ming very clear to me that this person was still not hearing me. This became even clearer when the phone was hung up in my ear. I sat there stunned and staring at the phone as the line went dead. I sat back and decided I would call again, perhaps we got cut off, perhaps this call really wasn’t directed to me, but I pitied the poor soul who was going to get this wrath.

I was offended that someone was about to distort my reputation by saying I was canceling an appointment which I was working so hard to confirm. I decided I would make this call and plea to the individual’s customer service line. She is, after all, a VP of a major bank that is actively involved in community organizations. I wouldn’t want them to spread untruths about me and thought they certainly wouldn’t want me to think that this is how they REALLY treat customers.

I called back, spoke with a secretary, and explained that I thought somehow her supervisor and I had been disconnected or else I was hung up on by accident. She assured me that there must have been something that was touched on the phone to disconnect and quickly patched me through. When the person picked up the voice was so nice, I was sure that I had never spoken to this person today, and was feeling very guilty and sorry that I had been mislead into thinking the supervisor had treated me this way. Upon saying my name, the tone changed and the person who had yelled at me before returned. I attempted to interrupt the 2-minute monologue about how I had broken my promise yet again. At last they took a breath and I spoke. Trained in de-escalating aggressive people, this was easy to do! It was an educational opportunity for me and, I hoped, for them, too. I restated that I was still trying to confirm the appointment and was making no attempt to cancel it, that I was sorry if a message had been delivered differently. I also stated that we are both in the customer service industry and that our reputations are v

Who are your customers? What do customers value? Customers, we now know, are anyone for whom we provide a service. This means that a person working within our company, perhaps even working next to us, can be our customers if we provide them with reports or information, just as much as a person who pays to have us gather the reports. Customers are the reason we are in business. External customers keep businesses alive by paying for services.

When you go to make a purchase at a retail store, what do you value? When you select a bank, what do you value? Most of us value time, courtesy, a feeling of respect and quality. We value being talked to in a polite manner and having that person respects our busy schedule as much as we appreciate that they are there to offer us a service. Remember that customer service puts humanity into business, adding courtesy and treating others with consideration in the Corporate Culture. This distinguishing factor gives business the personal touch. It creates partnerships that are the foundation for success or failure. Ninety-six percent of customers who are dissatisfied with service never bother to complain! They just take their business elsewhere. Worse yet is those 96% share the news about the bad service. When one customer is dissatisfied with service, they will tell a minimum of 15 other people and those people will each tell up to seven other people. These people will not seek to validate this is true information, nor do they report this to the company. They simply take their business elsewhere because they believe the person who is sharing the information. The company doesn’t know how to correct the situation because they don’t know the situation exists.

Can you afford to lose a customer? It costs 5 times more to gain a new customer than it does to keep one. Loyal customers are worth 10 times the price of a single purchase. What do your customers need? What do they want? What do you offer them that will keep them coming back?

What Customers Value?

Customers throughout the world value: 1) Time, 2) Quality–Product Guarantee, and 3) Service that makes them feel important. We know that customers will pay more for quality products and for timesaving devices because it meets two of the items they value. Customers value time more than they value money. When we offer convenience, we increase profits. Manufacturing companies have hired me because I would do training programs during the normal shifts of the employees. This saves employees’ time because they do not have come in at 8AM when their typical shift is midnight to 6 AM. I was the only person inconvenienced instead of 30 other people. Using automation that is user-friendly, especially voice mail that has options to speak with a person, encourages customers to return. It saves time for both the internal and external customer and shows that you want them to have information in a timely fashion. Acknowledge customers and offer ways to save them time.

Quality – the product and the process or system used to get the product are all part of quality. We all want to feel that the product we are purchasing is of good quality. If we have a poor sales staff, it matters little how good the product is. Sometimes employees forget that they are sales people when they work in different settings like a doctor’s office. You can have the best-trained physician in the world, but if the people answering the phones or greeting people at the door handle the process of getting information poorly, the patients will leave and never give the doctor a chance. Give people more than they ask for to show that you care. Employees need to know why what they are selling is the best. What sets this product above the other products on the market? Be committed to quality and educating your employees about quality. Don't assume your employees know the product or how to treat customers. Offer employees training. Remember that training is product development. It adds quality and improves skills and confidence. It creates profits and moves your business forward.

