Over the past 12 months, Service Starters has brought you dozens of tips for service professionals. They have covered everything from at your desk exercises, to managing empathy fatigue, to techniques for service recovery. If you’ve missed any of them during this hectic year, they are online now. You’ll even find our five favorite posts:…Continue reading

 

The holiday season, for many organizations, means peak call volume, hectic schedules, and high stress levels — and prolonged sitting makes it difficult to release tension. Following are four easy-to-do "desk-ersizes" to try when stress levels rise. Sitting upright, raise the top of your shoulders to your ears. Hold for a few seconds, then relax…Continue reading

 

Spending eight hours a day listening to frustrated, confused, and sometimes angry customers is a tough task for service professionals, even in the best of times. Today, those same customers may be struggling with the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic, regional wildfires, and hurricanes. They may be juggling work, virtual schooling, caring for aging parents,…Continue reading

 

The best agents know how to extend genuine, sincere concern to callers whether they have a major problem or a minor issue. To be sure customers know that you respect them as individuals with legitimate issues and feelings, keep these dos and don’ts in mind. Do: Stay in control of your own emotionsUse empathy to…Continue reading

 

Occasionally, a customer will point out an error that someone in your organization has made. In these situations, try replying by blending an empathy statement with an apology. But be sure that you don’t blame the customer or your company. Following are three ways to offer a blameless apology: Blaming: "I’m sorry, but you didn’t send…Continue reading

 

To better understand the impact of the pandemic on customer service operations, Tethr (an AI and machine learning company) recently completed a study of roughly 1 million customer-service calls involving more than 20 companies representing a broad cross-section of industries. The results, show the harsh reality of customer service during the pandemic. “In just two…Continue reading