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June 25, 2024 15 mins

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Have you ever had a customer service experience so poor it made you vow never to return? I share a personal story about a disappointing visit to a local soda shop that lost me as a customer due to mishandling a simple complaint. But it’s not all bad news—tune in to hear heartwarming examples of exceptional service from a cherished local cafe, a cruise line that anticipates my every need, and a family camp in New Mexico that went above and beyond. These stories highlight how making customers feel seen, heard, and understood creates lasting loyalty and positive impressions far beyond product quality and pricing.

Inspired by well-known organizations, I delve into the importance of purposeful customer service training. Learn why investing in training your team to show exceptional customer service can transform your business by harnessing the unique gifts of each employee to serve others effectively. This episode is packed with encouragement, inspiration, and practical tools to help your organization go from transactional to relational. Don’t forget to leave a review, subscribe, and join my email list for ongoing updates and opportunities to connect!

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Visit www.hollycurby.com for more information and to sign up for the monthly Holly's Happenings e-newsletter. Holly's Highlights podcast and the opinions and ideas shared within it are for entertainment purposes only. The advice should be confirmed with a qualified professional.

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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hi, friends, welcome to Holly's Highlights, a podcast
designed to encourage, inspireand equip you to intentionally
live your life full of purpose.
I'm your host, holly Kirby,motivational speaker, leadership
cultivator, marketingstrategist and personal
cheerleader.
Let's check out today'shighlights.
Perhaps you are no stranger tofinancial challenges.

(00:22):
Perhaps you are no stranger tofinancial challenges,
relationship concerns, healthissues, even experiencing the
grief of losing a loved one.
Enter my multi-award winningbook Facelift embracing hope
through your heartaches,featured on local affiliates

(00:43):
such as CBS, abc and Fox,covered in magazines, newspapers
and podcasts, and easilyavailable through local
bookstores and online retailers,including Amazon, target,
walmart and Barnes Noble.
Bulk purchases may be purchaseddirectly through my publisher
at coilerbookscom.
A portion of all proceeds isdonated to Huntsman Cancer
Foundation in efforts to providejust a little more hope in the

(01:03):
fight to find a cure.
Hello, my friends, today we aretalking about customer service.
Now, we have all been there onthat receiving end of someone
who just doesn't get it, such asa bit ago when my son and I
visited a local popular drinkshop.
Now, we ordered our drinks andthen proceeded to pull out of

(01:25):
the drive-thru.
When my son spit his drink outand said it tasted off.
Well, I pulled back around,re-entered the drive-thru and I
let him know that my son's drinkwas off.
Perhaps the soda syrup bagneeded to be changed or
something along that line.
Well, during that time I took ataste of my own drink and it
had coconut in it.
Now, I hate coconut, so I letthem know that my drink actually

(01:50):
had one of the flavors I tendto avoid or ask to be removed
when choosing my drink, and Iwas surprised that their
response was to recharge me formy drink.
What Now?
They did try to remake my son'sfor him and it still was bad.
I even tasted it and somethingwas just off.
So we just basically ended upcalling it a loss.

(02:10):
But what could have been aneasy fix of simply remaking my
drink without charging meresulted in losing me as a
customer.
Now, I'm not being dramatichere either.
This soda shop is literally theclosest soda shop to me, only
five minutes away, and yetwhenever we decide to treat
ourselves to these special sodas, we now drive to another city

(02:32):
15 to 20 minutes away to get oursoda.
Oh, the power of customerservice Now being on the
opposite end of this.
I know we've seen customerscome in and try to manipulate or
take advantage of the system.
I hear you, I can understandyour thoughts those who are just
looking for something free,right, or those who bulldoze

(02:55):
their way to get what they want.
But whatever side of thescenario you're on, there are
some commonalities People wantto be seen, heard and understood
.
People don't want to beembarrassed or made to feel less
than not important, or evenbelittled, and researchers will

(03:16):
try to prove that.
It's all about price, productquality that matters to the
customers, and to a point I getit, that is.
But overall, that commonalityis that they just want to be
seen, heard and understood.
Now a few places that I havevisited that have just nailed.

(03:38):
It is, first of all, my happyplace, in which it's a little
cafe at a local garden, and thehostess there her name is Jen
and she is a lovely lady.
She's very friendly andpersonable and she's picked up
on which table is my favorite.
She always greets me with asmile and she's learned my name.
Now.
Yes, their food is alwaysconsistently good and they have

(04:00):
great choices, especially forsomeone with so many food
allergies, and they're able toread the room, so to speak.
So, depending on who I'mmeeting with, they're able to
know if they should check inonce, twice, 10,000 times.
But truly, what Jen herselfnails is that when I visit this
happy place, this cafe of mine,I feel seen A second place that

(04:29):
I enjoy that it would be a happyplace, of course of mine is
cruising.
I love it.
I've been on Royal CaribbeanCruise Line and Disney and
Norwegian Celebrity PrincessCarnival.
I love cruising.
Now, I went to travel schoolbetween getting my associates,
my bachelors.
I got certified by each ofthose cruise lines I mentioned
in their various trainingprograms.

