I’m a member of the Customer 1st LinkedIn group and about three months ago Teri Yanovitch posted this discussion starter: Attitude of indifference by employees  Being treated with the attitude of indifference is as bad if not worse than being treated with rudeness. Now usually someone will post a discussion point and there will be [...]

I normally focus on the customer at Make or Break Moments, but today I’d like to shine the spotlight on our NUMBER ONE ASSET – our employees. How we treat our employees and how we make them feel directly impacts how they treat our customers. I remember a store visit I once conducted with Pearle [...]

CBS just announced a new reality television show scheduled to hit February 7, 2010 called Undercover Boss.  The premise is a series of high level bosses donning their regular duds and rubbing elbows with front line employees. Let’s hope that means we’ll see CEOs interacting with customers. In the recent edition of Entertainment Weekly, the [...]

I’m shopping for a new refrigerator and stove – have I told you?  Two really big expense items.  Last year it was the dryer and dishwasher – man, it is expensive owning a home. So after researching on the Internet, I decide that Best Buy has the best prices.  I walked in the other day [...]

Have you shopped Wal-Mart?  When you check out, the credit card machine asks one of a series of random questions.  “Was the store clean today?”  “Was your cashier friendly?” I’ve shopped there enough to be aware of the question.  I am assuming the answer ties to the person at the register and with today’s automation, [...]

I was just reading the latest newsletter from John Tschohl, customer service trainer, who talked about the fact that the need for customer service training is just as prevelent today as it was thirty years ago when he wrote his first training program: Customer service frankly is not much better today than it was 30 [...]

Have you ever noticed that associates treat customers – not always how they’d like to be treated – but rather how their boss treats them.   Interesting.  If we are encouraging, positive and informative with our associates – they’ll respond positively and in turn, treat their customers with the same open, honest attitude.   So [...]

It is a scary time.  Companies are laying off hordes of employees.  Businesses are closing.  Sales are down. Now is not the time to scare off those employees you’d like to keep around. Your boss calls and says “I need you to be available for a conference call with the entire sales force next Monday [...]

I’m reading another idea in the Care Packages for Your Customers book by Barbara Glanz and this tip suggests that managers get out of their office and be visible both to employees as well as customers. The technique is called Managing by Walking Around but essentially it is just being visible to assist, encourage and [...]

In my newsletter this month I ask this question and then share a shopping experience I had with a big box retailer over the holidays. I was returning two, unopened DVDs for a store credit. I already owned the DVDs and wanted to pick out something different. The scenario went something like this: The sign [...]