Devoted to customer service and the principles of exceptional customer services

The time has come to venture out into new and exciting worlds...

I will be continuing this conversation about customer service over at my new blog, People To People Service.  

I was having technical issues logging into this blog for the past week which prompted the launch of the new blog. I figured it was long overdue.  I need a blog that I have full control of and to be quite honest, I didn't want to go through the hassle of transferring this blog to a new host and a new blog platform. 

If you recently subscribed to this blog, you can read more about why I'm moving on...

So please join me at People To People Service and let's continue the conversation!

Welcome to the Thanksgiving edition of the Customer Service Carnivale!  I'd like to take a moment to thank all the readers and contributors who inspire me to continue writing here at Customers Are Always.  It's been a great journey and I appreciate all of your support! 

This edition has many resources that we can all be thankful for.  So without further ado...

Service Untitled offers a customer service tip:  Teach your customers with online classes.  When it comes to the customer experience, creating value is key! 

Anya Portnik shares with Invest 15 minutes a day and double your sales results? posted at Gavin Ingham.  I completely agree with everything said in this article!  You may also be interested in this free special report that Gavin offers as well:  Selling in Tough Markets

Part of customer service is reassuring our customers that we can get the job done.  That said, here are some thoughts from Fiona Lohrenz in Reassuring Day Care Parents posted at Child Care Only.

Scott Mahler shares Why You Need to Upgrade Your Website.  Having a customer-friendly website is important in today's business world!  Scott also shares Software That Can Help Streamline Business For Commercial Properties saying, "One of the fastest ways to lose a client is to miss out on opportunities you have to serve their needs, which is why in today’s global economy, it is more important than ever to maintain quality customer service. This is especially true, when speaking of commercial property. Whether that commercial property is large-scale real estate or residential, there is innovative software technology that can help maximize the service you provide your tenants."

The Human Resources department plays an important role in a business because they make sure employees (internal customers) are taken care of.  If you work in HR, you may be interested in reading People Persons: Top 50 HR Blogs posted at BSchool.com Business Schools Directory.

What's a customer service carnivale without a little rant?  Jim gives us a Washington Mutual rant in Call Center CSRs Ruin Customer Experience posted at Blueprint for Financial Prosperity.

And speaking of call centers...Raymond tells us that Outsourcing Call Center Jobs To India Leads To Bad Customer Service posted at Money Blue Book

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of customer service carnivale using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

Technorati tags: customer service carnivale, blog carnival.

Most people equate spirituality with religion and they believe that religion doesn't have a place in business.  This post is not going to be about religion...It's about spirituality.  The word "spirituality" tends to scare people, but if you really think about it, we are all spiritual beings.  Famous book author and speaker Wayne Dyer was the one who introduced me to the idea:

So what does spirituality have to do with customer service?

My answer to that is:  Everything.  Every communication or interaction with another person is a moment when your spirit connects with that person.  Every connection, no matter how short or long it is, has an effect on your life and their life.  As someone who works in customer service, you have the opportunity to inspire your customers.  This is your chance to make a difference in someone's life.

Welcome to the first November edition of the Customer Service Carnivale!  The big holidays are just around the corner and for many of you it's going to be a busy time.  This is the time to make sure that your staff is ready to deal with all those customers.  Hopefully the articles in this edition will offer inspiration and give you ideas on how to improve your customer service. 

Customer Service - do the businesses really practice it? offers a reminder that there's still a great deal of work to be done to improve service in large organizations.

Service Untitled offers a great customer service tip:  Communicated Expected Hold Time.  

Jim over at Blueprint for Financial Prosperity shares this great story: Wow, Another Reason I LUV Southwest .  Jim says, "I don't work for Southwest but I absolutely love them because of their stellar customer service. Here's a story about how they, specifically their crew, gave my wife and me a bottle of champagne on our honeymoon flight just because we mentioned it in passing!"Kordell Norton offers It's a Funny World?. . . .everybody says that . . .but no one is laughing posted at The Customer Experience, saying, "How does laughter play a part in Customer Service and Excellence. Oh yeah. . .it does. . . big time."

And speaking of laughter....For a little humor, check out Is That Service? posted at So You Want To Be a Banquet Manager..

