“This happens all the time” is not a customer service strategy.
By Linda Pophal, MA, SPHR · Strategic Communications, LLC
Chronic customer service failure occurs when an organization identifies a recurring problem that negatively impacts customers but chooses to absorb the complaint volume rather than address the root cause—often because the problem has become so normalized that staff no longer recognize it as fixable. In an era of increasing automation and AI-driven customer interactions, chronic failures are becoming more, not less, common as technology handles transactions efficiently but removes the human touchpoints that once caught and corrected errors before they impacted the customer.
This isn’t a hypothetical. This is something that happened to me recently.
Continue reading “Wake Up Customer Service: HERE’S YOUR SIGN!!!”
If you’re not on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, or other social media sites —and believe it or not, many people are not!—you may be missing out on some very important conversations. Some of these conversations may be about you!
Marketers often speak of the “customer journey.” It’s a concept that describes the various decisions customer make and the interactions they have with a company from the point where they’ve identified a need until the point when they make a purchase—and beyond. A customer journey map is important because it helps marketers visually depict the customer journey and identify areas that may represent barriers or risks of loss. It provides a documented, explicit vision of how customers will interact with your company and is a good tool for sharing with employees to help them understand the journey and the role that they play in engaging and retaining customers. 
It’s quite common for companies and their marketers to seek feedback from customers about their products and services. But there’s another group whose feedback should also be considered. In fact, it should be considered before seeking customer feedback.
A frequently quoted “formula” in the field of customer relations tells us: “expectations – reality = disappointment.” While this may seem simplistic, don’t relegate it to the ranks of witty sayings or bumper sticker slogans. There is a great deal of truth in this straightforward equation. Most business owners, managers and customer-facing employees have dealt with unhappy customers. It’s part of the job. But all too often, that customer frustration or disappointment can be avoided by properly managing expectations. 
In an article for the American Marketing Association (AMA) titled “