CAGE Code: 7XUVO   Duns # 607290574       
Phone: 615.965.2465  PO Box 344 Mt. Juliet, TN 37121

Action Versus Intention

In customer service our attention tends to go towards putting out fires.  Goals for improving or changing a process are put on the back burner for so long that we forget we ever had goals.  It’s exciting and motivating to be able to share with you how others have been able to improve and innovate while handling the day to day demands that revolve around customer care. For all of us it is about taking head-knowledge, what we know about, and putting it into action.  

Let me introduce you to 3 women of action!

Cynthia has been a Customer Service Representative since 2016.  During the annual Tooty Training program, we focused on selling services- business to business.  The Tooty script is great, but CSRs admitted they may only get 1 or 2 calls for new service in a month and aren’t confident when it comes to recommending service.  I suggested that if there was someone who was talented with excel that the formula offered during training could be turned into an amazing tool that would allow a CSR or inside sales rep to enter in some details from the script and quickly determine  a service that would best fit the customer’s needs.  Cynthia not only offered to do it but, followed through!  The tool will also shorten talk time.

In her role as Customer Service ManagerDestini attended the webinar Tooty offers to managers.  The office had staffing issues.  Destini said, “Our jobs are more than head count and phone calls”, which is what she discovered after she used the work-time-study formula provided by Lori Miller to document the number of customers that came to the office, inbound and outbound calls and customer e-mails.  This data helped Destini and upper management make an informed decision about staffing.

Deana had been a CSR for just over a year before receiving the award as a 2017 Top 10 CSR in all of North America for Waste Connections. Her average for 2017 was 99!  Deana said, “If I can do it, I know that you can do it. Just use the tools provided and the sky is the limit!”  While on site providing one-on-one coaching to CSRs we noticed that small details that impact customer service and accuracy were not given attention.  Every CSR had a different level of knowledge and there wasn’t time to share facts during the day.  As the new Lead CSR, Deana took a Tooty suggestion to create a “Did you know” board where CSRs are incentivized to share what they learn each day- ah ha moments.  

We don’t get very far by thinking about or wishing for things to be better.  Action steps and deadlines make a difference. 

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Who Is Your Customer

During a recent training session, I asked someone who is designated as a back-up to answering the phones who her customers were.  She was confident in her response, “I don’t have customers.  I don’t have anyone from the outside call me.”  I explained that customer service isn’t a job title, but a trait a person has.  It is about understanding who you interact with each day and being intentional about helping him or her to the best of your abilities.  It’s about serving people.  She caught on quickly and came to understand that her customers were most

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Inspiration for Sales and Customer Service Teams

Where does your inspiration come from? Let me be more specific. Where do you go for fresh ideas to motivate your team? Possibly you have had a rough month or two with weather related heartaches, price increases, technology or attendance issues. For some of you it has been all of the above! Some of you are watching your team’s performance scores like a hawk and others are in a rebuilding phase and want to finish the 4th quarter well so that they can build momentum for 2018. I had the honor of interviewing 3 Customer Service Managers who have

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Do Unhappy Customers Scare You?

What is more intimidating than an angry customer complaining about service? An angry business customer complaining about service! Customer service and sales representatives have confessed that they are nervous when they hear a harsh tone of voice or have a business manager complain that he has called multiple times for the same thing. Costly short-cuts and ineffective solutions are used to get the unhappy person off the line as quickly as possible. Your team can confidently interact with the customers and provide right solutions, but it will take training and

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Customer Service Training- Eye on the Ball

In 2016, the Chicago Cubs won the World Series after a 108-year drought. The drought was not only the longest in major league baseball, but according to Wikipedia it was the longest in all major North American sports. They had great players, managers and games along the way and still didn’t achieve their goal of a World Series Win. The Cubs needed something. They were missing the special sauce needed to be a championship team.
Crane Kenney, the Cub’s President of Business Operations said this, “There’s a saying in business that ‘culture eats strategy for breakfast

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Customer Service Department Efficiency

I recently had a manager ask me why having a customer hold for over 10 minutes deserved a zero score. She rationalized her location’s long hold times by saying she had waited on hold for 30 minutes with a vendor when she called her corporate office. Although a 10-minute hold is better than a 30-minute hold, long hold times point out inefficiencies within a company or a department. The top reasons for having long hold times include:
1) short staffed
2) phones and/or computers go down
3) new business
How can you know if your customer service department

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Training Tip to Combat Defensiveness

What can you do with someone who is defensive and doesn’t receive feedback well?
Being defensive isn’t unusual. It is a very human and common reaction to criticism. My sister and I joke about the fact we weren’t raised to receive criticism as something that is helpful. It can be a slow process to change not only how you react but also to look forward to feedback. You may be working with someone who has years of practice defending actions versus looking for ways to use criticism to make improvements. Here are some suggestions to help both you and your team grow through criticism.

1) Share

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Preparing for A Price Increase to Your Customers

There is a lot that goes into implementing a price increase to your customer base. Operations, sales, accounting and many others need to coordinate what will happen and when. Customer service needs to brace for an influx of customer calls by adding additional staffing, some of whom may be temps or support staff within the office. Unfortunately, some leaders simply settle on a vague directive to the team that they should try to keep as much of the P.I. as possible. They leave the details of what will be said and done to the person taking the call. It has been my

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Patience and Understanding

I did some volunteer work with a group of first graders and one of our lessons focused on patience. It is endearing when a 6 year old scrunches her nose and asks, “Patience? What is that?” But, I admit I am more likely to throw my hands in the air as I shout, “Patience? What is that?” because there are days when it seems as if people are unable to tolerate anything that doesn’t go according to plan. Like you, I have many inconveniences that cross my path every day. It could be unexpected computer issues, airport delays or unreasonable people. On a recent trip during the height

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You Talk Too Much

As a company, Tooty has listened to over half a million customer conversations which includes both secret shopper calls and monitored real customer conversations. Regardless of the industry or the office location, CSRs will tell me how different and demanding their customers are in comparison to anyone else.  Some describe their customers as mean, long-winded or needy.  I recently told a CSR I was hoping she would get some of “those” customers while I was with her, not because I wanted her to be nervous or to be given a hard time but because I wanted to

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