VW shares an experience that I'm sure many of us can relate to in Brought to my knees by the Bank of America. 

John Crickett presents Do You Eat Your Own Dog Food? posted at Business Opportunities And Ideas, saying, "Is your product/service good enough that you'd use it yourself?"

For those of you who have read this blog for awhile, you know that I always preach, "Follow your passions!"  If you're doing what you love, you will always provide good service.  I wanted to share this post, Dream More, Work Less in hopes that it will inspire you to really think about what you're currently doing and if you're working towards your dreams.

I should send my lawyer this next post because he seems to have trouble returning my phone calls!  Andrew Flusche asks Can You Call Your Lawyer? posted at Andrew Flusche, Virginia Lawyer, saying, "Can your clients reach you on the phone? If not, you should fix that!"

Brad Trnavsky shares How Loyal Are Your Customers? posted at Sales Management 2.0. The big takeaway is "Loyal customers always return and become a dependable lifetime sales stream." Love it!

Emmanuel Oluwatosin wants to know: Are you letting go of your prodigal clients?  I agree that it's less costly to retain current clients!

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of customer service carnivale using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

Technorati tags: customer service carnivale, blog carnival.

It's that time of year again!  The annual Bathroom Blogfest is growing...evolving...and I'm happy to be a part of it this year.  The past couple years we focused on bathrooms as it relates to the customer experience, however, this year it has expanded into other forgotten spaces. 

I'm sure we've all been in public restrooms where the stalls have been etched with names and phone numbers - maybe even a curse word or two.  Haven't you ever been tempted to write a little graffiti yourself?  I know I have ;) 

Well, I happened to come across this photo over at Flickr (Photo Credit: Nik) that features a bathroom design that might be fun for customers.  It would certainly make for a creative and colorful bathroom!

If you're thinking about a new public restroom design, you may want to check out the American Restroom Association which has some great events and resources.  I like their motto: "America's advocate for the availability of clean, safe, well designed public restrooms"

Check out other bloggers participating in this year's blogfest:

Susan Abbott at Customer Experience Crossroads
Katia Adams at Transcultural Marketing
Shannon Bilby at Floor Talk!
Laurence Borel at Blog Till You Drop
Jo Brown and the blogging team at Kohler Talk
Lisbeth Calandrino at Lisbeth Calandrino
Sara Cantor at The Curious Shopper
Becky Carroll at Customers Rock!
Katie Clark at Practical Katie
Iris Shreve Garrott at Circulating
Ann Handley at Annarchy
Marianna Hayes at Results Revolution
Elizabeth Hise and C.B. Whittemore at The Carpetology Blog
Sandra Renshaw at Purple Wren
Kate Rutter at Adaptive Path
Claudia Schiepers at Life and its little pleasures
Carolyn Townes at Becoming a Woman of Purpose
C.B. Whittemore at Flooring The Consumer

Welcome and thank you for visiting the Customer Service Carnivale!  I'd also like to thank Blog Carnival for choosing us again as the carnival of the day ;) As always, we have some great submissions, so let's get the party started!

Gavin Ingham says that now is the time for sales heroes.  How about you?  Are you investing in yourself and your customers during this time of economic uncertainty?

Here's an excellent customer service tip: Pass on praise to everyone.

If you work in the food service industry, I'd like your thoughts on this article: 13 Things Your Waiter Won't Tell You

Pete Abilla offers us Customer Service Contacts are Symptoms, not Root Causes: How to Apply the 5 Whys

This is an inspiring post, Presuppose Greatness.  We should remember this part: "If you want people to expect to have a good experience with you, it helps for you to presuppose greatness in as many of your interactions as possible."

Martin Russell shares an interesting ad in Really Getting A Buyer’s Point Of View

Erika Collin shares great resource for classes on communication and customer service, plus more: Brain Trust: 100 Ivy League Business & Entrepreneurship Courses You Can Take for Free

John W. Furst presents Seth Godin - A Podcast About Tribes (47 Minutes)  Furst says, "Seth Godins newest book Tribes is already a bestseller on Amazon. His advice does not only apply to marketing. Think about customer service (CS), it's a touch point with your customers. That means your CS people should know about tribes, too."

