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..

Technorati tags: customer service carnivale, blog carnival.

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

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.

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.

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 ;)

The Customer Service Carnivale will be the Featured Carnivale over at Blog Carnival next Tuesday, September 2nd!  Finally!  It's nice to be recognized once in awhile, eh?  

I will be hosting the next carnivale on Monday, September 1st over at Online Business Resources. Have a customer service tip, story, or news to share?  Click here to submit your article or blog post to the carnivale!  Deadline for submissions is this Saturday, August 30. 

I’ve had some time away from this blog to let my mind relax and contemplate the state of customer service.  Much of what I’ve been thinking about has been in alignment with a book that I’ve been reading titled How You Do... What You Do: Create Service Excellence That Wins Clients For Life by Bob Livingston.  I’ve been having quite a few “Ah-ha!” moments and I’m excited to share with you some of these thoughts…

I’m only at the beginning of the book and feeling very inspired by what Livingston says.  Here’s a little tidbit from Chapter 1 that resonated with me:

"It is not that people don’t care about relationships and don’t consider Service Excellence their job.  Nor is it that they are unwilling to make sacrifices, put other people first, or go out of their way to ensure flawless execution of the service chain.  It is simply that they do not appreciate the significance that their interactions may have on the person or client they are serving."

Which brings me to the title of this post…

I really want people to start looking at customer service from a different perspective - to view service as starting from within - an “inside-out” perspective, if you will. And the first step is to… 

Continue Reading

This carnivale is a day late and I do apologize!  I had planned to post it yesterday afternoon, but I got struck with food poison...But enough with excuses!  Thanks for your patience ;)

Here's a little rant from a former banquet manager... A $15 Tip On a $1400 Wine Order... posted at So You Want To Be a Banquet Manager....

Anya Portnik shares How to use email when prospecting posted at Gavin Ingham.

Service Untitled has a great article which asks, "Why Phone Support?" I agree that phone support is still an effective communication channel! 

Customer Service News

I love this next article and those of you regular readers know why! Kevin Stirtz presents Did Starbucks Stumble on Service? posted at Customer Service Speaker- The Amazing Service Guy.

Customer Service Tips

For those of you who are just starting your journey into the world of excellent service, the following article is a great read. Frederic Premji presents 10 Rules To Give Great Customer Service posted at BlogMotivation.com.

If you're a vendor at a trade show, remember those first impressions! Check out this great article: Smart Trade Show Marketing Strategies posted at Tradetec Skyline.

Here is an interesting perspective on outsourcing. Raymond presents Outsourcing Call Center Jobs To India Leads To Bad Customer Service posted at Money Blue Book.

Customer Service Tools

Brian Oates presents How You Do What You Do posted at Imprint: Business Author Interviews, saying, "Bob Livingston's book is a step-by-step approach to building service excellence in your company. He spent a few minutes with me to talk about it."

Other

Stephanie Bryant shares personal reviews of 2 businesses with a customer-friendly culture in Locally-owned Businesses in Norwood, Massachusetts posted at U.S. Travel

It's great to see new blogs added to this edition of the customer service carnivale!  There were also quite a few posts that I did not include because they weren't really customer service related.  If you do not see your post here, but feel it should have been included, let me know!

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.

"People don't refer business to you because you meet their minimum expectations. They refer you because they expect you to do a good job which, in turn, enhances their relationship with the person they are referring." --Ivan Misner (Good Customer Service Alone Doesn't Win Referrals)

"You cannot escape these conversations, only see them as an opportunity to face the truth, be honest and monitor your reputation constantly. The days of corporate marketing spin are coming to a close." --Dan Schawbel (Online Reputation Management 2.0 and Our Mobile Future)

"Connections are the start of relationships, and relationships make every part of our lives more rich, valuable, meaningful and fun." -- Kevin Eikenberry (Staying Connected)