Customer Satisfaction Quote – Alice MacDougall

Customer needs wants and expectations drive their behavior. The challenge for customer service representatives and other employees in any organization is to properly identify what it takes to promote customer and brand loyalty. The easiest way to accomplish this is to ensure that effective customer service and interpersonal communication training is conducted regularly. Also, employees are empowered to handle complaints and other customer issues as they occur, without delays or having to wait for supervisory approval.

“In business, you get what you want by giving other people what they want.” Alice MacDougall

A quote by Alice MacDougall sums up the idea of customer satisfaction.

Here are a few more Alice MacDougall quotes to enjoy…

For the poor the whole world is a self-constituted critic; your smallest action is open to debate. No secret place of your soul is safe from invasion.
I simply don’t believe in failure. In itself, it doesn’t exist. We create it. We make ourselves fail.
Poverty is relative, and the lack of food and of the necessities of life is not necessarily a hardship. Spiritual and social ostracism, the invasion of your privacy, are what constitute the pain of poverty.
For too many of us ease is far more soul-destroying than trouble.
A few hours with Beethoven are more restful than sleep.
One must eliminate the traditional and cling to the essential.
When one is altering the face of the universe one cannot remember small helpful acts.
Really to succeed, we must give; of our souls to the soulless, of our love to the lonely, of our intelligence to the dull. Business is quite as much a process of giving as it is of getting.
The small perplexities of small minds eddy and boil about you. Confident from the experience that has led you out of these same dangers, you attack each problem as it appears, unafraid.
Work becomes at once a delight and a tyrant. For even when the time comes and you can relax, you hardly know-how.
Much of the success of life depends upon keeping one’s mind open to opportunity and seizing it when it comes.
Life means opportunity, and the thing men call death is the last wonderful, beautiful adventure.
I am always glad to think that my education was, for the most part, informal, and had not the slightest reference to a future business career. It left me free and untrammeled to approach my business problems without the limiting influence of specific training.
Hunger and cold, ill-health and pain are nothing. They pass. The thing that remains is ignorant criticism, well-meaning but futile advice, the contempt of a subordinate, the feelings of the underdog.
That is the wearisome part of business – there is no peace, no sense of certain, permanent achievement, no stability. The unexpected, and usually the awful, is forever happening.
Not only is orderliness an economy; it produces rest.
Perhaps nothing in all my business has helped me more than faith in my fellow man. From the very first I felt confident that I could trust the great, friendly public. So I told it quite simply what I thought, what I felt, what I was trying to do. And the response was quick, sure, and immediate.
Success is an absurd, erratic thing. She arrives when one least expects her and after she has come may depart again almost because of a whim.
In business everyone is out to grab, to fight, to win. Either you are the under or the overdog. It is up to you to be on top.

Learn About Robert C. Lucas – Your Customer Service Skills Expert and Award-Winning Author that is a huge fan of Alice MacDougall

Bob Lucas has been a trainer, presenter, customer service expert, and adult educator for over four decades. He has written hundreds of articles on training, writing, self-publishing, and workplace learning skills and issues. He is also an award-winning author who has written thirty-seven books on topics such as, writing, relationships, customer service, brain-based learning, and creative training strategies, interpersonal communication, diversity, and supervisory skills.

Additionally, he has contributed articles, chapters, and activities to eighteen compilation books. Bob retired from the U.S. Marine Corps in 1991 after twenty-two years of active and reserve service.

Bob Lucas B.S., M.A., M.A, CPLP is the principal in Robert W. Lucas Enterprises, Inc and an internationally-known author; learning and performance professionals. He has written and contributed to numerous books on the subject of customer service skill training.

He regularly conducts workshops on creative training, train-the-trainer, customer service, interpersonal communication, and management,
and supervisory skills.

