Everyone aims to deliver proactive customer service. Whether you refer to it as cross-selling, up-selling, suggestive selling, or – as we like to say — “soft question” selling, a basic component of effective customer service is to offer your customers additional choices. Some customer service representatives might fear being perceived as pushy or assuming. No […]

Everyone has had the experience where they meant to send a private response to someone in a group email, but accidentally hit “reply-to-all.” If we were lucky, it was a limited mistake and only a minor annoyance. If we were less fortunate, it might have been the type of mistake that was extremely embarrassing. We’ve […]

Research shows that one “bad apple” – an employee with a negative attitude – can impact your entire team. It doesn’t take long before the gloomy team member infects others with their defeatist behavior. First, we need to understand why anyone would adopt an attitude that seemingly has no professional payoff. The answer is because […]

By Nancy Friedman, Keynote Speaker, Customer Service Expert, President of Telephone Doctor Customer Service Training We’ve all heard the saying: “Hey, customer service is just plain old common sense.” But then we all know, too, common sense is NOT that common.  Decided to make a quick list of a few common sense things that aren’t so common. […]

by Nancy Friedman Do you know what the number one skill in sales and service is? I gave you a hint in the title. Listening skills. Doesn’t everyone know how to LISTEN? Sort of. Most of us ‘hear’ just fine but truly listening requires more effort? Are there any methods, tricks, ideas, tips or techniques […]

Every team member should understand the difference between a feature and a benefit. An easy way to remember the distinction is that “features tell and benefits sell.” Let’s look at the definition: Feature: A distinction or noticeable quality Something offered as a special attraction   Benefit: Anything that is helpful or advantageous Something that contributes […]

By Nancy Friedman, The Telephone Doctor Most business owners know that customers will walk – take their business elsewhere if they’re not treated as they’d like to be. But how does a business owner or manager find out what the customer really likes or dislikes? Well, your customers have told us what they may not […]

By Nancy Friedman, Keynote Speaker, Customer Service Expert & Engagement Specialist.   A short, but ongoing course. Are you really engaged? Do you and your staff really know how to engage and interact with the customers? Do they even know what it means.  Seems as though every year there’s a “new” word in Customer Service. […]

McDonalds Corporation has found that only 5% of customers with complaints contact customer service departments. Compare this to the 45% who speak with an employee immediately, and it becomes clear that front-line employees – in any business – need to learn how to handle customer complaints. In our experience, even the best customer service employees need training […]