Service is the essence of customer service. Building and maintaining high-quality relationships based on trust and credibility are essential. We obtain customers by showing them our product is of the best quality; we keep customers by delivering on promises and maintaining quality along with the relationship. Service benefits our internal customers: our employees. What are they getting from working for us that adds value to their life? Be careful about the first answer that may come out: a job and a paycheck. While I agree that is a benefit, we are working with new generations and with people that have experienced first-hand that loyalty for a company doesn’t always secure them employment. Employees are our best advertisement! They are our first line of contact with customers and can either help us create loyal customers or assure that the customer will never return because of poor service. However, employees cannot advertise if we haven't given them product training, or educated them about what the company values. They won't advertise if they aren't given the opportunity to see the advantage in it for them. We want ambitious people to work for us, so we can’t offer them stagnate jobs. We also want them to offer good service, which means showing empathy to those they serve. Therefore, we need to show empathy to the employees. As leaders, we must keep ambition and empathy in balance as well. As you improve service to all customers, internal and external, your cost goes down, morale goes up and customers are retained.

Given that we know how important it is to deliver good service, I think it would be hard to believe that someone would yell at an external customer over the telephone, hang up on them, or accuse them of lying. Unfortunately, I recently had this experience. After being yelled at, accused of lying and then hung up on, I sat in shock and dismay. The person I was speaking with was reportedly an executive. I had tried for over a week to reach them via email and phone messages to confirm an appointment that was on my calendar. I needed directions and confirmation of time as this had not been confirmed upon our conversation two months prior. As time got closer, I finally reached an assistant. I explained who I was and that I was seeking to confirm the appointment on my calendar but needed a confirmation on the location and time, as we had only said around lunch when we spoke. The assistant informed me in a tone that was very abrupt, that “ My supervisor is very busy, we have a lot of work to do around here, she doesn’t have time to answer her calls or emails!” Again I stated I wasn’t trying to take up her time, but that her supervisor had called me for the appointment and at the time had not desired to set the exact time. Now that the appointment was only two days away, I needed to know if it was still on and if so, when I should arrive. She said she would relay the message, but that again her supervisor was busy. The following day I called again to see if I could receive an answer. The supervisor was not in, but I was promised she would call. Within an hour I had a call that went like this. “What are you doing, trying to cancel this meeting? That is all you do!” I interrupted, thinking I am on the end of someone else’s call since my calls had been clear that I wanted to confirm the appointment. After repeating this, I was interrupted with “If you don’t want to keep the appointment that is fine, I will just let people know you don’t keep your appointments. You know we are very busy around here we have a lot of work to do.” I acknowledged that I was aware of how busy they were as her assistant had informed me and that time was valuable for all of us, which is why I was trying to confirm our appointment. It was becoming very clear to me that this person was still not hearing me. This became even clearer when the phone was hung up in my ear. I sat there stunned and staring at the phone as the line went dead. I sat back and decided I would call again, perhaps we got cut off, perhaps this call really wasn’t directed to me, but I pitied the poor soul who was going to get this wrath.

I was offended that someone was about to distort my reputation by saying I was canceling an appointment which I was working so hard to confirm. I decided I would make this call and plea to the individual’s customer service line. She is, after all, a VP of a major bank that is actively involved in community organizations. I wouldn’t want them to spread untruths about me and thought they certainly wouldn’t want me to think that this is how they REALLY treat customers.

