BLOG ARTICLES BY AMY
30 Customer Service “Fails” that Can Ruin Your Organization’s Reputation
Most companies talk a lot about the importance of customer service, but the actions of their employees don’t reflect that they value customer service above all else. Before the internet, poor customer service stories spread one-to-one, meaning one person had a bad experience and shared it with others one at a time. However, in the […]
Keeping the Lines of Communication Open
I realized recently that I used to do a lot better staying in touch, of keeping the lines of communication open with family members as well as customers, suppliers, and other people whose lives I impact and whose lives impact mine. Sometimes we just get caught up in the day to day and before we […]
How well do you listen? Take this quiz and find out!
I thought I’d do something fun this week instead of a regular written blog and that’s to give you the listening quiz I give in many of my workshops. I didn’t invent the quiz, and can’t find out who did (but I thank the person!) It’s not only fun, but illustrates how ineffective our listening […]
Make Listening a Priority
Listening is one of our most important communication skills, but also the one we spend the least amount of time developing. Think about it. Parents spend so much time in a child’s formative years teaching that child how to speak, read, and write. Then the child goes off to school and spends more time learning […]
A dog’s guide to listening: Improve your listening skills in six easy steps
Last week, I shared the high cost of poor listening. Although most of the time our poor listening isn’t an issue of life or death, we do all pay a price when we don’t make effective listening a priority. If you read articles on the importance of communication, listening is usually listed as one of […]
Say NO to Listening
“Hey, do you have time to talk?” “Do you have a minute, I have an idea I want to run by you?” How many times a day are you asked questions like these? And how many times do you wish you could be honest and say NO, but what comes out of your mouth is […]
The High Cost of Poor Listening Skills
The high cost of poor listening isn’t evident when you visit Tenerife Island, the largest and most populous island in the Canary Island chain. More than five million tourists visit the island each year, enjoying its distinctly beautiful beaches, mountains, and many cultural festivals. However, these tourists probably don’t realize that Tenerife holds a more deadly distinction. […]
Are You Really Listening?
When my daughter Kelsey was about four years old, we were both sitting and looking at the new fish in our fish tank. Having just added the fish, I was watching them closely to ensure they were adjusting to the water, temperature, and other fish in the tank. While I was doing this, Kelsey was […]
Five Steps for Turning Resolutions Into Reality
As the new year approaches, if you’re like me, you’ve been thinking about the things you’d like to accomplish in 2017. Many of us make resolutions as the new year begins, but how many of us can honestly say, at the end of that year, that we accomplished all we resolved to do? Based on […]