Customer Service Excellence Quote – Tony Alessandra

“Good customer service is hard to find today.” How many times have you heard that statement? As a service provider (and we all are in any organization of more than one person since we all have internal customers), your goal should be to prepare to deliver excellent customer service to everyone with whom you have contact throughout the day. Anything less is inviting a breakdown in the customer-service provider relationship and is going to ultimately cost you and your organization. By gaining the knowledge and skills needed to interact with a diverse global customer base, you can potentially set up a win-win situation for yourself and your customers.

As an author and motivational speaker, Tony Alessandra puts it:

“Being on par in terms of price and quality

only gets you into the game.

Service wins the game.”

Tony Alessandra

For ideas and strategies on how to create a customer-centric organization and deliver excellent customer service, get a copy of Customer Service Skills for Success.

Learn All About Robert W. ‘Bob’ Lucas Now and Understand Why He is an Authority in the Customer Service Skills Industry

Robert W. ‘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.

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.”

Customer Service Inspirational Quote – Karl Albrecht & Ron Zemke

by Robert W. Lucas

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

The Importance of Customer Service Representatives in Organizational Success

by Robert W. Lucas

The Importance of Customer Service Representatives

in Organizational Success

The business of customer service is all about people. Whether you are the CEO discussing strategic relationships with potential business partners, a salesperson sharing product or service information with a potential customer, a call center representative gathering information from a caller on the phone, or a receptionist greeting a visitor to the organization, they all have one thing in common . . . effective communication is crucial in aiding the exchange of information. Customer satisfaction and successful product and service fulfillment hinge on the abilities of customer service representatives and others in your organization, to transmit and receive messages freely and effectively with current and potential customers. The ultimate goal is to deliver the best customer service possible.

All customer experiences are a combination of people coming together for a common purpose; interacting face to face, via technology, or in writing; and merging individual beliefs, values, and expectations. Depending on the skill and ﬁnesse of the service provider, this can mean either a positive or negative outcome.

One variable over which you have little control as a service provider is the emotional state of your customers. When you ﬁrst encounter someone, you have no idea if he or she is happy, sad, optimistic, angry, vindictive, or in some other frame of mind. That is why you must have an arsenal of interpersonal skills in your service toolbox upon which you can draw. A key element in this equation is the ability to effectively express yourself verbally and to ask appropriate questions, listen, and analyze customer needs, wants, and expectations. You must then take correct and decisive action in order to satisfy the customer.

As a customer service professional, you have the power to make or break the organization. You are the front line in delivering quality service to your customers. Your appearance, actions or inactions, and ability to communicate say volumes about the organization and its focus on customer satisfaction. Additionally, in order to be successful, you need knowledge and skill in communicating verbally, nonverbally, across genders and cultures, and with a variety of personality types. For all these reasons, you should continually work to enhance your knowledge and skills, strive to project a professional image, and go out of your way to make a customer’s visit or conversation with you a pleasant and successful one.

To learn more about the role that customer service representatives play in organizational success and how to create a customer-centric environment that results in brand and customer loyalty, get a copy of the book Customer Service Skills for Success.

About Robert C. Lucas, the expert who is explaining the Importance of Customer Service

Representatives in Organizational Success

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

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.

Importance of a Positive Attitude in a Service Culture

by Robert W. Lucas

Importance of a Positive Attitude in a Service Culture

Ever thought about the word attitude? Some say that attitude is everything. If yours is positive, then you likely succeed and are happy. If it is negative, chances are you find yourself feeling depressed and constantly dealing with stressful situations or confrontations with others.

Look at it this way, a positive attitude can allow you to give 100% in your daily efforts. Don’t believe it? The American English alphabet has twenty-six letters in it. Go through the alphabet and identify the numeric placement for each letter in the alphabet, then add those numbers together to see what you get. I’ll make it easy for you: A = 1; T = 20; T = 20; I = 9; T = 20; U = 21; D = 4; E =5. Total = 100!

Everyone has a “bad” day now and then at work. With all the pressures of the economy, family, health and other things that can surface in your life, it is no wonder that you would sometimes rather stay in bed and pull the covers over your head rather than go to work. Unfortunately, most people are not independently wealthy or in a position to do that.

Once you get to work, it is important that you try to put personal or other issues that might be negatively impacting you aside and give 100% effort to your job, employer and customers. After all, those are the elements that allow you to get paid and have opportunities in life.

The bottom line is that your customers deserve nothing less than a 100% positive attitude from you and others in your organization. By creating a customer-centric environment in which you and your peers focus on identifying and satisfying customer needs, wants and expectations, the chance of everyone succeeding increases. Additionally, providing the best customer service possible can lead to increased brand loyalty from your customers.

Learn About Robert C. Lucas – author of the Importance of a Positive Attitude in a Service Culture blog article

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