Archive for the ‘Customer Service’ Category

Texas Customer Service Speaker Endorsement from Weaver Boos (Dean Lindsay is based in Dallas Texas)

“We invited Dean to provide the “kick-off” speech to a very important internal leadership summit that involved our Firm’s top 70 leaders. Both entertaining and informational, Dean’s keynote provided the jump start we needed to get the Summit off on the right foot! The issues that Dean focused on, service in a challenging environment and the message of “Be Progress” were echoed throughout the weekend, long after Dean wrapped up his speech on Thursday night. Thanks for providing a rockin’ start to our conference!!!” – Jeffrey P. Young, Principal, Weaver Boos Consultants

Watch Dean Lindsay – Texas Customer Service Speaker Video Clips

How can Texas Customer Service Speaker, Dean Lindsay,  Be Progress for you?

Dean is ready to discuss your program – shoot him an email at: Dean@DeanLindsay.com or give him a buzz at: 214-457-5656

MetroPCS Vice President’s Endorsement – Dean Lindsay on Customer Service

“We recently had the opportunity to have Dean come speak at a Global Service Meeting. We appreciated the fact that Dean took the time to talk us about the event and customize his presentation to focus his vast experience on our goals. The feedback from the attendees was OUTSTANDING! Dean was humorous, energetic, and very relatable – everyone walked out reenergized too!! We would highly recommend Dean for any event and plan to have him back soon.”

– Greg Pressly

Vice President of Customer Operations

MetroPCS

Watch Customer Serivice Video Clips from Speaker Dean Lindsay

Booking info for Dean Lindsay, Customer Service Speaker

A Customer Service Speaker Training Ideas Post

Serving Inside Out (Part Two)

an excerpt from Customer Service Speaker, Dean Lindsay’s new book (being published in early 2012, SERVICE IS EVERYTHING)

Link to Part One

One of the surest ways to drastically reduce negative employee and external customer service issues is to create work environments that are upbeat, positive and collaborative.  It is well documented that team members that receive solid internal customer service are more likely to voluntarily offer assistance to other team members.

Our feelings about our internal customers are on display with every internal contact.  It shows in how we greet co-workers at the beginning of the day.  It shows in what we do when a superior asks for information needed to wrap up a project.  It shows in how quickly we respond to that sometimes kind of pushy team member who has another question.

How can we expect team members to care about and listen to customers when they are not offered that by other team members or management?

A pledge of internal service must be felt all through a company, from head to toe and back again.  Nordstrom’s, Disney and Southwest Airlines – all toting world class service buzz  – didn’t get that way without (most) everybody in that company being enthusiastically on board.  It is an ideology, an understanding that everybody serves and lifts up everybody else in the organization and that everyone within the organization has an affect – positive or negative – on the outside customer.  Everyone has each others back. 

“If you are not serving the customer, your job is to be serving someone who is.”  — Jan Carlson

Showing team members that ‘Service is Everything’ is essential to the external customer feeling you know ‘Service is Everything’.  In assisting others on your team, you are helping yourself progress.  Every contact a customer – internal or external – has with our organizations gives the customer insight into the ideology we hold dear. Make your ideology  ‘Service is Everything’.

 Show you know ‘Service is Everything.’

In the next couple of Customer Service Speaker Training Ideas Posts, I’ll share seven tips on Serving Inside Out.

Service is Everything.

Be Progress.

Watch Customer Service Speaker Dean Lindsay in ACTION!

Customer Service Speaker Article

Serving Inside Out (part One)

By Dean Lindsay (from his upcoming book, SERVICE IS EVERYTHING)

A company’s progress hinges on the progress of its people.  What many organizations often overlook in their search for ways to improve their level of external customer service is the importance of their internal customer service.  It is vital to know that ‘Service is Everything’ to Everyone.