Learn more about Bob and his organization at www.robertwlucas.com and follow his blogs at www.robertwlucas.com/wordpress,
www.customerserviceskillsbook.com, and www.thecreativetrainer.com. Like Bob at www.facebook.com/robertwlucasenterprises

Target Unauthorized Access to Credit Card Data Will Impact Customer Trust

by Robert W. Lucas

Target Unauthorized Access to Credit Card Data Will Impact Customer Trust

While no one died (as when someone tampered with Tylenol tablets in the 80s) and the environment was not destroyed (as with the Exxon Valez in the 80s or BP oil spill in 2010), millions of loyal customers and potential Target customers have been impacted by their latest corporate PR nightmare as millions of credit card customers had their personal data inappropriately accessed. During some of the busiest shopping times of the year (November 27-December 15, 2013) someone gained unauthorized access to over 40 million credit files for Target customers who used credit cards to shop in their stores.

Even though no fraud cases have yet to be determined, Target is struggling to get ahead of this potential massive loss. Customers have complained that they are not able to access their online Target accounts or get through on crowded chat and phone lines. Losses could add up significantly for Target as they make their final holiday shopping season push. Like the huge T.J. Maxx lawsuits that followed a similar breach in the past, Target will likely be the focus of a class-action suit that might cost them large payouts. Couple that with potential lost shopping revenue, canceled Target Red credit accounts and a massive hit on trust from customers and potential customers and the company is not likely to have a very merry holiday season…or a good end of the year financial report. In addition, brand and customer loyalty will likely take a big hit into the foreseeable future, depending on how the company manages this situation.

An article on The Wall Street Journal’s Market Watch blog has more details about this incident.

Since trust is the key element of any customer-provider relationship, frontline customer service representatives have to be prepared to handle service breakdowns and customer complaints. To get ideas of how you might deal with such situations if your company encounters a crash and you need to initiate service recovery initiatives, get a copy of Customer Service Skills for Success.

About Robert C. Lucas

Make Money Writing Books: Proven Profit Making Strategies for Authors by Robert W. Lucas at Amazon.com.

The key to successfully making money as an author and/or self-publisher is to brand yourself and your company and to make yourself and your book(s) a household name. Part of this is face-to-face interaction with people at trade shows, library events, book readings, book store signings, blogging or guest blogging on a topic related to their book(s). Another strategy involves writing articles and other materials that show up online and are found when people search for a given topic related to a topic about which the author has written.

If you need help building an author platform, branding yourself and your book(s) or generating recognition for what you do, Make Money Writing Books will help. Bob’s popular book addresses a multitude of ideas and strategies that you can use to help sell more books and create residual and passive income streams. The tips outlined in the book are focused to help authors but apply to virtually any professional trying to increase personal and product recognition and visibility.

Customer Satisfaction Quote – Donald Porter

by Robert W. Lucas

Customer Satisfaction Quote – Donald Porter

Loyal customers are the most valuable asset of an organization that an organization can have. By identifying and meeting their needs, wants and expectations, customer service representatives and other employees can help ensure that they not only demonstrate customer and brand loyalty but also tell others about their positive service experiences.

“Customers don’t expect you to be perfect. They expect you to fix things when they go wrong.” Donald Porter

As Donald Porter, a V.P. at British Airways once said:

For strategies and techniques on how to build effective customer and brand loyalty in your organization, get a copy of Customer Service Skills for Success by Robert W. Lucas.

Here are a few more cool quotes from Donald Porter…

“No matter how great the reputation, all organisations are only as good as today’s performance.” – Donald Porter
“legions of disappointed customers have taken the opportunity to vent their frustration online”

Learn about the Customer Service Blogger – Robert C. Lucas who is a big fan of Donald Porter

Additionally, he has contributed articles, chapters, and activities to eighteen compilation books. Bob retired from the U.S. Marine Corps in 1991 after twenty-two years of active and reserve service.

He regularly conducts workshops on creative training, train-the-trainer, customer service, interpersonal communication, and management,
and supervisory skills.

Customer Service Quote – Kate Zabriskie

by Robert W. Lucas

Customer Service Quote – Kate Zabriskie

All customer service representatives and others in their organization play an integral part in ensuring that they deliver the best possible customer service. Each person is responsible for having current product and service knowledge and skills in order to answer questions and resolve customer related issues as they surface. When they and their organization skimp on training or time for effective service delivery, the inevitable result will be dissatisfied customers who tell others of their negative encounter and desert to a competing organization.

“Although your customers won’t love you if you give bad service your competitors will.” Kate Zabriskie

A quote by Kate Zabriskie sums up the importance of providing quality customer service in order to retain customers.

