I think many of us can relate to the story Seth Godin tells us in his post, "All I do is work here". I know I've had my fair share of customer service reps who have told me that same line, plus a few more like:

"There's nothing I can do about it."

"It's company policy..."

Hearing these excuses is like hearing fingernails being scratched on a chalkboard! Excuse me as I go on a little rant here...

First of all, you CAN do something about it. It's just that you CHOOSE not to do anything about it. What you perceive as company policy can always be amended. The rules can be bent once in awhile. It's all a matter of speaking up and telling upper management about an issue. It's all a matter of taking that extra step to ask someone else for help if you've exhausted all your options and feel that there's nothing else that you could do for a customer.

The problem I see is that many people are unwilling to TAKE CARE for their customers. Too many people are unwilling to take RESPONSIBILITY for their actions. There's no real PASSION for wanting to help people. It's all about picking up a paycheck on Friday.

I agree with Seth when he says:

"If you're not proud of where you work, go work somewhere else. You don't get the benefit of the brand when it's hot without accepting the blame of the brand when it's wrong."

Ok, I'm done ranting...

Recently I went shopping for summer clothes and bought a dress from a BCBG store. A few days later I was pleasantly surprised to receive a thank you card in the mail...

Even though BCBG was one of the many places I shopped that day, which retailer will I remember? Who will most likely get my business the next time I go shopping?

As you can see, a thank you card to a customer doesn't have to be all that complicated. I like that Paulina included the phone number to the store in the card she sent to me. I don't have to go through the trouble of looking it up if I ever needed to contact her.

Thank you cards don't have to cost an arm and a leg. They don't take up a great deal of time to write either. When I was at Nordstrom it would take me less than 10 minutes to write a thank you card to a customer. The effort was worth it because I had customers come back in to thank me for sending them a card - and to shop with me as well.

In this day and age of email and text messages people still appreciate written correspondence, so never underestimate the power of a thank you card!

Related Post:
Five Unique Ways to Show Love For Customers

Welcome to the Customer Service Tips and Stories edition of the Customer Service Carnivale! Jump-start your week with inspiring posts that will help you deliver better service...

Customer Service Tips

Customer service starts with making sure employees and managers are on the same page. Learn how to improve a department in 4 steps and have better internal service.

Love this post! GP presents Inn Your Comfort Zone « Musings from Montana posted at Manely Montana, saying, "Getting out of your comfort zone actually makes you more comfortable with your customers/guests".

Managed Services presents Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Needs Increase for Small Businesses. Is your customers' information secure and protected?

When starting a business, I think it's important to define your service and how it will help people. This next post, Formulating A Day Care Mission Statement, is targeted to the day care industry, but applies to every business.

Reba Haas presents As a real estate buyer or seller, what are your expectations of agent availability? posted at Team Reba Real Estate, saying, "Everyone seems to have an opinion about the service levels they receive (or not) from their real estate agent. A recent rant on ActiveRain.com (focused on agents) got me started on how the public and the agents can come together on what are acceptable standards."

What will you focus on? Focus on quality, not just quantity posted at The Business Ethics Blog, saying, "Speed and low cost at the expense of quality is the fastest way to attract customer ire."

In the banking industry, it's important to hire customer-focused tellers. If you're a bank manager, you should read Bank Teller Interview Questions and Answers posted at Job Interview Guide.

Customer Service Stories

Middle Man tells a story of woe about a trip to KFC in It Doesn't Taste Like Chicken!

What would you do if you were American Express? Here's an interesting story related to customer loyalty: Recovering Membership Rewards Points posted at Ask Mr Credit Card.

Here is a another pleasant travel experience: Southwest Airlines – An Experience posted at One Family's Blog.

Thanks to everyone who contributed to this carnivale! Submit your blog article to the next edition of customer service carnivale using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

Imagine getting off your United Airlines flight to discover that your guitar is smashed...

Well, this is what happened to Dave Carroll on a flight from Nova Scotia to Nebraska - and now his YouTube video, "United Breaks Guitars" has created quite a bit of buzz on the internet. It's an awesome video!

I still don't understand how big businesses like United Airlines don't understand that nowadays power is in the hands of the people. People have access to YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and blogs to express their thoughts about a product or service.

