Jeff Toister
Jeff Toister
Jeff Toister is the bestselling author of The Service Culture Handbook: A Step-by-Step Guide to Getting Your Employees Obsessed with Customer Service: www.serviceculturebook.com.
How unfriendly service gets crowd-sourced
I won't waste your time extolling the virtues of friendly customer service. You get that. The real question is why do we receive unfriendly...
Do you have a customer service canary?
Coal miners used to depend on canaries as an early warning system for poisonous gases such as carbon dioxide. Miners knew they'd better get...
The top 5 viral service failure videos
In customer service, going viral usually means something went wrong and people are mocking you. An extra dimension is added when that viral service failure...
Book Review: Delight Your Customers
What's the difference between good and outstanding customer service? Steve Curtin provides an answer in his new customer service book, Delight Your Customers: 7...
The lazy customer service manager
I'm feeling a bit lazy. My mission is to write this blog post, but I really don't want to invest the effort necessary to...
They have a job, so why do they blog?
There are a lot of people who actively share their thoughts about customer service via blogs, Twitter, Facebook, and other online platforms. Most of...
Three terrific thought leader panels from ACCE 2013
ICMI's ACCE 2013 conference for call center professionals was a customer service extravaganza and a terrific learning experience (see my re-cap here). One of...
How a corporate policy crushed service
We often concentrate on the individuals serving us when we think about service quality. But what happens when dumb corporate policies hinder employees' ability...
Connecting rapport to five star service
I often write about service failures and what we can learn about them. This post is about the other side of the coin. Specifically,...
Why you’re training customers to complain via Twitter
An increasing number of companies are starting to do a great job of serving their customers via Twitter. That's great news for service, right? Well,...
Have companies defined outstanding customer service?
In his famous book, Built to Last, Jim Collins observed that companies that endure over a long period of time possess "cult-like cultures." This...
ASTD 2013 ICE Conference Re-cap
I attended the ASTD 2013 International Conference & Exposition in Dallas, Texas last week. This is the premier conference for Training and Development professionals...
Three tools that make training more effective
So you've decided to send your employees to training. Maybe it's customer service training, or a time management workshop, or perhaps it's a life-changing...
ACCE 2013 Conference Re-cap
I attended ICMI's ACCE 2013 conference in Seattle, WA this week. This was the 10th anniversary edition of the premier global gathering for contact...
Speed kills first contact resolution
Nobody likes having to contact customer service for help resolving a problem. It's doubly aggravating to contact them a second time because the issue...
Extended Q&A for Hidden Causes of Poor Service Webinar
I recently got a chance to be a Zenmaster for a day when the folks at Zendesk asked me to facilitate a webinar called...
Why customers don’t read signs
Anyone who has served customers face-to-face can attest to the fact that customers don't read signs. Take a look at this example from a deli....
Do surveys devalue real feedback?
What's wrong with this picture? Okay, besides being a little blurry? The problem is the sign that's placed in front of the register. It's asking...
Response to: In Defense of Customer Service Scripts
I regularly enjoy reading Adam Toporek's Customers That Stick blog because it offers engaging customer service insight. One of his recent posts was slightly...
Do you really care how your customer is today?
For many customer service professionals, "How are you today?" is really just another way of saying, "Hello." It's a rote question where the expected...