Another amazing quote by Kate Zabriskie is: “If you want to go out and buy on your own, you have to be prepared to absorb the cost.”

For ideas and strategies on how to create a positive customer service environment where employees work cohesively to identify customer needs, wants and expectations and then set about satisfying them, get a copy of Customer Service Skills for Success, How to Be A Great Call Center Representative and Please Every Customer: Delivering Stellar Customer Service Across Cultures.

About Robert C. Lucas – A customer service fan of Kate Zabriskie

Additionally, he has contributed articles, chapters, and activities to eighteen compilation books. Bob retired from the U.S. Marine Corps in 1991 after twenty-two years of active and reserve service.

He regularly conducts workshops on creative training, train-the-trainer, customer service, interpersonal communication, and management,
and supervisory skills.

Three Ways to Enhance Customer Service in Any Organization

by Robert W. Lucas

Three Ways to Enhance Customer Service in Any Organization

Finding ways to build a strong customer-centric organization and help build customer and brand loyalty seems to take a lot of time in organizations today.

Here are three ways that customer service representatives and others in the organization can help ensure service success and better needs the changing needs wants and expectations of current and potential customers.

Decide on an appropriate course of action for resolution of problems or satisfaction of needs only after adequate information has been gathered through effective questioning.
Ensure that all employees have the same level of training and knowledge pertaining to products, services and that they adhere to policies and procedures for dealing with all customer situations.
Find ways to make sure that positive customer service becomes second nature to employees throughout the organization. This includes creating an environment in which service providers are proud of the organization, themselves, and the service that they provide.

For more ideas on effectively creating an environment that encourages customer and brand loyalty, get copies of Customer Service Skills for Success, How to Be a Great Call Center Representative and Please Every Customer: Delivering Stellar Customer Service Across Cultures.

About Robert C. Lucas

Make Money Writing Books: Proven Profit Making Strategies for Authors by Robert W. Lucas at Amazon.com.

Delivering Positive Customer Service Every Time

by Robert W. Lucas

Delivering Positive Customer Service Every Time

With regular access to products and services from around the world, consumers no longer use cost as their single determining factor when making a buying decision. They look at other factors like delivery policy and times, quality, and levels of service received. Often, the deciding factor for some people is how well they are treated and if their needs are truly considered and met by service providers. The key to transforming visitors into loyal customers is for every employee at all levels of the organization to take ownership of each customer encounter.

Follow the ABCs of customer service for more effectively serving potential and returning customers.

Assume that every person with whom you come into contact is a cherished customer or potential customer and make them feel as such.

Begin each encounter with statements that make the person feel welcome and that you are truly there to assist them in whatever ways possible.

Create an environment on the telephone, via the Internet and in-person in which customers can access the information that they need to answer questions, educate them, and aid in making an informed buying decision.

About Robert C. Lucas

Make Money Writing Books: Proven Profit Making Strategies for Authors by Robert W. Lucas at Amazon.com.

Four Tips for Delivering Exceptional Customer Service

by Robert W. Lucas

Four Tips for Delivering Exceptional Customer Service

Each customer is unique, yet similar. The challenge is to identify their specific needs, wants and expectations and they work hard to meet and exceed those.

The following tips can help you provide better service to all your customers:

To aid you in your quest for providing the best possible customer service, read whatever positive information you can get your hands on related to customer service.
Take classes on how to interact and communicate with a variety of different categories of diverse people (e.g. older/younger, differing genders, culturally diverse, and differently-abled).
Sign up for courses in psychology, sociology, and interpersonal communication. These are invaluable for providing a basis of understanding why people act as they do and how to more effectively interact with them in various environments.
During your studies, focus on issues of differences and similarities between men and women, cultural diversity, behavioral styles, and any other topic that will expand and round out your knowledge of people.

By going out of your way to enhance your customer service knowledge and skills and improve customer service, you can effectively impact brand and customer loyalty for your organization.

For more ideas on how to create a customer-centric environment where customers enjoy coming to visit you and the organization, read Customer Service Skills for Success and Please Every Customer: Delivering Stellar Customer Service Across Cultures.