(04:50):
I even was a cruise specialistselling hundreds of cabins for a
decade.
I love cruising.
If you just got the taste forlearning more about cruising,
check out my two episodes oncruising here on Holly's
Highlights in season three, onepisode five and episode six.
I absolutely love cruising.

(05:11):
In fact I'll put this out there.
One of my bucket lists is tohave a speaking engagement on a
cruise ship.
But anyhow, back to my point.
Anyhow, back to my point All ofthese cruise lines.
When I have gone to my table formy dinner seating, I have
mentioned what I'd like to drink, as well as if there is shrimp
cocktail on the menu, I alwaysorder that.
Well, on one of these cruiselines, royal Caribbean, in fact.

(05:32):
Every night after that veryfirst dining experience, I would
come to the table and theserver would have my favorite
drink and my bowl of shrimpcocktail awaiting me.
I felt heard.
The third place is a special,meaningful place to me and it's
a camp in New Mexico calledGlorieta.

(05:53):
I actually mentioned it in mybook Facelift, and a couple of
years ago I took my childrenback to Glorieta to experience a
taste of what I had experiencedgrowing up as a child, going
there every summer.
As we pulled up, people floodedaround us to help us with our
luggage and get us all settledin, and then they were super
attentive to our food allergiesand they even had learned in
conversation that after thatsummer I was having a hip

(06:16):
replacement, so they offeredgolf cart rides for me to get
around long distances and they'deven helped me gauge if an
activity might be safe or notfor me to do based on my
circumstances.
In the midst of all of this, Ifelt understood.
So how can we provide thisexceptional customer service to

(06:36):
meet our customer's needs ofbeing seen, heard and understood
?
Well, many organizations havebeen studying that, trying to
implement various strategies andacronyms and even investing in
positions or roles to meet theseneeds.
I'm sure you can think of a fewof those companies that excel
at customer service.
Three of them I'd like to pointout, first one being Disney.

(06:58):
No surprise there, right?
Disney's customer service modelis based on what they refer to
as their four key basics safety,courtesy, show and efficiency
and this helps them in all oftheir decision-making and
provides a source of empowermentto each cast member.
Now the second one Chick-fil-A.

(07:18):
Of course, you should haveexpected that one.
They use a number of methods,including the acronym HEARD,
hear, empathize, apologize,resolve and delight, and what
they refer to as the core fourvalues make eye contact, smile,
speak with a friendly tone andsaying that all-encompassing

(07:40):
word that we've all grown tolove, my pleasure.
These are said to help themcreate what they strive for of
raving fans and attaining theirgoal of second-mile service.
Now Amazon actually makes mythird one.
That might have surprised you alittle bit.
They actually use six tenants,which are posted throughout

(08:02):
their offices, which list thingssuch as anticipate customer
needs, trust customers, deliverpersonalized experiences and
make it easy and relentlesslyadvocate for customers.
Did you hear the universallanguage in each of those,
though?
Care, the first step in trulyshowing exceptional customer

(08:24):
service is actually caring.
Now, some may call this havinga heart of serving others or a
servant heart.
Mentally, we can think of thisas putting ourselves in the
other person's shoes andempathetically reminding
ourselves.
As American novelist BradMeltzer puts it, everyone you
meet is fighting a battle youknow nothing about.

(08:46):
Be kind always.
Now, these are just some of thebasics.
They are just touching thatsurface of customer service.
If we were to really dive alittle deeper, we'd find
customer service tips such aslisten to understand, not to
respond.
Now, think about that a moment.
I had the pleasure ofinterviewing celebrity

(09:07):
interviewer Tony Toscano earlierin season three, episode 12
here on Holly's Highlights, andhe actually talks about this
very thing and how to reallypress in to accomplishing
listening to understand, not torespond.
I'd recommend you listen tothat episode next he is great.
Another tip it may not be ourfault, but it's still our

(09:30):
problem.
Don DeJulius, founder of JohnRobert Spas, the DeJulius Group
and Believe in Dreams.
Well, he passionately remindsus that whatever a customer is
coming to us about may not beour fault no wrongdoing of our
own but because that customer isbefore us, whether in person or
by phone, or even by thatletter, text, social media post,

(09:51):
you name it.
It still is our problem.
We have the opportunity to turnthings around.
The third tip clarity is key.
We do not all think alike.
Just look around anywhere thesedays and I think that's pretty
obvious to all of us.
We often assume that peoplewill understand what we're

(10:12):
saying or meaning within ourmessage.
And well, according to my highschool English teacher at my
private school, to assume makesan ass out of you and me.
So, whether it be thedifferences of interpretation,
such as if we tell someone I'llget back to you as soon as
possible regarding this matterwhat does that mean?