Information on the internet travels at the speed of light. Ever since Dave's video went live, there have been 2,862,270 views (as of the writing of this post) and 14,366 comments.

You can read a detailed account of what happened on Dave Carroll's website...

On the upside, Dave now has many fans who are buying his music!

FYI: United's stock (UAL) has fallen down to $3.27! Hmmmm...I wonder why???

The key word here I'd like to emphasize in the title is crucial.

In the following video J. D. Power and Associates reports that exceptional service satisfaction enhances profitability...

Please take note, GM!

Here's 5 steps to better customer service offered by Jeff Kershner, an automotive internet sales manager.

Do you have a customer service story about your car dealership that you'd like to share? Email your story to maria [at] people2peopleservice [dot] com or share your story via comments!

Happy Monday and welcome to the Customer Service Carnivale! For those of you in the U.S., hope you had a wonderful holiday weekend ;)

I've got some awesome articles to share with you today...So let the party begin!

Customer Service Tips

Many of us get hung up on our title when we're interacting with customers. If you're one of these people, check out Gavin Ingham's post, "How Important Is My Title When Selling?"

Ever wonder what the big deal is about word-of-mouth-marketing? Check out Why You Must Build Brand Advocates posted at Social Media Marketing Strategies.

Whether you run a small business or a huge corporation, there has to be systems in place in order to deliver a smooth experience for customers. Peter Cantelo shares thoughts about this in Gear Your Business To Deliver posted at vivavi.co.uk.

Robert Alan presents Can You Build A Solid Virtual Team? posted at Sell It on the Web, saying, "Using online virtual teams can help you service your clientele much more effectively."

Even farmers who sell eggs can provide value and good ole-fashioned service! Sahara Reins presents Presentation is Important When Selling Free Range Eggs posted at Fowl Visions.

Jim presents Clean Restrooms and Friendly Service — A recipe for mediocrity posted at B2B Rainmaker, saying, "If what you offer is what we expect — and can get most everywhere — it’s not much of an offer. Which means we ignore it."

Customer Service News

Advanta Pulls the Plug on 1 Million Customers & Lessons to be learned posted at Ask Mr Credit Card.

Wally Bock presents Lessons from the Rise and Fall of Delta Airlines posted at Three Star Leadership Blog, saying, "On June 17, 1929, Delta Airlines began passenger service. Fifty years later it was America's premier airline for business travel. Ten years after that is was just another airline. The saga of Delta has lessons for those who care about what makes a great company and those who wonder if CEOs really have any impact."

Customer Service Tips For Consumers

If you're in search for a consumer review on OptionsXpress (an online broker that received awards for its customer service), check out OptionsXpress For Stock Investing and Options Trading.

The Smarter Wallet shares How To Tip, When To Tip: Helpful Tipping Rules posted at The Smarter Wallet.

That concludes this edition. Thanks to everyone for your contributions!

Submit your blog article to the next edition of customer service carnivale using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

If you don't know by now, Twitter is a great place to connect with and keep in touch with customers. Many brands such as @zappos, @hp, and even @drpepper have utilized Twitter to communicate with people and create brand awareness.

There are some businesses, however, that are naive to how Twitter works. Fellow customer service blogger Glenn Ross offers his thoughts on how not to use Twitter in his post, Social Media Worst Practice: How To Drive Loyal Customers Away.

I agree that if you're going to take your business on Twitter, you should get a feel of how the network works. That advice also applies to any other social networking/social media site that your company is active on. Also, if you have a designated person who will be tweeting for your company, make sure that person is familiar with Twitter etiquette.

Another thing you DO NOT want to do is send out a retweet about your company as if another person had tweeted it!

Twitter Resources

Although I haven't read any of these books, they are resources about Twitter worth looking into:

• Twitter Revolution: How Social Media and Mobile Marketing is Changing the Way We Do Business & Market Online

• Twitter Tips, Tricks, and Tweets

• twitter means business: how microblogging can help or hurt your company

If you're already familiar with Twitter, a good article to check out is 5 Uncommon Ways Your #Business Can Use Twitter.

In what ways has your business used Twitter?

By the way, you can follow me where I'm most active: @studio747.