About Robert C. Lucas

Make Money Writing Books: Proven Profit Making Strategies for Authors by Robert W. Lucas at Amazon.com.

Inspirational Customer Service Quote – Peter Drucker

by Robert W. Lucas

Inspirational Customer Service Quote – Peter Drucker

Quality in a service or product is not what you put into it. It is what the client or customer gets out of it. Peter Drucker

Here are a few more amazing quotes by Peter Drucker…

“Do not believe that it is very much of an advance to do the unnecessary three times as fast.” – Peter Drucker
“The most serious mistakes are not being made as a result of wrong answers. The true dangerous thing is asking the wrong question.” – Peter Drucker
“Entrepreneurship is “risky” mainly because so few of the so-called entrepreneurs know what they are doing.” – Peter Drucker
“Managers are action-focused; they are not philosophers and should not be.” – Peter Drucker
“Cultivate a deep understanding of yourself – not only what your strengths and weaknesses are but also how you learn, how you work with others, what your values are, and where you can make the greatest contribution. Because only when you operate from strengths can you achieve true excellence.” – Peter Drucker
“The only skill that will be important in the 21st century is the skill of learning new skills.Everything else will become obsolete over time.” – Peter Drucker
“It’s amazing how many things busy people are doing that never will be missed.” – Peter Drucker
“If you have more than five goals, you have none.” – Peter Drucker
“To make the future demands courage. It demands work. But it also demands faith.” – Peter Drucker
“There are two types of people in the business community: those who produce results and those who give you reasons why they didn’t.” – Peter Drucker
“The critical question is not “How can I achieve?” but “What can I contribute?”” – Peter Drucker
“You cannot prevent a major catastrophe, but you can build an organization that is battle-ready, where people trust one another. In military training, the first rule is to instill soldiers with trust in their officers – because without trust, they won’t fight.” – Peter Drucker
“Every time you do something that is important, write down what you expect will happen.” – Peter Drucker
“As a manager you’re paid to be uncomfortable. If you’re comfortable, it’s a sure sign you’re doing things wrong.” – Peter Drucker
“There is the risk you cannot afford to take, and there is the risk you cannot afford not to take.” – Peter Drucker
“To make a living is no longer enough. Work also has to make a life.” – Peter Drucker
“To succeed in this new world, we will have to learn, first, who we are. Few people, even highly successful people, can answer the questions, Do you know what you’re good at? Do you know what you need to learn so that you get the full benefit of your strengths? Few have even asked themselves these questions.” – Peter Drucker
“Adequacy is the enemy of excellence.” – Peter Drucker
“Brilliant men are often strikingly ineffectual. They fail to realize that the brilliant insight is not by itself achievement. They never have learned that insights become effectiveness only through hard systematic work.” – Peter Drucker
“Replace your pursuit of success with the pursuit of contribution.” – Peter Drucker
“There are just two questions to ask to attain success in business: First, “What business am I in?” Second, “How’s business?”” – Peter Drucker
“Effective people are not problem minded; they’re opportunity-minded. They feed opportunities and starve problems. They think preventively.” – Peter Drucker
“Don’t try to innovate for the future. Innovate for the present!” – Peter Drucker
“The customer rarely buys what the company thinks it’s selling.” – Peter Drucker
“We live in an age of unprecedented opportunity: If you’ve got ambition and smarts, you can rise to the top of your chosen profession, regardless of where you started out.” – Peter Drucker

Learn About Robert C. Lucas – A Raving Fan of Peter Drucker

Make Money Writing Books: Proven Profit Making Strategies for Authors by Robert W. Lucas at Amazon.com.

