Martha Brooke

3 Tips to Fix Bad Customer Service

Companies with bad customer service is everywhere, but don’t let your company be one of them! Apply these 3 tips to fix any issues you might be having. But first, a quick example of customer service gone awry. In Sunday’s the Haggler David Segal. “So You Thought You Canceled the Contract.” New York Times, July […]

July 18, 2013

Avoid these 2 Big Customer Service Errors

Customer service errors are everywhere, but avoid these two big ones! Here’s an example of one: This past Sunday, The Haggler, David Segal “Halving the Portion, but Not the Price.” New York Times, June 23, 2013, wrote about how companies protect their profits by reducing package volume while charging the same amount. In other words, […]

June 25, 2013

Customer Service Gets a Failing Grade

Since 2011, Interaction Metrics has been benchmarking the national quality of customer service. We call this our Quality of Customer Interaction (QCI™) Score. As of June 21, 2013, the score is 52 out of 100; in other words, customer service gets a failing grade. Read about our methodology here. Other indices point to a similarly […]

June 22, 2013

Bad Customer Service: Why it Happens

Bad customer service: we’ve all had it, but why does it happen? In yesterday’s The Haggler (David Segal. Jun. 9, 2013. New York Times), David Segal praises Quicken Loans’ great customer service, which he attributes to their superior corporate culture. We don’t doubt that Quicken Loans provides great service (in fact, we would have scored […]

June 10, 2013

Customer Feedback Tools: Social vs. Traditional

There are a wide variety of customer feedback tools — but how do you know which ones to use? Collecting customer feedback drives customer experience improvement; becasuse, after all, “you can’t manage what you don’t measure.” So what about social media? Certainly, by its nature, social media is where customers go to communicate their feelings. […]

December 14, 2012

Why You Need Better Customer Service Metrics

David Segal’s “The Haggler” column in the 2/12/12 edition of The New York Times covered a few horror stories about U.P.S., all of which had one thing in common: a customer’s package was lost, and U.P.S.’s customer service was useless. The haggler conservatively estimated that if U.P.S. is truly exceptional at keeping track of packages […]

February 17, 2012

You Responded, But Did You Answer the Customer’s Question?

Customer service boils down to a simple give and take: customers have questions or problems and companies provide answers. It’s pretty straightforward. But all too often, customers are left befuddled, scratching their heads and wondering: “What did they mean? Were they listening? What do I do now?” Transparency and authenticity are the buzzwords of business. So […]

January 31, 2012

Key Customer Service Channels: Email and Chat

Email and chat are key customer service channels. But too many companies think that providing customer service by email and chat simply means sending responses in a timely manner, although that’s a good start. It’s time for companies to step up and provide real answers to customers’ questions, answers that show its representatives are listening […]

November 30, 2011

Why Customer Service Language Matters

Customer service language is a crucial aspect of customer service that is often overlooked. A great example of this is Shep Hyken’s reflections on his hotel experience. Shep’s Situation: What Happened Shep reserved a room, but when he got to the hotel it wasn’t ready, so the front desk worker offered to “downgrade” him to […]

October 19, 2011

Unstructured Data: Start With an Open Mind

Unstructured data is invaluable to your customer feedback, but only if you know how to approach it. We heard a great webinar from Bruce Tempkin at CXPA yesterday about how to gain customer insights from unstructured data. Bruce addressed the cavernous disconnect between limited, multiple-choice responses and the reality of complex customer thoughts and feelings. What We’d Add […]

August 12, 2011

Best Customer Service: 3 Quick Keys

Achieving the best customer service is possible but it’s not always done. HubSpot’s 10 Commandments of Customer Service covers some of the standards of good customer service, but their rules will only get you to a middling level of service. If you have higher standards, that i, if your goal is use customer service to […]

August 1, 2011