A gracious response may help to win over an unhappy customer and demonstrate that you’re listening and you care. Sometimes social media feels like the mean kids’ table in the lunchroom at middle school. Everybody’s talking dirt about someone else. And once the gossip...
Social Customer Service
Customer Service Chat by Vizio: Some Answers, But No Help
Customer service chat is popular with companies and customers alike. It's easy, it's quick, and it works well on mobile devices. But easy and popular doesn't always equal good. Read this chat with customer service agent "Jack" at Vizio. It is a set of customer service...
Verizon customer service chat: How to kill your relationship with your customer
Someone needs to tell Verizon: "Customer service chat is supposed to help the customer." Read through the transcript of this truly painful chat, and you'll hardly believe your eyes. The customer, Marianne, endures: One hour and 17 minutes of chat Dialogue with no...
Resources: Writing in Plain Language at NTSB
Webinar 1 Where to find plain language award winners and heroes: http://www.plainenglishawards.org.nz/about/plain-english-awards-about/ https://centerforplainlanguage.org https://plainlanguage.gov https://www.lwionline.org Some federal agencies give their own plain...
For Entrepreneurs: How to Grow Your Virtual Network, Sincerely
We’ve all experienced the highs and lows of having a personal virtual network. We enjoy the highs—reconnecting on Facebook with your best friend from high school—and we suffer the lows—scrolling through a cousin’s Instagram pics of every plate of food she’s ever...
5 Great Reasons You Shouldn’t Be Scared to Write to Customers In Social Media
For years, customer care organizations have been as scared of social media as water-phobic summer campers staring at the high dive. “What if customers gang up on us? What if we get trolled? What if one of our agents gives the wrong answer and all 25,000 followers see...
Put Us Out of Our Misery: The End of Customer Service Email?
Predicting the death of email may seem risky for a consultant who helps frontline customer service agents improve their writing skills, but I’m here and I’m doing it. Throughout the 2000s and the 2010s, email was the workhorse customer service channel—an easy, modern...
Why You Should Be (Business) Friends With Your Competitors
When I started my business 24 years ago, I believed I should have a “versus” attitude toward my competitors. It was their offering versus mine, right? One company had to win, didn’t it? Like many people, I thought that getting ahead in business meant getting ahead of...
You Can Take Two of My LinkedIn Learning Writing Courses for Free!
Free online courses for job-seekers Microsoft and LinkedIn have announced a joint effort to accelerate economic recovery and make sure it's inclusive. To help people get the skills they need to land their next jobs, they have made 10 LinkedIn Learning role-based...
With Only Seven Words, You Can Help Someone Who’s Struggling
This is a guest post by my friend and colleague, Jeff Janes. Here's how Jeff describes himself: "I travel the world to find things to photograph and write about." Jeff is currently based in the Arabian Gulf. "Like many people, I have some medical conditions. While...