Here are a few more Peter Drucker Quotes to enjoy reading…

“People who need certainty are unlikely to make good entrepreneurs.” – Peter Drucker
“No one has ever failed to find the facts they are looking for.”
“If you’re not living life on the edge, you’re taking up too much space.”
“The real achiever does one thing at a time.”
“By themselves, character and integrity do not accomplish anything. But their absence faults everything else.”
“Luck never built a business. Prosperity and growth come only to the business that systematically finds and exploits its potential.” – Peter Drucker
“Do what you do best, and outsource the rest.
“It is better to pick the wrong priority than none at all.”
“To satisfy the customer is the mission and purpose of every business.”
“Most innovators are successful to the extent to which they define risks and confine them.”
“One can either work or meet. One cannot do both at the same time.”
“Every success creates new opportunities. So does every failure.” – Peter Drucker

Inspirational Customer Service Quote – Larry Winget

by Robert W. Lucas

Inspirational Customer Service Quote – Larry Winget

Here are a few more quotes from Larry Winget…

I don’t have any interest in taking care of people. My interest is in teaching people to take care of themselves.
Everything in life is a lesson. Refusing to learn the lesson means that it will be repeated until the lesson is learned.
I love when people cry. It shows me that they finally have attached emotion to their stupidity. When you finally, finally, finally feel bad to cry about it, then that shows me that maybe you just might care.
Training is expensive. Books are expensive. Going to seminars is expensive. Being stupid is even more expensive.
If your life sucks, it’s because you suck.
When people tell you how honest they are, keep your hand on your wallet.
Let me make this clear: There are no secrets. None. There is no new information. What it took to be successful a thousand years ago is exactly what it takes to be successful today.
It’s better to have a good divorce than a bad marriage.
Three main reasons people are not successful: They are stupid. They are lazy. They don’t give a damn.
If you are unhappy, unsuccessful, sick, or broke – please just keep it to yourself. The rest of us don’t want or need to hear about it, so don’t feel compelled to share!
The problem with “self-help” is that there is way too much help and not enough self.
The number one, most important, get-this-or-fail short lesson for both work and business: Do what you say you are going to do, when you said you were going to do it, in the way you said you were going to do it.
Nobody ever wrote down a plan to be broke, fat, lazy or stupid. Those are the things that happen when you don’t have a plan.
Stress comes from knowing what is right and doing what is wrong.
People change when they want to change; not when you want them to change.
People don’t like what I have to say because I promise hard work is the key to changing your life. Hard work is never going to sell like a positive attitude is going to sell, but it will get you a lot farther.
Do you want to know a quick way for finding out if someone knows more than you do? Look at their results. Results never lie.
Being healthy is a choice.
Do you have people in your life who have “done you wrong?” If you are like most people, then you do. Are you harboring anger, resentment, and hard feelings toward them? Let it go. Forgive them. Not because they deserve it – because they honestly may not. But do it because you deserve it.
Want to be more successful? Stop doing the things that keep you from being successful.
Create the life you want to have by living by design and not by default.

About Robert C. Lucas

Make Money Writing Books: Proven Profit Making Strategies for Authors by Robert W. Lucas at Amazon.com.

In my book Customer Service Skills for Success, I define customer service as “the ability of knowledgeable, capable, and enthusiastic employees to deliver products and services to their internal and external customers in a manner that satisfies identified and unidentified needs and ultimately results in positive word-of-mouth publicity and return business.”

Building Successful Customer Loyalty

by Robert W. Lucas

Building Successful Customer Loyalty

Customer loyalty is an emotional rather than a rational thing. Each time there is contact at a touchpoint where the customer and service provider come together there is the opportunity for further cementing the customer relationship and loyalty or driving a wedge between the customer and organization due to failure to meet expectations or needs.

With every contact, service providers should strive to demonstrate a commitment to exceed customer expectations and provide an experience that is beyond anything for which they might have hoped. Tied to commitment, loyalty is typically based on customer interest in maintaining a relationship with your organization or brand. Often, customer interest is created and maintained through one or more positive experiences that lead to a relationship.

An important point to keep in mind about customer loyalty is that it does not happen as a result of a single customer-provider encounter. Nor does it happen just because of periodic special promotions, sales or passive loyalty programs that provide only minimal rewards. Rather, true customer loyalty stems from an organization’s concerted, ongoing efforts that are part of their strategic goals to meet and exceed the expectations and needs of their customers.

For more information on customer loyalty and how to create and maintain a solid bond with your customers, get copies of Customer Service Skills for Success and Please Every Customer: Delivering Stellar Customer Service Across Cultures.

About Robert C. Lucas

Make Money Writing Books: Proven Profit Making Strategies for Authors by Robert W. Lucas at Amazon.com.