be Useful
• "My Pleasure"
• "Anything Else I Can Do For You?"
• Power of Touch
• What do you think We can do to Improve?
• "I'll Take Care of It"
• The Reciprocity Response
• Make Your "Thank You" Memorable
• It's In The Bag
• Ensure That Customers get Your Message
• Take Ten Before & Ten After
• How do you Rate Your Status
• Do you "Have to" or "Get to"?
• Stop Checking your Blackberry
• What Are You Like to Work With?
• Overall Context Over Immediate Concern
• "That's A Great Question..."
• Problems Solved within 24 Hours
• Creating Clarity for Distracted Customers
• It's OK - I Trust You
• Pass The Candy Dish
• Tell them Why they're a Good Customer
• Are You a Friend or a Professional?
• Just Say No to the Nightly News
• Are you an Informer or Interpreter
• When You Forget Their Name
• The 'Secret' of Customer Service Motivation
• I am Not an Action!
• Happiness and the Roto-Rooter Guy
• Those darned customers!
• When Customers are Clumsy
• Does your expertise insult customers?
• It's on the house
• That's not my job!

Tips on How to Handle Customers on the Telephone

• "Thank You for Calling..."
• How May I Rush You?
• Nix "...speaking" from your Telephone Greeting
• How to Lose a Customer in Under Five Seconds
• "Returning your call"
• Transferring a call, "Certainly"
• Receiving a Transferred Call
• Interrupt Caller - Call Their Name
• Common Blunders with 'Please-hold' Messages
• Avoiding the Run-around
• When You're being Pushed

Tips on How to Manage Waiting Lines, Line-Ups, and Multiple Customers

• Are you Breaking Assumed Promises
• Do you 'Accidentally' Offend Customers?
• Instant Acknowledgment
• Are you Visible and Available?
• Eye on the Prize
• Service isn't Servitude

Tips on How to Break Bad News Gently

• Tone Down Bad News
• Catastophize and Take Responsibility
• Give the Positive Side of Info "Walk Please"
• "Do you ant the Good News...?"
• "We can't Overlook...
• Reveal Similar Circumstances
• Three Words that Annoy Customers
• Softening a Blunt Message
• When Cheerfulness Backfires
• How to lose friends and disinterest people
• Whatever happened to bravery?
• The worst way to break bad news

Tips on How to Deal with Dissatisfied Customers and Handle Complaints

• Give something for inconvenience
• Upset customers - don't ask "Why?"
• Discuss customer concenrs, not complaints
• What will work best for you?
• The Power of Empathy
• Take Ownership of Complaints
• Lighten the Load for Upset Customers
• Take Recovery Skills to a Higher Level
• How to Disarm a Bank Robber
• What Can You Do?
• Dissatisfied Customers - What's Really At Stake
• What NOT to say to upset Customers
• One word that makes bad things worse
• What's mood got to do with it?
• What others are saying about you

Tips on Customer Service Systems and Trends

• Experience Skills
• Are you Predictable?
• Service is a popularity contest
• Are your repeat customers Loyal?
• To whom do you give preference?
• Closing the Customer Feedback Loop
• Students of Customer Surveys
• Fair isn't Equal
• What's your First Priority?
• The most Profitable Customers
• Creating a Customer Focused Culture
• How to Compete when Value is Assumed
• The Misnomer of Customer 'Loyalty' Programs
• The Soft Sounds of Spending
• Don't be Better, be Different
• A Lesson from King Arthur
• The joy of 'Hassle Free'
• What are You Like to Work With?
• Hiring Motivated Employees
• What your customers are Really Saying
• When Nature Calls
• Good News about the Recession
• Serve the Whales
• The Next Big Thing in Customer Service
• Good News Fridays
• Insider Information
• Motivating your Millennials
• Why Customer Service Rumours are Spreading
• The Downside of Good Service
• No big deal losing a few customers?
• $180 Million Customer Service Foul-up
• Are you Hiding Behind your Website?

Tips on How to Sell

• "Really, believe me"
• Ask permission to present
• The Rule of Three
• Share your Grand Intention
• Ask a Question as a Statement
• Ask question, then stop
• "What that means to you is...
• Quoting package Savings
• Replace 'if' with 'when'
• Honesty - Point out Your Product's Weaknesses
• Could you Give me Some Advice?
• Point out that you're not on Commission
• Offer a "Unique Selling Proposition"
• The Power of Demonstration
• Personal Stories Sell
• Use "Linking Phrases"
• Your Thoughts?
• Selling Smarter
• Creating the Right Selling Mindset
• Sell More by Taking it Away
• Conveying Professional Pride without Bragging
• Offer Less and Sell More
• The Value of the Slight Edge
• Ask What if...?
• The Myth of Requesting Referrals
• I'm Probably Overselling This
• Selling to Skeptical Customers
• The Myth of Low Prices
• The "Number One" way to Lose a Sale
• What's Your Customer's Budget?
• No referrals for good service
• What makes you different?
• Use a PUP to Grow your Business

Tips on How to Identify Customer Needs

• Give Positive Intentions before asking Questions
• Summarize your Understanding
• "...see if there's a fit"
• "It sounds like..."
• Echo Technique
• Getting Faster results by Slowing Down
• Ask About the Budget
• Crucial Questions to Superior Sales
• Six words to become a Trusted Advisor
• When to ingnore customer wants and likes

Tips on How to Up-sell and Cross-sell

• Upselling - timing is crucial
• The Professional Upselling Difference
• Convert "Up-selling" into "Value-adding"
• Make-the-Day of your Best Customers

Tips on How to Handle Buying Objections

• Embracing Your Critics
• Do you talk price or value?
• Put Pricing in Perspective

Tips on How to Qualify Prospects

• Sell to the Top
• Quality Prospects "Have a Family Meeting"
• How is the Decision Made...?

Tips on How to Cold Call

• Cold calling, "How are you?"
• Getting Face-to-Face
• You're not in a Meeting are You?
• Warming up Cold-Calls

Tips on How to Negotiate

• "I had in mind"
• Replace 'but' with 'and
• Focus on interests vs position
• "I see your point"
• The Gasp Reaction
• Negotiate Trade-offs
• Setting the Stage for Win/Win
• Stop Wasting Time and Profits on Bottom Feeders
• Negotiating with Nay-Sayers
• How to Not Sell Yourself Short

Tips on How to Become a Better Leader

• My Dad's Annoying Advice
• Leadership Lessons From Peter Rabbit
• Leaders Speak Last in Meetings
• Wishy-Washy or In-Command?
• Are You For or Against This?
• Group Presentations - Eye Contact
• Do You Confront or Attack?
• The Hundred Dollar Handshake
• One sentence to inspire an employee
• Zen in the Art of Customer Service

Tips on How to Influence Others

• Challenge the Conventional Wisdom
• Complain to the Top
• Weekly Update
• "I Wonder if You Might Help Me"
• No one Likes a Know-it-all
• Express Anger but Don't Demonstrate
• If I Asked you Politely
• Speak Lower Than Previous Person
• Ensuring That You've Been Listened-to
• Itemize Your Points and Questions
• "Good Time to Talk?"
• Make the Most of Compliments
• "You'll like this..."
• The Myth of Self-Promotion
• Two Words that Gain Commitment
• A Lesson from Grandma
• Release the Hot Air from Puffery Statements
• Enought with the, "Happy Holidays"
• You Bring... I Bring
• Show-up Like a Grown-up
• Agree to Disagree
• The Myth of Self Expression
• Voicing Opinions or Spouting Platitudes?
• Take Some Calendar Comfort
• What I DO Know is...