“A customer is anyone who can influence a sale, or a suit, a vote, an appropriation, a budget…a job or a career.” — Warren Blanding

In the big picture, whoever is affected, positively or negatively, by the work we do is our customer.  Every person, in every role, at every level, in every organization has customers.  Every team member is a link in the customer-service chain.  To some degree, each individual is responsible for creating world-class customer service.  When a team member not dealing directly with customers drops the ball or is slow to respond to another team member’s organizational need they are weakening the external customer service.

 “Love all, Serve all.”  — Motto at Hard Rock Cafe

Internal customer service is the support we provide team members and the attitudes that go along with that support.  All the folks within an organization need to be treated like the vital components they are. 

“For an organization’s external customer service to be first rate, its internal customer service must be first rate first.” – Dean Lindsay, Customer Service Speaker (from his upcoming book, SERVICE IS EVERYTHING)

There is overwhelming evidence to the direct relationship between employee satisfaction and customer satisfaction.  External customer satisfaction rarely rises above internal customer satisfaction.  In other words, it is tough to get our external customer service better than our internal customer service.  If a company wants its employees to exceed customer expectations, a solid first step is for the company to create a work environment that exceeds the employees’ expectations.    

In many organizations it is common to find that employees and co-workers – internal customers – don’t treat each other nearly as well as they do the organization’s external customers.  This is un-FORTUNE-ate because internal customer service touches all aspect of a business including morale and productivity.  Companies that suffer in internal customer service usually face challenges with turnover and absenteeism as well as lower external customer satisfaction.

Be Progress.

More on SERVING INSIDE OUT in the next post!

CLick to Watch Dean Lindsay, Customer Service Speaker, in action.

Free Customer Service Article

The Upside of Customer Complaints

By Dean Lindsay - Author of The Progress Challenge

 “A customer who complains is my best friend.” — Stew Leonard

It’s interesting to consider that when someone chooses to become our customer, they WANT to be loyal.  They want us to rock their world.  They want the relationship to last.  They see us as Progress.  They don’t want to change.  They choose us. 

 So, why do they sometimes leave or choose to work with others? 

How do they decide that moving to some other supplier is Progress?

 The above question is tough to answer since research shows that, on average, 24 out of 25 customers will make their switch without telling the business of their dissatisfaction.  No news is NOT good news.  It is dangerous to think that customer silence is a good thing when it is overwhelmingly the quiet customers – clients, guests – who just leave.

 Consider:

What are some reasons you stopped doing business with a particular company? 

Did you tell the company about your dissatisfaction?  If so, how was it received?

Complaining is tough on everyone, including the complainer.  There is an element of risk to relaying dissatisfaction as a customer. We don’t want to come off as a complainer. 

Instead of coming out and sharing a concern, it is quite common as customers to let our concerns and dislikes build up to the point that we feel it would be easier to leave than attempt to fix all that’s wrong. 

Often customers choose not to complain when there is a problem because they – often rightly – feel that it won’t do any good to complain.  They don’t trust how the complaint will be received.  “No one is going to do anything about it anyway.”  Maybe, they think the company is too big to care or believe their concerns will fall on deaf, uncaring, possibly even rude ears. 

Ponder & Progress

If a customer shares a ‘complaint,’ what should they expect in return? 

As a customer, what would you expect?

 So again, why do customers leave?

 As the research suggests, most of the time we don’t know.  Only one 1 in 25 is willing to inform a business about their dissatisfaction and enlighten the business about possible needed modifications.

 And most often, how is  this 1 in 25 treated? 

How much attention and respect do their concerns get?

How are you treated as a customer when you ‘complain’? 

 We know customer complaints are to be minimized.  We also know that rarely are they totally eliminated.  We also know they are no fun to listen to.  In fact – and it may be embarrassing to admit – but sometimes we wish the complaining customer would just go away.  I did say “sometimes.”