I called back, spoke with a secretary, and explained that I thought somehow her supervisor and I had been disconnected or else I was hung up on by accident. She assured me that there must have been something that was touched on the phone to disconnect and quickly patched me through. When the person picked up the voice was so nice, I was sure that I had never spoken to this person today, and was feeling very guilty and sorry that I had been mislead into thinking the supervisor had treated me this way. Upon saying my name, the tone changed and the person who had yelled at me before returned. I attempted to interrupt the 2-minute monologue about how I had broken my promise yet again. At last they took a breath and I spoke. Trained in de-escalating aggressive people, this was easy to do! It was an educational opportunity for me and, I hoped, for them, too. I restated that I was still trying to confirm the appointment and was making no attempt to cancel it, that I was sorry if a message had been delivered differently. I also stated that we are both in the customer service industry and that our reputations are ve

will keep them coming back?

What Customers Value?

Customers throughout the world value: 1) Time, 2) Quality–Product Guarantee, and 3) Service that makes them feel important. We know that customers will pay more for quality products and for timesaving devices because it meets two of the items they value. Customers value time more than they value money. When we offer convenience, we increase profits. Manufacturing companies have hired me because I would do training programs during the normal shifts of the employees. This saves employees’ time because they do not have come in at 8AM when their typical shift is midnight to 6 AM. I was the only person inconvenienced instead of 30 other people. Using automation that is user-friendly, especially voice mail that has options to speak with a person, encourages customers to return. It saves time for both the internal and external customer and shows that you want them to have information in a timely fashion. Acknowledge customers and offer ways to save them time.

Quality – the product and the process or system used to get the product are all part of quality. We all want to feel that the product we are purchasing is of good quality. If we have a poor sales staff, it matters little how good the product is. Sometimes employees forget that they are sales people when they work in different settings like a doctor’s office. You can have the best-trained physician in the world, but if the people answering the phones or greeting people at the door handle the process of getting information poorly, the patients will leave and never give the doctor a chance. Give people more than they ask for to show that you care. Employees need to know why what they are selling is the best. What sets this product above the other products on the market? Be committed to quality and educating your employees about quality. Don't assume your employees know the product or how to treat customers. Offer employees training. Remember that training is product development. It adds quality and improves skills and confidence. It creates profits and moves your business forward.

Service is the essence of customer service. Building and maintaining high-quality relationships based on trust and credibility are essential. We obtain customers by showing them our product is of the best quality; we keep customers by delivering on promises and maintaining quality along with the relationship. Service benefits our internal customers: our employees. What are they getting from working for us that adds value to their life? Be careful about the first answer that may come out: a job and a paycheck. While I agree that is a benefit, we are working with new generations and with people that have experienced first-hand that loyalty for a company doesn’t always secure them employment. Employees are our best advertisement! They are our first line of contact with customers and can either help us create loyal customers or assure that the customer will never return because of poor service. However, employees cannot advertise if we haven't given them product training, or educated them about what the company values. They won't advertise if they aren't given the opportunity to see the advantage in it for them. We want ambitious people to work for us, so we can’t offer them stagnate jobs. We also want them to offer good service, which means showing empathy to those they serve. Therefore, we need to show empathy to the employees. As leaders, we must keep ambition and empathy in balance as well. As you improve service to all customers, internal and external, your cost goes down, morale goes up and customers are retained.

Given that we know how important it is to deliver good service, I think it would be hard to believe that someone would yell at an external customer over the telephone, hang up on them, or accuse them of lying. Unfortunately, I recently had this experience. After being yelled at, accused of lying and then hung up on, I sat in shock and dismay. The person I was speaking with was reportedly an executive. I had tried for over a week to reach them via email and phone messages to confirm an appointment that was on my calendar. I needed directions and confirmation of time as this had not been confirmed upon our conversation two months prior. As time got closer, I finally reached an assistant. I explained who I was and that I was seeking to confirm the appointment on my calendar but needed a confirmation on the location and time, as we had only said around lunch when we spoke. The assistant informed me in a tone that was very abrupt, that “ My supervisor is very busy, we have a lot of work to do around here, she doesn’t have time to answer her calls or emails!” Again I stated I wasn’t trying to take up her time, but that her supervisor had called me for the appointment and at the time had not desired to set the exact time. Now that the appointment was only two days away, I needed to know if it was still on and if so, when I should arrive. She said she would relay the message, but that again her supervisor was busy. The following day I called again to see if I could receive an answer. The supervisor was not in, but I was promised she would call. Within an hour I had a call that went like this. “What are you doing, trying to cancel this meeting? That is all you do!” I interrupted, thinking I am on the end of someone else’s call since my calls had been clear that I wanted to confirm the appointment. After repeating this, I was interrupted with “If you don’t want to keep the appointment that is fine, I will just let people know you don’t keep your appointments. You know we are very busy around here we have a lot of work to do.” I acknowledged that I was aware of how busy they were as her assistant had informed me and that time was valuable for all of us, which is why I was trying to confirm our appointment. It was becoming very clear to me that this person was still not hearing me. This became even clearer when the phone was hung up in my ear. I sat there stunned and staring at the phone as the line went dead. I sat back and decided I would call again, perhaps we got cut off, perhaps this call really wasn’t directed to me, but I pitied the poor soul who was going to get this wrath.

