What are non-negotiables ("NN's")? When my daughters were growing up, I talked a lot about this topic. They knew from an early age that I would be asking them if they have determined any non-negotiables for themselves. I used to tell them that the beauty of this exercise is that it takes all the pressure off you once you have determined what is, or what is not, non-negotiable in your life. These are constants, we don't dabble in or waver or move them in and out of our lives. Once you have decided, you never need to make this decision again ~ wall-la! Life is full of decisions to make and it can be exhausting trying to determine "yes or no, should I or shouldn't I, will I or won't I, are they or aren't they..."

When you think of training, do you only think of it with a capital "T"? You are not alone, many of our customers come to us with the same thoughts, thinking that the only effective training is the formal, longer training class. We like to educate our customers that training can be so effective in small quick hits. For example, we find that our mystery shop's evaluations are perfect to use for swift training, not only for the manager/agent that was mystery shopped, but your entire team can learn from this exercise. For example, managers can take one or two points from a shop evaluation and use those topics to train the team. Managers can generically talk about the points that were made during the shop call and use our suggestions to train the team on how best to handle those points on future customer calls or situations.

In one day, I had three disturbing customer service exchanges that left me wondering ~ why are some businesses making this harder than it has to be?  Three different businesses: a bank, a retail business, and an airline. One very clear take away, I felt invisible. Each exchange was smothered in handling the process and moving things to closure, vs. recognizing the person in front of them in need of help. 

How are you maximizing your business' customer service through social media? Do you have eyes on all platforms? 

These days, businesses must have a dedicated social media employee or team to monitor any and all comments and complaints that cycle in. Approximately 70% of customer service complaints made on Twitter go unanswered by the tagged businesses. This is a perfect example of poor customer service, and social media is changing the customer service world by making complaining as easy as 140 characters or less.