Welcome to the Thanksgiving edition of the Customer Service Carnivale. I'm very thankful for all of you who continue to participate and read this bi-weekly carnivale. I was sick with the flu this past week, so I've had time to really reflect on everything - like how blessed I am to have the opportunity to share my thoughts and experiences with all of you readers. I thank all of you for supporting me and sharing your customer service stories and tips! You keep me inspired ;)

I write this post on the biggest shopping day of the year in America: Black Friday. Hopefully customer service will be much better this holiday season and our economy can recover from all the drama we've been through the past few years. I encourage you to shop with those companies that truly believe in servicing their customers...and if you're looking for ways to improve your company's service, well, you've come to the right place!

Below are submissions that made it into this Thanksgiving edition of the carnivale....

Customer Service Tips

Are you ready for the economic recovery?  In Facilities Maintenance and Customer Service programs…Revisited we're reminded to establish or re-institute our facilities customer service and facilities maintenance programs.

Here's a perspective of what Exceptional Customer Experience is all about.  What do you think?

Nick Thacker shares his thoughts about selling to customers in The Real Truth About Benefits vs. Features.

Find out an interesting way to get feedback from customers in Burger King Marketing: How To Make The Customer Realize They Love Your Product.

Case Ernsting shares Get Optimum Output from Your Customers Input, and says, "Working with your customers is a great way to both continue sales and grow your business. Customers often have the best insights as to how well your business is doing and where they can improve. Use their input through surveys with these great tips."  

How did Zappos get to be so successful?  Find out by reading Zappos Customer Service Strategy.

Customer Service Tools

GP reminds us that listening is an art and a science in What's that You Say.

Have you ever wondered what the ROI of using Twitter to market your business?  Check out Twitter For Business Case Study: The Coffee Groundz.

Are you using email the right way?  Find out how not to communicate with customers in You're Closer to Reward Travel Than You Think?

Customer Service Stories

GeekMBA360 is pleasantly surprised that New Balance store associate recommends me to buy shoes at Zappos.com.

Kellen Von Houser shares her thoughts on customer service in Customer "Care" and Other Exercises in Futility.

Want a great example of excellent customer service?  Read A Golden Moment in Action. 

Morry Wickersham presents Lenovo Outlet Store - 4 Tips For A Better Experience, saying, "Customer service is a vital part of any business, particularly if you want to keep your customers. The Lenovo's outlet store is a perfect example of customer service gone wrong. They have some really great products which people are very interested in buying, but the customer service issues are turning a lot of those "would be" customers away."  

That concludes this edition. 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. 

I apologize that the Customer Service Carnivale was not posted today.  I came down with a nasty cough and cold this past weekend and I thought I might be feeling better today to post, but...

I'm hoping to feel better by Wednesday, so expect the carnivale to be posted then. 

Thanks so much for your patience! 

Have you noticed a change in customer service? Awhile back I wrote about the silver lining in this economy.

This person thinks that there has been a return of customer service. I've experienced some of it lately myself.

Take, for instance, the issue I had with my new Hewlett Packard netbook. I called HP and the kind gentleman walked me through a solution to the problem. Then he called me the next day just to make sure everything was still ok.

Say what?

Yes, a person from Hewlett Packard actually followed up with me regarding the issue.

Then there's the time when I called T-Mobile and the rep had to transfer me to another department. During the transfer, however, the line got disconnected. Well, the rep called me back to apologize for being disconnected.

In some weird, twisted way I sort of wish that the economy would continue to be a challenge for companies. I like that businesses are realizing that providing excellent service is the key to keeping loyal customers.

If only some of the airlines would realize this...

In the December issue of Success magazine is a feature titled "Rewards Through Service". Marie-Louise Cook interviews one of my favorite personal development authors, Wayne Dyer. Dr. Dyer has written many books including the book that was a catalyst in my personal transformation, "The Power of Intention".

When asked about his approach to business, Dr. Dyer says:

"It makes sense to me to be generous, to be thoughtful, and to extend as much service as you possibly can and to suspend thoughts of what's in it for you. It's so simple. It's not 'He who has the gold makes the rules'. It's the other way around. Treat people the way you want to be treated. That, to me, is a formula not just for business, but for life."

As we head into the holiday season, this is a great reminder for business. In the craziness of Black Friday and trying to make sales goals for Q4, we need to be reminded of why we're in business in the first place.

Welcome the the Customer Service Carnivale! This is an awesome edition full of customer service tips plus a few stories.

