Share your customer service related articles — advice, experiences and success stories. Here’s how to get published.
Important: This page is under construction and subject to change.
I set up this publication on Medium to provide a space on the platform that is independent, and focused on all aspects of customer service. You can be a part of it and contribute as a writer (or if you are good, as an editor).
Articles We Would Like To See
Anything related to customer service is fair game. However, it should pertain directly to customer issues — for example, articles about customer experience and how to improve it are great. Dealing with difficult customers might be another. …
Many times, customers want to be heard and treated as important even if you can’t solve their concern
Sometimes it seems that it’s impossible to figure out what an angry customer really wants from you and your company. It’s not uncommon for an angry customer to continue to act out, or be abusive even though you’ve actually been able to resolve his or her apparent problem. This doesn’t make any logical sense on the surface, but it’s makes perfect “human sense”.
It is true that customers want their problem or issue resolved, but their anger doesn’t necessarily disappear instantly, when the problem is resolved. That’s because angry customers want some other things — human things, and if they…
It’s often the case that small businesses exist in a market that includes at least one, and often many other LARGE businesses or chains.
On the surface of it, it would seem that the small business is in competition with these giants, but that’s more of an illusion or a poor business strategy, rather than a reality.
Small businesses do not want to compete with the giants on the home field of the larger corporation.
Small businesses have unique capabilities, and can do things big business cannot, particularly when it comes to the experiences customers have.
The key is simple…
Welcome to the fire of an unhealthy workplace. Leadership may be the cure
Summary: Some organizations have climates that are unhealthy for those that work in them. We call these organizations toxic organizations. Within toxic organizations conflict thrives like weeds. Read more about toxic companies.
Toxic Organizations
We can think of organizations as falling on a continuum. One end is anchored by organizations that function well. In the middle we find the average organization that is effective but could be better. Finally, we have the toxic organization, an organization that is largely ineffective, but is also destructive to its employees and leaders.
What Is A Toxic Organization?
A toxic organization shows two characteristics that distinguish it from healthier workplaces. First…
Learn about sales funnels, churn, attrition and deceiving metrics.
Here’s the scenario. The social media platform you use indicates you have 25,000+ followers, or friends or people who should be reading and responding to your business related social messages. But wait. You almost never get responses from people even when you post about free offers. What gives?
Almost every business trying to use social media is or has experienced this, although very few stay around long enough to talk about it, or admit it. The result? Blunted hopes, wasted time, wasted money, because you will not reach the number of people you think you will. Period. …
Employers AND customer service experts preach on customer service as if CS staff are indentured servants, and that’s just WRONG
Q: I noticed that you had a brief conversation with @altmilan who suggested that people on both sides of the customer equation (employees/companies AND customers) sometimes confuse service with servitude. Can you expand on this a bit?
A: Actually, that was Milan’s speculations and he asked it as a question. I don’t know the answer. Certainly, customer service has become horribly unbalanced and at times unreasonable, where bratty behavior is rewarded by companies even if it’s bad business. You have to wonder that we hold up Nordstroms as a shining example of customer service because, among other things, they have…
Robert Bacal discusses the pros and cons of business growth in the first in a new series, entitled “The Never Ending Interviews”
Q: Robert, you’ve just semi-retired after twenty five years running Bacal & Associates as a solo business. Was there ever a point where you wanted to grow your business into something a lot bigger, with employees, and the trappings?
Robert: Well, yes and no. Unlike a lot of other entrepreneurs, I never really had a “BIG” dream for my business. I wanted to have the freedom that comes from running my own business (or at least that’s what I though), so growth was never something I was committed to.
On the other hand, I did make a few attempts to…
Research Shows Marriage Much Riskier Thing Than Previously Thought
It’s often been suggested that married couples actually live longer than unmarried people, and there’s some research to suggest that it the case. With a shift away from formal marriage, researchers are re-visiting this area of research, and finding out some disturbing things.
Marriage Rates (Per Capita) In Alabama Highly Correlate With Electrocutions By Power Lines In The United States Of America
Recently released statistics show that there is a strong relationship between per capita marriages in Alabama and the number of electrocutions across the entire USA. The correlation is incredibly strong, and statistically significant, at 0.903.
If you look carefully at the graphic below, you’ll see that there is some good news. Electrocutions by power lines has dropped…
Robert Bacal
Author, Trainer, customer service, management, performance appraisal,leadership,difficult customers
