BLOG ARTICLES BY AMY
7 Conversations You Should Never Start at Family Holiday Gatherings
I thought I’d get a jump-start on holiday-themed blogs this year so we can all be prepared for finding the joy in what can sometimes be a stressful season. To kick things off, let’s talk about family get-togethers. Family holiday gatherings should be a time to reconnect, enjoy great food and drinks, and most of […]
Why Consistency is Better Than Excellence
Everyone’s striving for excellence these days, or at least that’s what they tell people. So why is it that we so infrequently experience excellence? I think it’s because we’re focused on the wrong thing. We should be focusing on consistency rather than excellence and here’s why. I recently spoke to a man who was very […]
Just because you can comment, doesn’t mean you should
This week, my assistant posted a “good news” post on the Facebook page for the nonprofit animal rescue I started in 2017, Starlight Outreach and Rescue. (Click Here to Follow us on Facebook) The purpose of her post was to share the progress of an injured animal we were working to help. Someone commented on […]
The Most Powerful Phrase You Can Ever Say to Your Customers
One of the simplest phrases in customer service is one we seldom hear, yet it’s the most powerful tool in your tool box to de-escalate a customer complaint quickly and easily. What’s the phrase? It’s: “You’re Right.” Wow! That even looks awesome in writing. Don’t you just feel good reading that? So imagine how your […]
How to recover from customer service failures
No matter what business you’re in, there will be times when things go wrong when serving your customers. From forgetting to process an order to selling a product that doesn’t meet the customer’s expectations, you’re going to let your customers down. Customer service failures don’t have to define you. It’s how you RESPOND to service […]
Are you guilty of being a bad listener?
Listening is probably our most important, but most underutilized communication skill. Part of the problem is that people are selfish and would rather be the one talking than listening. However, I also think people are bad listeners because nowhere along the line as we’re growing up, does anyone teach us how to be good listeners. […]
When you don’t reply, you have replied
One of my personal pet peeves is people who don’t reply to emails, voicemails, or text messages in a timely fashion – especially when I KNOW they received the communication. Case in point – I sent an email 2 weeks ago to a group of people for whom I had ordered t-shirts for an event. […]
How to Stop a Workplace Whiner
There’s one in every office — that person whose coffee is always cold, whose commute is longer and worse than everyone elses, who is the only one to face difficult customers, and who is just plain never happy unless he or she is complaining. I’m not talking here about the occasional or legitimate complaint. I […]
Why “Hire for Attitude, Train for Skill” Should Be Your #1 Hiring Goal
At least a few times a month, I get a call from a client who wants me to “fix” an employee with training or coaching. “He’s got great computer skills, but he’s rude to our customers.” “She’s very efficient, but we had to move her to the back office because she can’t get along with […]