A big THANK YOU to all who submitted an article...and a big THANK YOU for reading!

I hope you make some time over the week to read all of the submissions because I think they're all worth reading...

Customer Service Tips

Anya Portnik presents Sales training tips for handling cold calling objections, part III posted at Gavin Ingham.

Steve C presents The Most Important Customer Service Tip I Have To Give posted at MyWifeQuitHerJob.com.

GP presents Easy Like Sunday Morning posted at Manely Montana.

Surbhi Bhatia presents The Art of Public Relations posted at The Viewspaper.

Adrian Ma presents 5 things every freelance designer should know about managing clients posted at The Corpus Callosum.

Rocky presents Dealing with angry clients posted at Service Biz Coach.

Nissim Ziv presents Help Desk Interview Questions and Answers: IT, Computer and Analyst posted at Job Interview Guide.

Shaun Sayers asks, What is “brand”? posted at Capable People Blog.

Great tips for internal customers! Ilyn Q. presents How to Make Field Staff Productive – Tips and Tools posted at The Service Manager.

Jim presents Seven reasons why customer relationships matter to growing a business posted at Beyond Customer, saying, "Customer relationships matter because of their value to your business. It’s not selfish to say so, it’s more reality, we need loyal customers more than they need us."

Is it worth a customer service manager's time to deal with an escalation? Service Untitled presents Customer Escalations and You.

Customer Service Stories

Adesh Sidhu presents Enjoying Journey and Reaching Destination posted at Not Being Sarkari.

Banquet Manager presents The World's Rudest Restaurants - Part 1 posted at So You Want To Be a Banquet Manager....

That concludes this edition. 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.

This is a guest post from Bob Davis-Mayo...

What is an organization’s “culture?” It is simply a critical mass of the attitudes and behaviors of its people and groups. The fifteen statements below each reflect an important “cultural” reality impacting customer satisfaction and loyalty. They have shaped our customer service program's success. Do they shape yours? How is your customer culture?

1. T / F: In our organization we operate under the assumption that customers view customer contact persons as “the organization” and representatives of what the organization means to them personally.

2. T / F: We communicate regularly the importance of realizing everyone in our organization has customers: external (“paying”) customers and internal (work group/ inter-work group) “customers.”

3. T / F: We design our processes and train our people around 2 things customers want to know: (1) Do you do what you say you will? (2) How do you handle problems?

4. T / F: Realizing that organizations choose, consciously or unconsciously, to be financially driven and/or customer-driven, we make decisions remembering that organizations working from a short-term, financially driven philosophy are not as effective in service situations.

5. T / F: Since front line persons make most customer service decisions on a daily basis, our top management understands their key role and allows them to inform the organization about customer needs.

6. T / F: We promote the status of front line customer contact people to a position of value and respect—they are not considered the least educated, trained and paid.

7. T / F: We allow our customer contact personnel, not management, to control the quality of the service product.

8. T / F: Management believes in the importance of good service and actively supports it.

9. T / F: We measure customer service results in a way that leads to greater focus on the importance of individual efforts.

10. T / F: We emphasize that customers perceive service to be “good” when positive individual interactions occur—crucial encounters that can be considered “moments of truth.”

11. T / F: “Customer first” behavior is rewarded and encouraged to be repeated.

12. T / F: Customer service skill training is wall-to-wall.

13. T / F: Our corporate culture supports continuous improvement of customer service processes.

14. T / F: “Customer first” attitudes, along with results communicated continually to all employees in simple terms create a climate for quality customer service in our organization.

15. T / F: Corporate goals, policies and procedures reflect a “customer first” mind set, while we foster a rewarding service-focused climate.

YOUR CUSTOMER CULTURE STRENGTH…

13-15 “TRUE” -- You are likely experiencing customer (and employee) loyalty and advocacy.

10-12 “TRUE” -- Do you have good customer satisfaction scores, but customer loyalty is strained?

Less than 10 “TRUE” -- Are you struggling with customer satisfaction, loyalty and brand reputation? Do you have low employee morale and high employee turnover?

About the Author:

Bob Davis-Mayo is President of Davis-Mayo Associates, LLC, a national human and organizational development firm (www.davismayoassociates.com). For more than twenty years, Bob has helped organizations achieve their goals through nationally field-tested best practices. DMA's customer service training program has been experienced by more than 429,000 people in 47 states and 15 countries. TO CONTACT BOB: bob@davismayoassociates.com