(10:36):
The guests may think you meanttoday, or in 30 minutes or an
hour, or by the end of the day,whereas you were actually
meaning next week.
It may even be that there arecultural differences or learning
gaps.
You know, if you were to tellmy grandfather to snap,
screenshot a picture of thereceipt and just send it over,
he'd look at you dumbfoundedlyand say do what.
He was a well-educated man, aman of status even, but

(10:58):
generationally speaking he hadnever used a cell phone back in
his day.
So take time to provide clarity.
The fourth tip lose the lingo.
Now I sit in meetings all ofthe time where we use lingo such
as OSAT, anc, doc, andthankfully I know what we're

(11:20):
talking about.
But that doesn't mean thecustomer understands a word that
is coming out of your mouth andnot to get off topic.
But emerging leaders and newteam members or employees might
not either.
Perhaps you can even relatechatting with a millennial or
Gen Zer who sends you a messageof BRB or EOD.
Now my daughter and some of myyounger co-workers have often

(11:43):
had to translate for me.
Oh, that's be right back andthat one is end of day.
How much time do theseabbreviations really save us
compared to the headache andconfusion and even division that
they can bring more often thannot when talking with your guest
, even what is beingcommunicated over the phone
system, in your emails and onyour website.

(12:04):
Make things clear and easy tounderstand.
Lose the lingo.
And that fifth tip build trust.
As simple as following throughon what you say you're going to
do or even shooting the gueststraight with an answer to their
question.
I get the point of a positivelanguage, of having that

(12:25):
positive language.
The whole never say no conceptI do, but for crying out loud.
Answer the question.
If I ask if a service isavailable and you tell me all
the others that are available,I'm going to be more irritated
than when we started.
I just wanted the no right, soinstead, perhaps you start with.
Unfortunately, we don't offerthat service anymore.

(12:47):
However, some other that may beuseful to you are X, y and Z.
Trust is easy to lose and it isnearly impossible to gain back.
Build the customer's trust.
You know what's really coolabout all of this, though, that
we're talking about today.
They can be implemented by allof us, anywhere, at any time.

(13:11):
It's not just the salespersonto the customer.
It could be the schoolsecretary when encountering a
parent of one of the students inthe school.
It could be a leader in thechurch helping a volunteer in
the church.
It could be a parent talkingwith their child.
It could be a neighbor having adiscussion with another
neighbor.
It could be an interactionbetween you and someone in the
grocery store.
See, as founder and owner ofThink Lion's, mike Sims,

(13:34):
profoundly states, greatcustomer service is not just a
transaction, it's an experienceof kindness.
So, as we end our time togethertoday, what are some things you
can very easily startimplementing within the next
hour to improve your customerservice, regardless of what
industry you're in.

(13:55):
Two things smile.
Did you know that you canactually even hear a smile on
the phone?
And two be patient.
Some people just need to beheard, seen, waved to,
acknowledged in some way.
You way, you never know thatyou may be the only one that
person encounters in their dayToday.
Smile and be patient.

(14:16):
Great starting points.
Now, if your business isinterested in a more personal
application for your team andcustomer service, connect with
me for a training or to speak atyour next meeting, conference
or seminar.
For a training or to speak atyour next meeting, conference or
seminar, connect with methrough email at hello at
hollykirbycom.
Again, that'sH-O-L-L-Y-C-U-R-B-Ycom.
As the good old book says in 1Peter 4.10, each of you should

(14:41):
use whatever gift you havereceived to serve others as
faithful stewards of God's gracein various forms.
For after all, as Acts 20,34-35 assures us, it is more
blessed to give than to receive.
Thank you for joining me onthis journey of life.
I hope that today's highlighthas been encouraging, inspiring

(15:05):
and equipping so you can go outand live your life full of
purpose.
I'd be honored if you'd take amoment to leave a review or,
better yet, subscribe.
We can also stay in touch byjoining my email list at
hollykirbycom.
That's H-O-L-L-Y-C-U-R-B-Ycom.
Until next time, make it agreat day for a great day.
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