Webinar Report: Five New Ways to Quickly Improve Customer Service

We recently attended a webinar with Jeff Toister, President of Toister Performance Solutions and author of the book “Service Failure.”  We wanted to take some time to discuss some of our take aways from the webinar.  To read a full summary of the webinar and watch the recording, click here.

Jeremy: Hey Jenny, what did you think of the webinar with Jeff Toister today?  I found it to be packed with some fantastic research in customer service.  One of my favorite points that Jeff shared was the importance of defining what amazing customer service looks like.  I think over the last year of blogging we have made some terrific strides in doing this however, we still have some work to do in identifying our measurables so we know in fact that we are moving toward our goals.  Jeff provided a resource to help us do this and I plan to go through that.  What was one of your biggest takeaways from the webinar today?

 Jenny: I fully agree with you, Jeremy. The webinar was full of valuable information that can benefit anyone in customer service, no matter what industry. It was extremely well organized and easy to follow. It also had some great photos! I had three points that stood out to me from the webinar and one of them is the definition of amazing service. We have definitely made great progress thus far but it’s a long road to get everyone on the same page. But, we’re working toward that goal and that’s motivation enough to continue. The two other points I took away were about ways to make waiting more bearable for customers and Directed Attention Fatigue. So much great stuff here! What else struck a chord with you during the webinar, Jeremy?

Jeremy: One thing I thought was really interesting was the research that Jeff shared from Zendesk showing customers are more likely to rate the company higher on surveys if they are specifically associated with the name of the person that helped them.  We’ve spent a lot of time emphasizing to our customer service team to learn and use the names of customers but now I’m looking for more ways for our customer service representatives to share their names with customers.  You mentioned “Directed Attention Fatigue.”  That one really stood out to me.  Do you want to expand a bit more on that one?  I think it was such a valuable point Jeff made.

 Jenny: Sure! I heard him describe it and I matched the description perfectly.  I’m not too proud of that. Directed Attention Fatigue is basically chronic multi-tasking. It actually can cause you to be so stressed out that you’re less productive at work. Jeff did a poll of how many windows we all had open at the time of the webinar and most people had over 5. I in fact had 13 open at that time. Yikes! Do you recall how many you had open?

Jeremy: The thing that stuck out to me with this was that research equates Directed Attention Fatigue to Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD).  That was really eye-opening for me.  I definitely had at least 10 windows open when he asked so I’m not nearly as bad as you.  This is something we need to seriously consider with our customer service team to allow them to better focus on the task at hand.  It often feels like a big balancing act to encourage focus but make sure all of the bases get covered.  Anyway, in the interest of ending this conversation awkwardly, is there anything else you found insightful or want to add?

Jenny: Yeah, that was really eye opening for me too. I guess it all begins with small steps, right? Well, I did really love that picture from the mountain in San Diego. I’d like to go hike there!

Jeremy: Well said Jenny.  Next time you are in town you have to join us for a guided customer service hike!

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