Customer Service Inspirational Quote – Karl Albrecht & Ron Zemke

Successful customer service representatives, and others in their organization who want to ensure high levels of customer and brand satisfaction, realize that only their dedication and positive attitudes can lead to success.

A simple concept summarized in the following statement, by noted customer service consultants and authors Karl Albrecht and Ron Zemke, provides a solid insight in how to shine in the service profession.

Other Amazing Quotes by Karl Albrecht…

There are only two ways to establish a competitive advantage: do things better than others or do them differently.
You seldom improve quality by cutting costs, but you can often cut costs by improving quality.
Start out with an ideal and end up with a deal.
Albrecht’s Law – Intelligent people, when assembled into an organization, will tend toward collective stupidity.
In an organization of any significant size, the executives cannot create the future single-handedly. They must develop the enterprise in a constellation of teams within the overall team if they hope to bring the special talents and resources to bear on the challenge of creating superior customer value and sustaining a competitive advantage in the eyes of its customers.
The Zen philosophy posits that ‘human beings suffer’ and ‘the cause of suffering is desire.’ The way to put an end to suffering is to stop wanting everything, all the time.
Customer needs have an unsettling way of not staying satisfied for very long.

Another Amazing Quote by Ron Zemke…

Customers don’t distinguish between you and the company you work for. To the customer’s way of thinking, you are the company.

For specific ideas and strategies on how to effectively provide stellar service to customers, get copies of Customer Service Skills for Success, Please Every Customer: Delivering Stellar Customer Service Across Cultures and How to Be a Great Call Center Representative.

About Robert C. Lucas

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

Customer Service Quote – Michael LeBoeuf

by Robert W. Lucas

Customer Service Quote – Michael LeBoeuf

Organizations and customer service representatives that go out of their way to identify customer needs, wants and expectations, have a better chance of increasing brand and customer loyalty than competitors who do not.

By working hard to create a customer-centric organization, businesses increase the likelihood that customers will return and tell others about their positive service experiences.

For proven customer service ideas and strategies for building a strong service culture and delivering stellar customer service in your organization, get copies of Customer Service Skills for Success, Please Every Customer: Delivering Stellar Customer Service Across Cultures and How to Be a Great Call Center Representative.

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.

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.”

Here are a few more quotes from Michael LaBoeuf…

A satisfied customer is the best business strategy of all.
The world is your mirror and your mind is a magnet. What you perceive in this world is largely a reflection of your own attitudes and beliefs. Life will give you what you attract with your thoughts think, act and talk negatively and your world will be negative. Think and act and talk with enthusiasm and you will attract positive results.
Every company’s greatest assets are its customers because without customers there is no company.
The greatest management principle in the world is: ‘the things that get rewarded and appreciated get done.’
All of us live at the feeling level, and our feelings are in large part a result of the way we perceive things. You observe or are told something, you interpret it, and only then do you have a reaction at the feeling level. The point is that feeling is preceded by perception, and all of us are capable of controlling our interpretation [the associations and assumptions] of what we see. If we can control our interpretation, then it logically follows that we can exercise some control over our feelings as well.
The most important key to successful investing can be summed up in just two words-asset allocations.
When you write down your ideas you automatically focus your full attention on them. Few if any of us can write one thought and think another at the same time. Thus a pencil and paper make excellent concentration tools.
Too many start-up business fail simply because their owners continue to think and act like employees.
The ultimate goal of a more effective and efficient life is to provide you with enough time to enjoy some of it.
It’s important for you to understand that stock and bonds go up-and they go down. You need to be comfortable with that fact.
As for worrying about what other people might think – forget it. They aren’t concerned about yours. They’re too busy worrying about what you and other people think of theirs.
We talk about saving time and killing time when actually we can’t do either. We have no choice but to spend it at a constant and flowing rate.
The things that get rewarded, get done
Knowing nothing about investing might be a benefit. You won’t have to unlearn many popular beliefs propagated by Wall Street and the media that aren’t true.
Index investing is an investment strategy that Walter Mitty would love. It takes very little investment knowledge, no skill, practically no time or effort-and outperforms about 80 percent of all investors.
Adversity is an experience, not a final act.

Customer Service Tip for Adult Educators

by Robert W. Lucas

Customer Service Tip for Adult Educators

The face of higher education is continuing to evolve. Ethnicity, the numbers of attendees in terms of age and sex, expectations, the manner in which information is delivered and virtually every aspect of the way you do business and education has been touched in some way by events over which you sometimes have no control.

Things such as world events, the economy, changing technology, competition from new sources, and the values of learners shift rapidly. The potential student population is also expected to grow in coming years as Generation Yers (Millennials – 1980s to early 2000s) are aging, since this is the largest generation behind the Boomers (1946-1964).

The one aspect of the whole process over which you and your organization do have control — is the level and quality of service that you and your institution provide to your customers – your students.

