10 Best Customer Service Articles of 2015

In case you missed them the 10 most popular eServices of 2015 were the following -I suggest printing them out, reading and sharing them with your management team.

1. Am I a hypocrite when I say you should offer a price match guarantee?

A paradigm shift is needed from selling a commodity someone can get anywhere to an experience Customers can only enjoy with your company. Everyone in your organization needs have this mindset; “I believe in price match guarantee, if you find it higher somewhere else, we will raise our prices and match it!”

2. How dare you be ordinary!
Undeveloped potential cheats those around us, those we touch, influence, and impact, as well as deprives ourselves of joy, satisfaction, and opportunities. Living our life to its fullest potential is not an opportunity; it is our responsibility.

3. U.R.X. | Carpe Momento | THERE YOU ARE!
Our employees need to be reminded and told constantly, “You are the Xperience” (URX). That it is about them, how they interact with the Customer. Ipads, apps, websites, and kiosks don’t build relationships. People do. Employees who connect instead of communicate create loyal Customers.

4. Best graduation speech of 2015
I love this time of year because of all the amazing leaders providing inspiring commencement speeches. However, the best one I have come across did not come from a business leader or politician. It came from Hollywood actor Matthew McConaughey

5. The difference between a Mission, Purpose,
& Customer ServiceVision Statements
The last thing anyone needs is another statement, we have mission statements, purpose statements, and our employees can’t even keep them straight. Good businesses have evolved away from lengthy wordy mission statements that no employee can recite. Today it is okay to have three major company statements, provided it’s clear as to how they differ and how your employees need to decipher them.

6. Money can’t buy you love, health & retained Customers
Money can buy all sorts of new Customers through aggressive advertising. But what an advertising budget can’t buy you is retained Customers. Companies will throw millions of dollars at marketing, advertising, and branding campaigns that promote a message that is contradictory to what the Customer actually experiences.

7. The Currency for Millennials is Purpose

Why do some companies have a large percent of their workforce unmotivated and apathetic, while other excellent companies have the majority of their workforce willing to make ridiculous sacrifices in a cult-like culture of Customer satisfaction.

8. Your employees need to do the LEAST 

It is key that all your employees know how to properly react and handle a situation when a Customer is inconvenienced and potentially upset. The key is that training needs to be easy to remember, effective and easy to implement. I have seen dozens of different protocols; my favorite that is both easy and effective is L.E.A.S.T.

9. Are you just a line item on a P&L? The best three-minute speech
Every company, including yours, is examining their 2016 budget. They are having meetings and reviewing all their expenses from this year. And a CFO is demanding that their leaders find ways to trim their expenses in 2016.  

10. Call Centers are dead  
Companies have to look differently at their call centers and the roles of their Customer service reps. It is no longer a call center, but rather a relationship center.