Vitaliy Verbenko
What Are the Secrets of Excellent Customer Service Teams?
Customers want one, well, two things above else. They want to save time and money. And since our online experiences have improved in strides, we expect that making research and buying a convenient and personalized process. How can your support team take this customer service...
15 Ways to Scale Your Support Department Without Hiring More
image source: royalty free Businesses don’t stay static. Over time, what customers expect changes, and this includes the number of requests aimed at your help desk. All this increases the amount of work your team has to do to keep the support department running smoothly.…
How to Handle 7 Difficult Customer Situations
All Images Courtesy Helprace Delivering great customer service is difficult. Even the most skillful customer support representative may run into situations that may catch them off guard. Most issues stem from something that customers innately expect to get. Tricky support situations arise when customers want…
12 Facts Reveal How Online Reviews Attract Customers
image source: Royalty Free The unknown can be intimidating. You come across a business, you think it’s interesting, but you’re not 100% sure how it can help you so you move on. Maybe you do run a great business with loyal customers who love you.…
15 Quirky & Crazy Ways Businesses Thank Their Customers
Some time ago, I shared with you a list of 15 fun ways businesses thanked their customers. All of the images are credited to Helprace from the original post. This is a Part 2 of that post where small business owners described ways they go...
10 Customer Service Metrics You Should Be Measuring
This story is a version of a post published here. Posted with the author’s permission. All images credited to: Helprace Great customer service doesn’t just occur by itself. It occurs when you’re listening and taking notes. When you know what needs to change. Otherwise, how...
Businesses Share: 15 Fun & Surprising Ways They Thank Customers
This story is a version of a post published here. Posted with the author’s permission. All images credited to: Helprace To build loyalty, it isn’t enough to say “thanks” once in a while or offer a discount here and there. In order to stay in...
20 Little Known Customer Service Principles to Live By
This story was originally published here. Posted with the author's permission. Today’s customer is very different from customers from 10 or even 5 years ago. With the rise of social networking, today’s customers can afford to be extra picky and discerning in their choices. With…
How One Ice Cream Shop Growth Hacked Its Way to Success
There are some things worth remembering about your first job. photo credit AP file photo When I was in high school, one of my early stints in the working world included helping out in a small ice cream shop while I was staying with my…
The 4 Customers You Meet In Support (and how to talk to them)
One of the reasons why customer service is difficult to get right is due to the unpredictable nature of customers themselves. I recently came across an article by Jeff Toister who described a situation he had with a faulty bottle of wine. It had a...
How to Measure the Invisible ROI of Customer Advocates
image source: Shutterstock It seems that we’ve gotten customer advocates wrong all along: we keep hearing that they're a mythical, if not a one-off anomaly that get an unreliable return on investment. Would an advocate volunteer in your office on weekends or offer to help…
10 Must-Have Customer Service Skills (and how to identify them)
image source: Helprace If you’ve ever hired for a customer service position, you know how important it is to settle on the right candidate. And since customer service employees are the face and voice of your brand, it’s definitely something that you can’t afford to...
What Every SaaS Can Learn From Ikea and Apple Store
image source: Ikea and Apple The advert for the 2015 Ikea catalogue wasn’t meant to go by unnoticed. The short clip invited users to “experience the power of the original bookbook” with an “instantaneous touch interface with zero lag”. There’s also a white backdrop, blatantly...
How to Narrow Down the Customer Expectation Gap
When we buy a product, we expect it to work and improve our lives in some way. image source: royalty free So if it doesn’t work or perform as expected, we’re quick to voice our dissatisfaction. According to research done at the University of Florida,…
Why Customer Service Employees Make Good Managers
image source: Royalty Free Since they deal with people day in and day out, customer service employees have a good, seasoned grasp of using whatever resources available to them in order to solve customer problems. And what is a manager but a similar type of...
Where Do Human Emotions Fit in the Customer Experience?
image source: Royalty Free Brands are like people – there are many of them. Just like people, few are liked or trusted. And among those, even fewer are able to transcend emotional barriers. So just like successful people – successful brands are able to capitalize…
10 Signs Your Customer Service (Probably) Sucks
Nobody wants to be the "bearer" of bad news. And so, many businesses believe they’re constantly “WOWing” customers while the opposite is actually happening. image source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/sylvainkalache/ We see poor customer service all around us: an inattentive store clerk or an unconcerned receptionist. It’s something…
Why Narcissism is Good in Customer Service
photo credit: Apple Narcissism in business is nothing new. Business leaders and creative directors without house-sized egos won’t be able to rile people behind their ideas or get their visions implemented. In other words, they won’t get very far. Don Hambrick is a scholar and…
Is Customer Service the Most Difficult Job in the World?
What do we expect out of a customer service representative? image source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/zepfanman/ While physical capital refers to physical objects and human capital refers to unique personalities each of us brings to the table; social capital is the health and breadth of our collective understanding…
What a Family Diner Taught Me About Customer Service
image credit: royalty free There was a small independent diner at the edge of the campus during my college years. This place was relatively empty throughout the day, in stark contrast to the coffee chain not 50 yards away which was constantly packed with students.…