 There is a powerful upside to customer complaints however.  Customer complaints are one of the most inexpensive, available, useful and yet ignored forms of customer market data.  Truly proactive and insightful companies see a customer ‘complaint’ as a proven way to gain valuable insight into possible needed improvements (not just as a demand to repair damage).

 “Mistakes are the portals of discovery.” 

– James Joyce

That complaining difficult customer that we sometimes wish would just go away is extremely valuable.  Often customers know our weaknesses better than we do because they feel the effects of our weaknesses. 

 Wouldn’t we rather have our customers tell us what they need instead of telling our competitor?

 We should be careful what we sometimes wish for:  That complaining customer will eventually go away — along with their business, their buzz, four to five positive referrals and their valuable insight into how to make our companies better.  View a complaint as an opportunity for improvement, an opportunity to progress.

“Your best teacher is your last mistake.”  -Ralph Nader

Ponder & Progress

What are some examples of how your organization has benefited from customer feedback?

 Be Progress.

Dean Lindsay is the author of The Progress Challenge: Working and Winning in a World of Change.  You can get more info on Dean and sign up for his free monthly newsletter at: www.DeanLindsay.com. (You are welcome to repost this article as long as links and this brief bio are included.  Thank you.)

Free Customer Service Article – The Upside of Customer Complaints

 Customer Loyalty Speaker Video – Humorous Customer Loyalty insight

Dean Lindsay, Customer Loyalty Speaker

Professional Speaker and Author of The Progress Challenge: Working and Winning in a World of Change and Cracking the Networking CODE: 4 Steps to Priceless Business Relationships 

An authority on harnessing human potential and creating authentic business growth, Dean Lindsay is an engaging and highly sought-after business consultant and speaker. He is an active member of the Viktor Frankl Institute of Logotherapy and the American Society of Training and Development.

Dean Lindsay sees an important connection between sales, motivation, solid customer care and leadership. All are achieved by effectively positioning ideas, recommendations, solutions, products, services – even ourselves – as PROGRESS in minds of those we wish to inspire to action. All must be positioned as Progress and NOT Change. It is natural to resist change but we embrace PROGRESS. All progress is change but not all change is PROGRESS.

Dean is a featured contributor to Executive Travel, Sales and Service Excellence and the American Management Association’s Moving Ahead magazine as well as the nationally distributed audio publication Selling Power Live. He has been spotlighted as an Outstanding Speaker by the International Association of Speakers Bureaus and recognized as a ‘Sales-and-Networking Guru’ by the Dallas Business Journal.

“Dean Lindsay is an outstanding thought leader on the subject of developing priceless business relationships.” — Willis Turner, President of Sales and Marketing Executives International

Dean has served as Guest Lecturer to International Customer Management Institute as well as both the UCLA and University of Dallas MBA programs. He is a Cum laude graduate of the University of North Texas and serves on the Executive Advisory Board for UNT’s Department of Marketing and Logistics and the Board of Directors of the UNT Alumni Association. Dean’s first book, Cracking the Networking CODE: 4 Steps to Priceless Business Relationships is Recommended Reading by United Professional Sales Association and Profit magazine.

More on Dean Lindsay, Customer Loyalty Speaker

10 CUSTOMER Loyalty Tips from Dean Lindsay, Customer Loyalty Speaker

For Video clips of Dean Lindsay in action click here.

 Funny Customer Service Video Clip with Dean Lindsay

In tough economic times, Customer service IS the difference between success and failure.

