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.
Top Contact Center Challenges for 2016
A new study from the contact center consulting firm Strategic Contact outlines the top contact center challenges for 2016.The results appeared in the January...
What To Do When Your Service Hits the Fan
The 36-room hotel faced a perfect storm of problems.It was normally a stopover for cross country travelers, but a winter storm had shut down...
One Thing Great Customer Service Managers Do Differently
Great customer service managers always seem cool, calm, and collected.This flies in the face of reason. The typical manager spends most of their day...
The One Thing You Gotta Fix Before You Fix Service
The new year is a time to start new initiatives.Perhaps improving customer service is on your radar. Maybe there have been a few complaints....
IBM Watson Wants To Help You Find A Jacket
You typically try to find a customer service agent when you need assistance. IBM Watson is trying to do that job on The North...
Why Having Fewer Options Leads to Better Service
Sheena Iyenger and Mark Lepper set up an experiment in 2000. They wanted to see how adding more choices affected consumer behavior.Their experiment was...
Inside Perspective: Interview With FCR’s Jeremy Watkin
A few weeks ago, I published this post highlighting ways that the size of a company or individual team could impact service quality. The...
Who You Are Is How You Serve
Two recent customer service experiences stood out for opposite reasons. One was good while the other was poor. They both reminded me that we...
New Research Reveals Why Customers Hate Call Centers
Nobody likes calling customer service.The list of gripes is a mile long: confusing phone menus, intolerable hold times, and a lack of agent empowerment...
Why We Need Less Marketing And More Customer Experience
Like most pet owners, I go out of my way to care for my dog.She's a ten-year-old mutt that I've had since she was...
Does Size Matter in Customer Service?
Take a moment to think about where you get better service. Is it generally from bigger companies or smaller ones?The argument for bigger companies...
How To Prepare Your Team For Customer Service Training
So, you're ready to send your team to customer service training. The big question is whether or not your team is ready.Chance are, they...
Why Obvious Solutions Sometimes Aren’t So Obvious
The contact center had trouble with associates who were rude and abrupt with customers. The director tried training, team meetings, and even the threat...
ICMI Research: Contact Center Leaders Are Disconnected
There are some big gaps between what contact center leaders believe and their customers actually perceive.The International Customer Management Institute (ICMI) and inContact asked...
Automation Fail: How @ATTCares Stumbled Into a Tweet Chat
Automating customer service can be like playing with fire.On Tuesday, the International Customer Management Institute (ICMI) hosted it's regular Tweet chat at 10am Pacific...
Two Situations When You Should Not Negotiate With Customers
Serving customers sometimes feels like a negotiation.A lot of times it starts with the phrase, "Let's see what we can do." A hotel guest...
Five Common Assumptions About Employees That Are Totally Wrong
The restaurant manager approached the table. "How's everything?" he asked.One of the guests told him she was disappointed her salad was soaked in heavy dressing....
Here’s What Experts Say Is The #1 Way To Improve Customer Service
Customer service leaders are constantly trying to improve service. A new report from OneReach asked 63 industry experts to weigh in on what companies...
How Customer Service Problems Quite Literally Get Moldy
Some service failures are hard to believe.It's not just the problem itself. It's the fact that employee after employee either fails to notice it...
The Strange Effect of Surveys on Consumer Behavior
The survey equation seems simple.You ask a customer a few questions. Their answers help you spot problems. You then use their feedback to improve....