I am always thinking about customer service - the good and the bad - and I was looking at customer service videos and images and I was reminded of the following information: 60% of Baby Boomers want excellent customer service 71% of Gen X want excellent customer service 77% of Millennials require excellent customer service.....!!!!!!! Because, they way I see it, why are many more young people / millennials than more mature staff so bad at customer service if they expect it m

For my first blog in 2026, I wanted to focus on Power Skills which are closely aligned to giving the best customer service. I am a huge advocate for developing these skills. What are Power Skills? Power Skills - formerly known as soft skills - are essential, transferable "soft skills" like communication, problem-solving , team-working, leadership, decision making skills and presentation skills crucial for workplace success, enabling effective teamwork, navigating change, and

Since it is the middle of the twelve days of Christmas and the ever popular twelve days of Christmas rings out everywhere, I thought I would do a blog on the top twelve skills a person going into customer service needs ready for the New Year!  So here they are (in my order of important to least important): 1) Passionate and enthusiastic about the product / service and helping customers - as I mentioned in a previous blog, Disney only recruits a certain type of person to be a

A one team approach to customer service is vital in an organisation. I often refer to this statistic but not a lot of people believe it, so here it is: Which of the following is the biggest single reason a business loses customers: a) competition b) indifference of one employee c) word of mouth d) Dissatisfaction with the product ... well, its 'b', the indifference of one employee!!! I know what you are all thinking... how can it be? Well, I wondered this myself until it happ

It is a truth universally acknowledged that if you are a Jane Austen fan you will be celebrating her 250th today! Why do I write about Jane Austen in a customer service blog you ask? Well, it is also a truth universally acknowledged that her most famous book's original title was called 'First Impressions'. She later changed it to Pride and Prejudice (I think she liked a little alliteration in her titles!) First impressions are crucial..... as Darcy and Elizabeth can testify t

This year, I was lucky enough to finally make a holiday trip to Japan. I have always wanted to go there to enjoy the countryside and cities, temples and memorials, food and fuji and bullet trains and bento boxes. It was a fantastic eight days crammed full of the above plus more! I can honestly say the experience of Japan has left an indelible mark in me, one of five countries to date that has done that and a country that I could seriously consider living in. So when I saw Mar

An experience I had over the weekend made me decide to write about the importance to people about the details in customer service. I was celebrating a friends big birthday this weekend. I had booked a specific table and explained about the occasion. We turned up to the table I had requested with flowers, sparkling table ornaments and a banner celebrating the big birthday - none of which I had asked for! Instantly we felt welcome and special. The birthday girl and all of us to

Customer experience may be the new marketing battleground but it's the old communication methods that work the best when it comes to relationship building. Shep Hyken is one of my favourite customer experience authors and speakers and he has hit the nail on the head. The human touch is crucial. In a world where email, WhatsApp and other messaging and communication etc rules in terms of communication in the workplace, what happened to just getting up from your desk and speakin

In 2022, nearly 2000 business leads were surveyed and they said the number one priority for 2023 and the next five years for their business was enhancing the Customer Experience. Not only that here are five fun facts... 1 - 86% of buyers are willing to pay more for a great customer experience 2 - 49% of buyers have made impulse purchases after receiving a more personalised experience 3 - 57% of customers won’t recommend a business with a poorly designed website on mobile and

I saw this image on the internet again recently whilst pondering customer service. I have been thinking recently about customer service a lot - well more than I usually do - after hearing Geoff Ramm talk recently. The image made me realise that we can measure this in the product itself: how focused on the customer is the product? Does the product - as well as the promotion - meet the needs of the customer, or the organisation? This image shows that although the one on the lef

Teamwork is the collaborative effort of a group to achieve a common goal or to complete a task in an effective and efficient way . My quote attached to this blog is from Shep Hyken, a customer service hero of mine who references Ace Hardware as his go to brand. Last week, at work, we had Geoff Ramm speak to us about team work and how the important focus is the team and helping each other out. I recently enjoyed a weekend away with my mother. We both needed some catch up time

You will probably know - if you read my blogs - that I am a firm believer in good customer service. In fact if you know me at all then you will know that customer service and customer experience are my favourite subjects and that I believe in the best customer service ... actually five star, red carpet customer service.  I have worked in many organisations where I have witnessed the power of great customer service and good relationship building to grow customers and thus reve

For years I have heard the busy phrase used. When I hear the word busy, it makes me quite cross, in fact more then cross actually. It’s up there for me with that horrid phrase ‘we’ve always done it this way’. I believe people who use the word busy are busy fools, trying to show the world they are busy and masking a - what is really - less than busy existence. People need to validate their life or work and busy covers it. They can never tell you a list of what they are busy do

I am a huge advocate of the importance of Power Skills formerly known as 'Soft Skills.' The name Soft Skills denigrates the importance of...

I have been asking this a lot recently at work: 'Who likes to be told - 'No'? In meetings, in induction sessions with new staff (as part...

.... is crucial in customer service. Customers want to be wowed..... we as customers want to be wowed too. So why would you not go the...

I had started to write about another topic which mentions going the extra mile - but I will save that for another week. So, I decided...

Have you ever noticed that people talk about their experiences with brands in two very different ways? If the customer experience was...

In an age where customers have endless options and voices that travel faster than ever, listening has become one of the most powerful...

Think about the last time you had an amazing experience as a customer. Maybe a barista at your local coffee shop remembered your name and...