You’ve likely been on the receiving end of one or more of these bad customer service excuses:
- “My computer is down.”
- “We’re short-handed”
- “I’m all by myself.”
- “The salesperson didn’t give me the right information”
- “I’ve been off work. Please bear with me.”
- “I’m just filling in.”
Customers are tired of the excuses employees give instead of delivering excellent customer service. We’ve all been customers ourselves, and we’re tired – tired of inadequate service, a lack of concern, and a take-it-or-leave-it attitude. We’re tired of being told everything under the sun except that which we long to hear, “How may I help you?” followed by the appropriate action.
Because so many companies neglect customer service, good customer service is a competitive edge.
Delivering good customer service begins with hiring customer service representatives that have the right personality fit, service attitude, and customer service skills. Good customer service skills require the active listening, etiquette, problem solving, and general reasoning skills. A positive customer service orientation, collaboration, teamwork, and communication skills are also critical. Candidates can be screened for all these job requirements before they get hired by using customer service pre-employment tests.
Once on the job, training is important. The book “Excuses, Excuses, Excuses” is an excellent ice-breaker for departmental meetings and training. “Excuses, Excuses, Excuses….For Not Delivering Excellent Customer Service – and What Should Happen!” highlights 117 excruciatingly-painful-but-all-too-common Customer Service Excuses followed by common sense recommendations and insights to delivering good customer service. This book is for any company, business, or organization that deals with customers and has a passionate desire to survive. This book is about excuses we both hear and use for not giving excellent customer service and how to shoot those excuses down.
You can order Excuses, Excuses, Excuses online now or call 800.803.4304. Supplies are limited.