I was offended that someone was about to distort my reputation by saying I was canceling an appointment which I was working so hard to confirm. I decided I would make this call and plea to the individual’s customer service line. She is, after all, a VP of a major bank that is actively involved in community organizations. I wouldn’t want them to spread untruths about me and thought they certainly wouldn’t want me to think that this is how they REALLY treat customers.

I called back, spoke with a secretary, and explained that I thought somehow her supervisor and I had been disconnected or else I was hung up on by accident. She assured me that there must have been something that was touched on the phone to disconnect and quickly patched me through. When the person picked up the voice was so nice, I was sure that I had never spoken to this person today, and was feeling very guilty and sorry that I had been mislead into thinking the supervisor had treated me this way. Upon saying my name, the tone changed and the person who had yelled at me before returned. I attempted to interrupt the 2-minute monologue about how I had broken my promise yet again. At last they took a breath and I spoke. Trained in de-escalating aggressive people, this was easy to do! It was an educational opportunity for me and, I hoped, for them, too. I restated that I was still trying to confirm the appointment and was making no attempt to cancel it, that I was sorry if a message had been delivered differently. I also stated that we are both in the customer service industry and that our reputations are v

. Remember that training is product development. It adds quality and improves skills and confidence. It creates profits and moves your business forward.

Service is the essence of customer service. Building and maintaining high-quality relationships based on trust and credibility are essential. We obtain customers by showing them our product is of the best quality; we keep customers by delivering on promises and maintaining quality along with the relationship. Service benefits our internal customers: our employees. What are they getting from working for us that adds value to their life? Be careful about the first answer that may come out: a job and a paycheck. While I agree that is a benefit, we are working with new generations and with people that have experienced first-hand that loyalty for a company doesn’t always secure them employment. Employees are our best advertisement! They are our first line of contact with customers and can either help us create loyal customers or assure that the customer will never return because of poor service. However, employees cannot advertise if we haven't given them product training, or educated them about what the company values. They won't advertise if they aren't given the opportunity to see the advantage in it for them. We want ambitious people to work for us, so we can’t offer them stagnate jobs. We also want them to offer good service, which means showing empathy to those they serve. Therefore, we need to show empathy to the employees. As leaders, we must keep ambition and empathy in balance as well. As you improve service to all customers, internal and external, your cost goes down, morale goes up and customers are retained.

