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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.

New Report Reveals Big Challenges From IoT

The Internet of Things (IoT) is changing our lives. IoT refers to everyday devices connected to the internet. Our appliances, door locks, thermostats, vehicles, and...

Avoid Angry Customers with The No Fault Technique

A subscriber recently sent me the transcript from a chat session she had with a customer. Her customer had gotten angry and ended the session...

How Palo Alto Software Used Metrics to Improve Service

A question posted on the Inside Customer Service LinkedIn group recently caught my attention. Celeste Peterson, a Customer Advocacy Supervisor at Palo Alto Software,...

Lessons From The Overlook: Go and See the Problem

Note: Lessons from The Overlook is a monthly update on lessons learned from owning a vacation rental property in the Southern California mountain town...

Why the Huddle Is Your Most Important Meeting

Ugh, not another meeting. It seems like our calendars are full of them. A 2014 study from Fuze found that more than half of us...

How to Harness the Power of Peer Recognition 

Employee recognition can be a minefield. One key distinction is to decide between rewarding or recognizing good performance. Rewards are a pre-determined "if-then" proposition. If...

Does Your Company Have Too Many Missions and Visions?

The vice president shared a draft of her company's new values project. She had been working with two other executives to create them. They had...

How to Make Time For Training

I'm a bit behind on listening to podcasts. For instance, I've just finished episode 91 of Crack the Customer Code, a wonderful podcast hosted by...

Simple Training Plan: Preventing Customer Anger

Over the past two months, I posted a couple of training plans that customer service leaders can use to train their teams. The idea was...

Three Easy Ways to Engage Your Customers

The Westin Portland was my favorite hotel. It's slated to leave the Marriott (nee Starwood) family at the end of this month and I'm sad...

Lessons From the Overlook: Some People Suck

Note: Lessons from The Overlook is a monthly update on lessons learned from owning a vacation rental property in the Southern California mountain town...

Let’s Stop Calling Customer Service a Soft Skill

The term "soft skills" is typically used to refer to a wide range of interpersonal skills. This includes leadership, emotional intelligence, and customer service. There's...

How to Manage an Employee with a Bad Attitude

Note: This post originally appeared on LinkedIn.  A Customer Service Tip of the Week subscriber recently emailed to ask for my advice on managing an employee...

Customer Service Lessons From My Baseball Stadium Tour

View from the home dugout at Cincinnati's Great American Ballpark My wife, Sally, and I just returned from a three city baseball stadium tour. We…

Insider Perspectives: Evan Watson on Using Improv

Evan Watson, Improv Actor & Customer Service Professional Improvisational theater, or improv, is unscripted. Actors are typically given a suggestion for a scene and they…

Simple Training Plan: Eliminating Repeat Service Failures

A few weeks ago I posted a simple training plan that customer service leaders can use to train their teams. It was called Serving Upset...

Why Incentives Are a Tool of the Lazy Manager

"Let's create an incentive plan!"  That's the rallying cry for lazy managers. Whether its lagging customer service survey scores, poor productivity, or dismal attendance, lazy...

The Powerful Survey Feature That Drives Customer Loyalty

Improving loyalty is a big reason companies survey customers. The challenge is finding ways to actually accomplish that goal. Customer service leaders tell me confidentially...

5 Reasons To Love REI’s Service Culture

Photo credit: Jeff Toister Being outside is incredible. You can get great exercise. Clear your head. And you never know what sort of discoveries you…

How to Choose the Right Customer Service Metrics

"What are the best metrics for my customer service team?" It's a question I'm frequently asked. In some environments, like contact centers, leaders have access...

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