His recent book, Service Failure, examines the surprising causes of poor customer service and provides proven solutions drawn from real examples and cutting-edge research.

1. Your webinar will focus on three reasons good people provide bad service. Why do you think everyday interpersonal skills don’t automatically translate into a great customer service?

Some problems are beyond the person’s control. For example, if you take four hours off of work to wait for a cable repair technician, you probably won’t be too happy if the person they send doesn’t have the right set of skills to fix your problem and you have to make yet another appointment. That technician might have the world’s greatest interpersonal skills, but it doesn’t fix the fact that you’ve just wasted half a day.

Some service failures are caused by the way people are managed. I once encountered a sales associate in a sporting goods store who put a little sticker on every item I considered buying. His behavior was strange because he didn’t stick around to help me make a selection since he was too busy putting stickers on items that other customers were selecting. I later learned that the store manager was using the stickers to track sales performance. The sales associate may have been a nice guy, but he also understood that his boss was really paying attention to how many little stickers he put on items that customers purchased.

In the webinar, I’ll focus on three of the many ways that our own natural instincts can get in the way when it comes to serving customers. There are fun experiential activities we’ll use to highlight some of the real challenges that customer service employees face every day. For example, I plan on demonstrating a reason why we’re naturally poor listeners in certain customer service situations. It’s hard to become a great listener if you don’t know about this obstacle.

2. What is one of the challenges good people have to overcome if they want to provide good customer service?

Seeing service from the customer’s perspective is the biggest challenge we face. Most of us think of good service in terms of the effort we provide or the techniques we use. We think we’re doing a good job if we work hard, go the extra mile, and remember to be nice.

Customer service is really defined as the extent to which the experience matches the customer’s expectations. After all, it’s the customer that fills out our surveys, tells their friends about their experience, and decides whether or not to return. The challenge is no two customers are the same. Some are easy to please and seem to be happy with nearly anything we do. Others’ expectations are impossible to meet, which is very frustrating since no matter how hard we try that person is still going to be unhappy.

Perhaps that’s what makes someone good at service. They can make 99 people happy, but they’ll go home thinking about the 1 person they couldn’t help that day.

3. Many companies know that providing great customer service is important, but struggle to make it happen. What are they missing? Is there a simple mistake that many companies are making or is it different for each company?

There are two mistakes I frequently see. The first is many companies haven’t taken the time to define what great customer service looks like. Outstanding service at Southwest Airlines looks very different than at the Ritz-Carlton, so it’s important for companies to decide on their own unique brand of service. It becomes much easier for employees to do the right thing once they know what’s expected.

The second mistake is a lack of true commitment. You can’t get away with just hanging a motivational poster on the wall or holding a one-time training class and expect that to be it. The very best organizations know that outstanding service is something you have to work at each and every day. There are only a few companies that make outstanding customer service a factor in nearly every decision they make.

4. As someone who is well versed in the ways of good and bad customer service, how do you react to bad customer service? How about good customer service?

In some ways, I react like most customers. Bad service is disappointing, frustrating, and often costs us both time and money while we try to get the problem resolved. On the other hand, I also try to understand why the bad service happened. This has sometimes helped me figure out how to get what I wanted. At the very least it gave me a great story for my blog.

Great service is a revelation! I go back often. I sing their praises to my friends. And, similar to my bad experiences, I often ask questions to learn how they’re able to do it.

5. What are some of the challenges faced by customer service professionals that they might not have had to deal with 20 years ago?

It’s so much harder to pay attention and stay focused today than it was 20 years ago. Sure, we have a lot of technology at our fingertips that we didn’t have back then, but this technology has also increased the amount of distractions we face. Any time you lose a little focus you run the risk of missing something important.

When I was working in retail 20 years ago, a customer would walk into the store, and I would approach them to offer my assistance. It was usually just that simple. Today, if you walk into a store, the sales associate is often wearing an earpiece so they can communicate with other associates. They might be carrying a handheld computer to complete inventory tasks or even ring up your purchase. And the customers themselves are often absorbed by their smartphones (which of course didn’t exist in 1993).

In 1993, companies generally had to manage three communication channels: in-person, over the phone, and the mail. A customer service professional was typically assigned to focus on one at a time. Today, there are many more communication channels such as company websites, chat, Twitter, Facebook, and email. Customer service professionals today are expected to work on several channels at once, so they’re constantly moving from one customer to another or sometimes carrying on several conversations at once.

View the webinar: Three hidden reasons why good people provide bad service

Visit Jeff’s blog for additional Q&A from the webinar

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First and foremost, you need to help your colleagues answer a few questions:

• What is good customer service?
• What is bad customer service?
• What effect will providing one or the other have on your company?

With the help of Dimensional Research, we conducted a study to answer these very questions. The results, while sometimes surprising, ultimately back up what we’ve been saying for a long time: providing your customers with great service can pay dividends that are far-reaching and long-lasting.

Dimensional Research interviewed more than 1,000 consumers to try and understand what defines a good customer service experience, the ways customers reward companies that provide it, and all of the ways a customer will broadcast (publicly and privately) their experiences.

Good customer service defined
One of the more surprising results of the survey was the way people defined good customer service. It might seem like a given that most people would list achieving their desired outcome as the most important factor. The single most important factor was this:

The problem was resolved quickly.

OK, so clearly the customer getting their way would be the second highest-rated factor, right? Nope. Here it is:

The person who helped me was nice.