To deal with this trend…

If you remember nothing else related to customer service, think about this. EVERYONE that you and your institution come into contact is either a customer or potential customer! If you can get your mind around that fact and treat students and their caregivers with the best quality of service possible; then, you have tremendous opportunity to compete effectively with all other institutions of higher learning and knowledge sources.

This action alone can lead to customer loyalty and positive word-of-mouth publicity for you as an educator and your institution.

For information, ideas and strategies on how to deliver excellent customer service get copies of Customer Service Skills for Success and Please Every Customer: Delivering Stellar Customer Service Across Cultures.

About Robert C. Lucas

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.

Dealing with Difficult Customers

by Robert W. Lucas

Dealing with Difficult Customers

You may think of difficult customer contacts as those in which you have to deal with negative, angry, demanding, or aggressive people. These are just a few of the types of potentially difficult interactions that you may encounter as a customer service representative.

From time to time, you will also be called upon to help customers who can be described in one or more of the following ways:

Are dissatisfied with your service or products.
Are indecisive or lack knowledge about your product, service, or policies.
Are you rude or inconsiderate of others?
Are talkative.
Are internal customers with special requests.
Speak a primary language other than yours.
Are you elderly and need extra assistance.
Are young and inexperienced who might need to be guided in making a good choice.
Have some type of disability.

Each of the above categories can be difficult to handle, depending on your knowledge, experience, abilities and organizational policies. A key to successfully serving all types of customers is to treat each person as an individual. If you stereotype people, you will likely damage the customer-provider relationship and might even generate complaints to your supervisor or legal action against you and your organization based on perceived discrimination. Avoid labeling people according to their behavior. Do not mentally categorize people (put them into groups) according to the way they speak, act, or look—and then treat everyone in a “group” the same way.

Ultimately, you will deliver successful service through your effective communication skills, positive attitude, patience, knowledge, service experience, and willingness to help the customer. Your ability to focus on the situation or problem and not on the person will be a very important factor in your success. Making the distinction between the person and the problem is especially important when you are faced with difficult situations in the service environment. Although you may not understand or approve of a person’s behavior, he or she is still your customer. Try to make the interaction a positive one, and if necessary ask for assistance from a co-worker or refer the problem to an appropriate level in your operational chain of command.

For ideas and strategies on how to deal with a variety of different customers and customer situations, get copies of Customer Service Skills for Success, Please Every Customer: Delivering Stellar Customer Service Across Cultures and How to Be a Great Call Center Representative.

About Robert C. Lucas

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

Customer Service Inspirational Quote – Sam Walton

by Robert W. Lucas

Customer Service Inspirational Quote – Sam Walton

“High Expectations are the key to everything.” – Sam Walton

A key to being a successful customer service representative is gaining the knowledge and skills necessary to deal with a changing global business environment. In today’s world, it is not enough for service providers to simply be knowledgeable about their organization’s products and services. They must also have effective interpersonal skills (e.g. verbal, nonverbal and listening), knowledge of the needs, wants and expectations of different demographic groups (e.g. gender, cultural, ethnic, age and abilities), and solid customer service skills. These crucial skills can provide the tools to effectively communicate and handle the types of interactions that can occur daily in any customer-provider interaction (e.g. negotiation, conflict resolution, sales, and service recovery).

For additional information and ideas on how to deliver effective customer service in a diverse world, get copies of Please Every Customer: Delivering Stellar Customer Service Across Cultures and Customer Service Skills for Success.

Learn All About Robert C. ‘Bob’ Lucas Now

Understand Why He is an Authority in the Customer Service Skills Industry

Robert C. ‘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.

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

How to Improve Customer Satisfaction

by Robert W. Lucas

How to Improve Customer Satisfaction

Customer satisfaction is different from one person to the next. Thus, the answer to “How do I improve customer satisfaction?” is a complex one to answer. At the root of the solution is the acceptance by customer service representatives and others in an organization that all internal and external customers are unique and have different needs, wants and expectations. They must, therefore, be addressed as individuals and not as a group based on outward appearance (e.g. race, gender, age, ethnic or religious background and other factors typically used to label people).

Obviously, training and education to raise awareness about factors related to human behavior, diversity, customer service skills, interpersonal communication, and the organization’s products and services are crucial in providing quality service. Successful organizations and managers realize this and strive to provide quality information to everyone in their system on a regular basis. Above that, it is the individual service provider’s responsibility to adopt an attitude focused on customer-centric behavior and actively take opportunities to discover customer needs, wants and expectations and then apply their knowledge and skills to satisfy them.

While there is no one solution to the issue of customer satisfaction, there are many roads to success if service providers take the effort to act in a professional manner and work with customers to partner on successful outcomes for both the customer and the organization.

To get a better understanding of factors related to different customer groups and potential strategies for identifying and addressing their needs, wants and expectations, get copies of Please Every Customer: Providing Stellar Customer Service Across Cultures, Customer Service Skills for Success and How to Be a Great Call Center Representative.