Dean Lindsay’s customer service training programs includes insight from Dean Lindsay’s new book, The Progress Challenge : Working and Winning in a World of Change

“This is a terrific and timely book with a simple but powerful message.  With the right thinking and approach, we can make enormous progress in our organizations, with our families, and on our own goals and dreams. Dean’s book shows you how, and provides the inspiration and advice you need to stay on track.”
– Brad Cleveland
Senior Advisor and Former President / CEO
International Customer Management Institute

A Couple of Endorsements for Dean Lindsay, Author and Funny Customer Service Speaker

“Dean was TERRIFIC!! He made a real connection with my troops and gave us some great philosophy and tips for our busy season on both Customer Service and Phone Sales. He was a great kick-off to our extended hours busy season and I give him an A plus for his presentation.”
– Geri Barton
Director of Customer Service
World Kitchen LLC

“Dean, your talk to Indiana Farmers Mutual Insurance company was first rate. Your points on mending customer relationships were enlightening and your thoughts on attitude are very true. Thank you.”
– F. Neal Johnson, Chairman of the Board,
Indiana Farmers Mutual Insurance

Get more info on Author and Funny Customer Service Speaker, Dean Lindsay

email dean at: dean@DeanLindsay.com 

Hello Fellow Progress Agents,

For the first time, I am trying out “Posting a video” to my blog.  Let me know if you have in trouble watching the clip.

Customer Service Training with Dean Lindsay

Video Clip of Author and Customer Service Speaker, Dean Lindsay

www.DeanLindsay.com

Author of The Progress Challenge: Working and Winning in a World of Change

“The Progress Challenge is a much needed kick in the pants for all of us. Dean Lindsay’s witty words and questions will wake up your sleeping intentions and challenge you to move forward with purpose in your life. What an enlightening book!”
– Ken Blanchard,
coauthor of The One Minute Manager®
and Leading at a Higher Level
 
“The Progress Challenge is an excellent guide to both personal and professional success.  The book helps the reader understand that change is inevitable, yet progress is a choice.  In Lindsay’s words…”be progress”.
– Jim Keyes
CEO, Blockbuster

“The Progress Challenge is a fun to read book crammed full of thought-provoking, practical and motivating take-aways.  With the 6 P’s of Progress, Dean gives us all the incredible opportunity to be purposeful in creating progress, not just change, in our lives and work.”
– Julie Weber
Senior Director, People
Southwest Airlines Co.

“Customers are the most important part of the production line.”

– W. Edwards Deming

“A satisfied customer? We should have him stuffed.”
– Jon Cleese as Basil Fawlty of Fawlty Towers, BBC Television Program

It is hard to understand why so many businesses allow customers to leave dissatisfied and stop being customers? It costs up to five times as much to attract new customers as it does to keep customers. Yet many businesses focus on attracting new business rather than relating to the needs of the customers they do have.

Why do customers leave? Simply put, the reason most customers stop doing business with a particular company is because they were not satisfied. Some element of quality was not there. It could be anything. Could be the lack of friendly service, the wine list, the return policy, weak after sale service, inconvenient business hours, the parking.

It is hard to say since 24 out of 25 customers will make this switch without telling the business of their dissatisfaction. Only one out of 25 is willing inform the business about their dissatisfaction and enlighten the business about possible needed changes. Customer complaints are one of the most inexpensive, available, useful and yet ignored forms of customer market data.

Your customers know your weaknesses better than you. The insightful companies train their employees to see a complaining customer as a chance to gain valuable insight not just repair damage. Yes, the customers we wish would just go away are extremely valuable A complaining customer will eventually go away — along with their business, four to five positive referrals and their insight into how to make your company better.

But don’t overlook the damage they can do to your business. The average dissatisfied customer will tell over fifteen other people about your lousy product or service. However over 90% of all complaining customers will do business with you again if you resolve their complaint quickly and professionally. Businesses must start cherishing (complaining) customers.

Five Quick Tips:

Thank them for their interest in making your company better.

Never call what the customer is doing as complaining.

Listen intently and never interrupt.

Don’t make excuses. The business that makes a mistake, then offers an excuse for it, has made two mistakes.

Be honest. As Waylon Jenning says, “Honesty is something you can’t wear out.”

Lose the battle to win the war. The battle is this situation. The war is fought to keep this customer and their money and their positive referrals flowing through your company. We must always be Cherishing Customers.