Makes sense; nobody likes to be treated poorly. The customer getting their way has got to be the third most important factor for good customer service. Wrong again:

The problem was resolved in one interaction – no passing around to multiple people

Less than half (47%) of those interviewed indicated that the customer service interaction was positive because they got what they were originally hoping for.

What does good customer service mean for you?
When you provide your customers with great customer service:

• 81% tell their friends and family about it.
• 45% broadcast their experiences on social media
• 35% will write about it on review sites like Yelp
• 52% will continue to do business with your company
• 24% will choose you over your competitors for up to two years!

What does it all mean?
Your customers are reasonable: they don’t expect to always get their way, they just want fast, convenient service.

And they want to be treated with a little respect.

Read the full report: Customer Lifetime Value

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On the other hand, sales and support are critically important to your success. Shouldn’t you pick the best tools for the job, regardless of whether or not they come in the same package?

The optimal solution for most businesses is to combine best-of-breed tools via seamless, two-way integrations. So no matter which application an individual employee is accustomed to working with, the essential information he needs is within easy reach.

Our white paper, Matchmaking in the Cloud: A Perfect Marriage of Sales and Support, weighs in on the best-of-breed vs all-in-one approach to enterprise software, and shows why anyone looking to provide their customers with the most outstanding customer experience will opt for integrating best-of-breed software tools.

Read the full white paper, Matchmaking in the Cloud: A Perfect Marriage of Sales and Support

Learn more about why In the Cloud, Sweet is Better than Suite

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Our latest Community Tip comes to us from Ben Lucier, director of customer experience for Tucows and Zendesk Community Moderator. This article will show you how you can build a top-notch customer service team by focusing less on job candidates with technical experience and more on people who care about helping others.

Head to the forums to learn more

Read 10 Interview Questions for Hiring Great Customer Service Reps

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Kristina Evey, a professional speaker, trainer, and educator, has spent 20 years helping her clients do exactly that: focus on creating an excellent customer experience.

In a recent installment of our regular Zen Master webinar series, “7 Effective Keys to Transforming the Customer Experience,” Kristina illustrated some simple practices any company can use to improve their customer service.

1. Asking questions is key to serving your customers
Your customers have a lot to say. Asking them questions is a great way to learn about their likes, dislikes, and pain points. By listening to your customers, you can better understand what they want and how to meet those needs.

2. Give each customer that “one customer” feel
How would you treat a customer if they were your only customer? You would probably make a major effort to ensure that those interactions are positive and genuine. Making small talk, taking time to understand them as individuals, and learning how they use your products and services will go a long way toward providing a personalized customer experience.

3. Answer requests with “I’m here to help”
Many people don’t like asking questions, out of shyness or a fear of sounding uninformed. Saying things like “I’m here to help” and “I’m glad you asked that question” will help them feel more comfortable and make it easier to solve their problems.

4. Think “best / better / next” practices
At staff meetings, take a look at the real world challenges you’ve had helping customers, and pay particular attention to what worked and what could be improved.

5. Hire “nice,” train the skills
Don’t hire customer service professionals that have the skill set you want but aren’t nice people. “Nice” is a skill that should be innate to anyone involved in customer service. You either have it, or you don’t. You should hire nice people and train them how to be customer service superstars.

6. Don’t be afraid to make the decision
Have the guts to make a decision and help your customers. Work within the guidelines you’ve been given, but work with the customer and provide them service with their best interests in mind. More often than not, doing so will be in the company’s best interests. If you make a mistake, reread #4.

7. Make a difference each and every day
Every single customer interaction matters, so you have to make the most of them. When reviewing a call, ticket, or email exchange, ask yourself, “Did I really do absolutely everything I could?” Striving to be the best you can be with every single customer interaction will go a long way toward setting yourself apart as a truly customer-centric organization.

Learn more about why companies should invest in the customer experience.

Register for our next Zen Master webinar: Turning rants into raves: How to capture the customer’s heart with Randi Busse

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Today’s tip, and our very first Community Tip, comes to you from Joe Tinter, IT manager and skilled Zendesk user, and will help you use triggers to get the most out of customer satisfaction.

Head to the forums to learn more

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As our latest infographic shows, a little bit of professionalism, composure, and a sense of humor can go a long way in ensuring that you provide the same level of IT support to all of your customers.

 Learn about Zendesk for IT

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For large companies dealing with millions of tickets annually, this has the potential to save (or cost) millions of dollars. And for smaller companies that have to keep a watchful eye on every cent, the ability to save money for every customer issue is a major consideration.

The explosion of social media and online communication vehicles has complicated the delivery of fast time to resolution, especially for retailers. As our new white paper, Retail Customer Service Imperatives illustrates, it’s absolutely necessary to have the ability to respond to customer complaints and questions no matter what channel they are using; Twitter, email, Facebook, etc.

So what can retailers do to keep customers happy and loyal? There are 3 imperatives they must follow:

• Create a seamless customer service experience: provide a “one face of the brand” for your customers seeking support
• Meet the customer wherever they are and when they choose: this means being able to respond on newer channels such as Twitter and Facebook, but also more traditional ones like chat and voice
• Resolve customer service issues quickly

Read the Zendesk white paper Retail Customer Service Imperatives

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Whether it’s donating funds to causes such as economic development or education, promoting a socially conscious workplace, or supporting the local community, people want the companies that they do business with to give back in one form or another. In fact, 47% are more likely to stay loyal to and 53% are more likely to recommend a company that supports social or environmental issues.

Learn how to sign up for Zendesk and give back at the same time

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