Given that we know how important it is to deliver good service, I think it would be hard to believe that someone would yell at an external customer over the telephone, hang up on them, or accuse them of lying. Unfortunately, I recently had this experience. After being yelled at, accused of lying and then hung up on, I sat in shock and dismay. The person I was speaking with was reportedly an executive. I had tried for over a week to reach them via email and phone messages to confirm an appointment that was on my calendar. I needed directions and confirmation of time as this had not been confirmed upon our conversation two months prior. As time got closer, I finally reached an assistant. I explained who I was and that I was seeking to confirm the appointment on my calendar but needed a confirmation on the location and time, as we had only said around lunch when we spoke. The assistant informed me in a tone that was very abrupt, that “ My supervisor is very busy, we have a lot of work to do around here, she doesn’t have time to answer her calls or emails!” Again I stated I wasn’t trying to take up her time, but that her supervisor had called me for the appointment and at the time had not desired to set the exact time. Now that the appointment was only two days away, I needed to know if it was still on and if so, when I should arrive. She said she would relay the message, but that again her supervisor was busy. The following day I called again to see if I could receive an answer. The supervisor was not in, but I was promised she would call. Within an hour I had a call that went like this. “What are you doing, trying to cancel this meeting? That is all you do!” I interrupted, thinking I am on the end of someone else’s call since my calls had been clear that I wanted to confirm the appointment. After repeating this, I was interrupted with “If you don’t want to keep the appointment that is fine, I will just let people know you don’t keep your appointments. You know we are very busy around here we have a lot of work to do.” I acknowledged that I was aware of how busy they were as her assistant had informed me and that time was valuable for all of us, which is why I was trying to confirm our appointment. It was becoming very clear to me that this person was still not hearing me. This became even clearer when the phone was hung up in my ear. I sat there stunned and staring at the phone as the line went dead. I sat back and decided I would call again, perhaps we got cut off, perhaps this call really wasn’t directed to me, but I pitied the poor soul who was going to get this wrath.

I was offended that someone was about to distort my reputation by saying I was canceling an appointment which I was working so hard to confirm. I decided I would make this call and plea to the individual’s customer service line. She is, after all, a VP of a major bank that is actively involved in community organizations. I wouldn’t want them to spread untruths about me and thought they certainly wouldn’t want me to think that this is how they REALLY treat customers.

I called back, spoke with a secretary, and explained that I thought somehow her supervisor and I had been disconnected or else I was hung up on by accident. She assured me that there must have been something that was touched on the phone to disconnect and quickly patched me through. When the person picked up the voice was so nice, I was sure that I had never spoken to this person today, and was feeling very guilty and sorry that I had been mislead into thinking the supervisor had treated me this way. Upon saying my name, the tone changed and the person who had yelled at me before returned. I attempted to interrupt the 2-minute monologue about how I had broken my promise yet again. At last they took a breath and I spoke. Trained in de-escalating aggressive people, this was easy to do! It was an educational opportunity for me and, I hoped, for them, too. I restated that I was still trying to confirm the appointment and was making no attempt to cancel it, that I was sorry if a message had been delivered differently. I also stated that we are both in the customer service industry and that our reputations are v

elled at, accused of lying and then hung up on, I sat in shock and dismay. The person I was speaking with was reportedly an executive. I had tried for over a week to reach them via email and phone messages to confirm an appointment that was on my calendar. I needed directions and confirmation of time as this had not been confirmed upon our conversation two months prior. As time got closer, I finally reached an assistant. I explained who I was and that I was seeking to confirm the appointment on my calendar but needed a confirmation on the location and time, as we had only said around lunch when we spoke. The assistant informed me in a tone that was very abrupt, that “ My supervisor is very busy, we have a lot of work to do around here, she doesn’t have time to answer her calls or emails!” Again I stated I wasn’t trying to take up her time, but that her supervisor had called me for the appointment and at the time had not desired to set the exact time. Now that the appointment was only two days away, I needed to know if it was still on and if so, when I should arrive. She said she would relay the message, but that again her supervisor was busy. The following day I called again to see if I could receive an answer. The supervisor was not in, but I was promised she would call. Within an hour I had a call that went like this. “What are you doing, trying to cancel this meeting? That is all you do!” I interrupted, thinking I am on the end of someone else’s call since my calls had been clear that I wanted to confirm the appointment. After repeating this, I was interrupted with “If you don’t want to keep the appointment that is fine, I will just let people know you don’t keep your appointments. You know we are very busy around here we have a lot of work to do.” I acknowledged that I was aware of how busy they were as her assistant had informed me and that time was valuable for all of us, which is why I was trying to confirm our appointment. It was becoming very clear to me that this person was still not hearing me. This became even clearer when the phone was hung up in my ear. I sat there stunned and staring at the phone as the line went dead. I sat back and decided I would call again, perhaps we got cut off, perhaps this call really wasn’t directed to me, but I pitied the poor soul who was going to get this wrath.