I've always preached how important it is to connect with people (current and potential customers) via online social networking.  Karina Harris reminds us of this in How to Beat the Economy: Make YOUR Business Work

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of customer service carnivale using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

If you work in the retail world, whether it's in a grocery store, at the mall, or in the automotive industry, you may find this resource to be useful:  Retail Customer Experience Magazine & Online. The website allows you to search for suppliers, offers case studies and articles to help you with your business.  

In this time of uncertainty in the economy, I'm sure many of you are wondering what you can do to create win-win relationships with everyone.  I recommend reading this article from the Retail Customer Experience website, Balancing the demands of customers, investors by Mike Hrabe.

Welcome to the latest edition of the Customer Service Carnivale!  I just realized that the last time I posted here was two weeks ago for the last carnivale...Time is just going by fast!  I promise to have a regular blog post soon ;)  Thanks to all my faithful and loyal contributors - as well as to new contributors and readers! 

Let's get the fun started...

I thought I'd start with this funny post, New Office Policy - Read Immediately.  Although it isn't actually a customer service article, I thought it was funny enough to include it here.  Besides, we all need some laughter in our day!  For more laughter, check out A Few BAD Waiter Jokes.

Oh, and let's keep going with the humor!  I really like this story of Overstock.com's customer service:  The. Computer. Must. Go.

One Family shares Amazon.com Customer Service – Jeff Bezos backtracks on 30-day price guarantee policy!  Ah, don't we love when companies change their policies without us knowing it!

Trust is one of the cornerstone's of a good relationship.  Charles H. Green offers us the lessons he's learned in this excellent post, The Guts of Trust.

There are some excellent customer service tips in this post:  So You Want To Be An Innkeeper

Do you think it's good customer service to have a By Appointment Only policy?  Share your thoughts!

Call Center Consultants offers some thoughts on Why Start a Professional Survey Call Center.

What would happen to an organization that doesn't have good managers?  Find out by reading Knotty, Knotty Project.

When was the last time you went above and beyond the call of duty for a customer?  Perhaps reading Publicize Your Exceptional Customer Service will inspire you!

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of customer service carnivale using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

Welcome to the Customer Service Carnivale!  We've got a good mix of articles for this edition ;) Thanks to everyone for your contributions and keeping this Carnivale alive!

The Banquet Manager shares a tidbit about how you can tell alot about a person by how they treat a waiter in Another Story About a Great CEO.  You may also want to check out this rant: "Those SOB Members Did It Again!"

Service Untitled gives us a good customer service tip in Offering to follow up with (additional) answers.  The worst thing you can say is "I Don't Know"!

One Family shares a customer service experience with the iRobot Roomba 5-series Robotic Vacuum Part/Accessory Replacement (Side Brushes)

Consumer Noe offers some sound advice for customers in Receiving Excellent Customer Service.

Here's a good lesson in customer service: A Wicked Example of Customer Service.  Which supervisor are you?

Andy Birol shares with us how to effectively relate your company's purpose and goals to your prospects and audience in I Didn't Know You Did That!

Ms. Smarty Pants Know It All felt like she went through a time warp when she experienced Amazing Customer Service at Banks Today.  Oh, banks want to be nice to us now, eh?  I wonder why...

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of customer service carnivale using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

I do apologize for the hiatus that I have taken here.  Business life is changing quite a bit for me and I've had to do a bit of soul searching. 

One of the things that I've been going back and forth on is whether or not to continue writing here or branch off on my own and start a completely new customer service blog.  I'm feeling the need to be more in control of every aspect of my blogging and I really don't have that here because this blog is owned by Know More Media. 

I do feel very passionate about customer service and want to continue with my vision of changing the way people do business, but at the same time I have these other projects that are carrying me in the direction of my other visions in life.  I really wish I was able to do everything and be everywhere!  However, do know that I am currently working on a project that is directly related to customer service which I will unveil in the next few months or so. 

The Customer Service Carnivale is still alive and well, though!  The latest edition is posted over at one of my other blogs, Studio 747.

Until I make my decision as to whether or not to continue writing here or start a new blog, you can connect with me over at Twitter or feel free to shoot me an email anytime:  maria [at] salondemaria [dot] com. 

Pictured above is the lily pond in front of the Botanical Center in Balboa Park (San Diego) - a place I like to go to do some deep soul searching ;)