Differing Time Management Perspectives in a Global Customer Service World

by Robert W. Lucas

Differing Time Management Perspectives in a Global Customer Service World

As a service provider, you may encounter someone whose view of time differs significantly from yours. You should learn to adapt. Many cultures view the past, present and future differently and may place more or less importance on them than others outside their culture do. This may put a strain on the customer-provider relationship if you are not aware of their perspective or are not willing to make concessions for the differences.

Implications of time perspective differences vary greatly throughout the world. In countries like China, if you are late for a business meeting you might lose face or somehow make them feel disrespected. In other countries, you might be expected to wait for your customers, even when you have a set appointment time. For example, if you are in sales and travel to other parts of the world, you might arrive expecting a meeting at a certain time and date, only to find out that the person you are supposed to meet is out of the office or on vacation even though you called the week before to verify the appointment. Even so, always verify meetings multiple times and in writing before proceeding to them, especially if your customer is from outside your culture. Keeping subordinates and foreign businesspeople waiting for an extended period of time even when there is a scheduled appointment is not uncommon in some countries (e.g. Middle Eastern), especially when a higher-level executive is involved. Expect this and be prepared to wait patiently.

When dealing with customers who frequent your organization, if you are serving someone from another culture, you may find that they show up late for appointments. To compensate, you have to decide whether to build in some flexibility to your schedule or to turn a customer away when they arrive late. Obviously, the latter could mean a breakdown in the customer-provider relationship or a lost customer.

The bottom line on dealing with cultural perspectives on time is to recognize that there are differences. As a result, you may have to change your own mindset if you plan to do business with people from other countries ad cultures. Making such adjustments can lead to opportunities for providing customer service excellence and building a reputation as a service professional who is keenly aware of global diversity.

For more guidance on dealing with cultural differences when delivering service in a diverse world, read Customer Service Skills for Success and Please Every Customer: Delivering Stellar Customer Service Across Cultures.

Robert C. Lucas

About Robert C. Lucas

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

Preparing to Serve a Diverse Customer Base

by Robert W. Lucas

Preparing to Serve a Diverse Customer Base

Many organizations and employees have realized the importance of creating a fair and equal environment in which everyone feels respected and valued. This is especially important in a service environment where employees encounter customers who have different characteristics.

Providing good customer service can be challenging on any given day. That is why updating customer service skills is a crucial part of professional development for any customer service representative. And, when you factor in elements of diversity, providing great customer service can become difficult for many service providers who lack sufficient knowledge and experience in dealing with diverse individuals.

To ensure that you are ready for potential situations in which you will be serving people of different age, gender, ability, cultural and religious background, and numerous other diversity factors, consider participating in the following initiatives:

Honestly evaluate your own biases towards people from a given group and develop some strategies for overcoming them.
Visit a restaurant that serves ethnic foods other than that of your native culture.
Share your own story with someone from a different group (e.g. age, gender, ethnic background, or religion) and see how their life experiences compare or differ from yours.
Identify at least one resource for diversity information and visit it each month.
Take a language course to learn a new language.
Visit a religious institution, museum or historical monument of a culture different from your own.
Volunteer to work with people whose race, age, gender, or cultural backgrounds are different from your own.

For more ideas and strategies on dealing with customers who have diverse backgrounds that may be different from yours, read Customer Service Skills for Success and Please Every Customer: Delivering Stellar Customer Service Across Cultures.

Impact of Values and Beliefs on Customer Service

by Robert W. Lucas

Impact of Values and Beliefs on Customer Service

Values are based on the deeply held beliefs of a culture or subculture. These beliefs might be founded in religion, politics, or group mores. They drive thinking and actions and are so powerful that they have served as the basis for arguments, conflicts, and wars for hundreds of years.

To be effective in dealing with others, service providers should not ignore the power of values and beliefs, nor should they think that their value system is better than that of someone else’s. The key to service success is to be open-minded and accept that someone else has a different belief system that determines his or her needs. With this in mind you, as a service provider, should strive to use all the positive communication and needs identification you have read about thus far in order to satisfy the customer.

Cultural values can be openly expressed or subtly demonstrated through behavior. They can affect your interactions with your customers in a variety of ways. As you encounter people from cultures other than yours, consider the connection of values with behavior. Also, think of ways that you might adjust your approach to customer service in order to ensure a satisfactory experience for diverse customers. Keep in mind that the degree to which customers have been acculturated to prominent cultural standards will determine how they act.

Your goal is to provide excellent service to the customer. In order to achieve success in accomplishing this goal, you must be sensitive to, tolerant of, and empathetic toward customers. You do not need to adopt the beliefs of others, but you should adapt to them to the extent that you provide the best service possible to all of your customers.

For useful ideas and strategies on better understanding and interacting with people from diverse backgrounds, get a copy of Please Every Customer: Delivering Stellar Customer Service Across Cultures.