I was offended that someone was about to distort my reputation by saying I was canceling an appointment which I was working so hard to confirm. I decided I would make this call and plea to the individual’s customer service line. She is, after all, a VP of a major bank that is actively involved in community organizations. I wouldn’t want them to spread untruths about me and thought they certainly wouldn’t want me to think that this is how they REALLY treat customers.

I called back, spoke with a secretary, and explained that I thought somehow her supervisor and I had been disconnected or else I was hung up on by accident. She assured me that there must have been something that was touched on the phone to disconnect and quickly patched me through. When the person picked up the voice was so nice, I was sure that I had never spoken to this person today, and was feeling very guilty and sorry that I had been mislead into thinking the supervisor had treated me this way. Upon saying my name, the tone changed and the person who had yelled at me before returned. I attempted to interrupt the 2-minute monologue about how I had broken my promise yet again. At last they took a breath and I spoke. Trained in de-escalating aggressive people, this was easy to do! It was an educational opportunity for me and, I hoped, for them, too. I restated that I was still trying to confirm the appointment and was making no attempt to cancel it, that I was sorry if a message had been delivered differently. I also stated that we are both in the customer service industry and that our reputations are v

ming very clear to me that this person was still not hearing me. This became even clearer when the phone was hung up in my ear. I sat there stunned and staring at the phone as the line went dead. I sat back and decided I would call again, perhaps we got cut off, perhaps this call really wasn’t directed to me, but I pitied the poor soul who was going to get this wrath.

I was offended that someone was about to distort my reputation by saying I was canceling an appointment which I was working so hard to confirm. I decided I would make this call and plea to the individual’s customer service line. She is, after all, a VP of a major bank that is actively involved in community organizations. I wouldn’t want them to spread untruths about me and thought they certainly wouldn’t want me to think that this is how they REALLY treat customers.

I called back, spoke with a secretary, and explained that I thought somehow her supervisor and I had been disconnected or else I was hung up on by accident. She assured me that there must have been something that was touched on the phone to disconnect and quickly patched me through. When the person picked up the voice was so nice, I was sure that I had never spoken to this person today, and was feeling very guilty and sorry that I had been mislead into thinking the supervisor had treated me this way. Upon saying my name, the tone changed and the person who had yelled at me before returned. I attempted to interrupt the 2-minute monologue about how I had broken my promise yet again. At last they took a breath and I spoke. Trained in de-escalating aggressive people, this was easy to do! It was an educational opportunity for me and, I hoped, for them, too. I restated that I was still trying to confirm the appointment and was making no attempt to cancel it, that I was sorry if a message had been delivered differently. I also stated that we are both in the customer service industry and that our reputations are very important, how we treat people and how we speak to people can make or break our business. I was hoping that even if the appointment for the next day was inconvenient that we could reschedule and that I don’t know what happened to end the conversation a minute ago. This is when the wrath began again. I was told she didn’t need to meet with me, didn’t want to meet with me and that this conversation was ending and then she yelled, “I am hanging up now! OKAY! I am hanging up!” and slammed the phone down.

I sat there stunned at the lack of professionalism and bewildered that this person was in a managerial position. I knew calling back would do no good. Normally I contact the company so that they know some bad customer service has been experienced, but in this case I am uncertain who to contact, and not sure if they aren’t already on the side of this individual. What a shame! While I will not use this letter to state the company or the person, I do think that it gives a strong lesson. I am sorry for her staff, who most likely feel helpless in this hostile environment. I am even sorrier for the organizations in her community that she represents because these outbursts are rarely isolated incidents. Although I am sure her actions do not stand for her company, will other people see that when she lets loose on them?

Whether you’re an employer or employee, in the private or public sector, Whether you’re dealing directly with customers or working quietly behind the scenes… Whether you like it or not… YOU ALL HAVE CUSTOMERS Remember your employer does not pay your salary-customers do!