Below is a simple downloadable form that you can email out to your staff that will make them more conscious of what they like and dislike when shopping. These common sense observations will open their eyes to what their own customers like and dislike about their close encounters with YOUR business.

Click on the link at the end of this article to download!

This exercise is not just for front line employees. Your managers should complete the exercise too and make a mental note of what management did wrong or right to lead to the positive or negative impression that you received of the business you are evaluating.


Let employees know that you will ask them to review their observations with co-workers and managers after the first of the year. I hope you will share your BEST stories with me. The first 5 to comment on the blog post with this subject will receive a book or audio CD of Common Sense Service to reward the staff members relaying the story.

Happy HOLIDAYS !!

​While watching the never ending media commentary on the the 2016 election, it has occurred to me that the political arena is not the only place where a new reality has emerged.

The fight for customers in this year's consumer election is also now totally in the hands of the disgruntled or delighted individual. Just as it seems that the power of multi million dollar campaign spend by super pacs has little effect, the investment of millions in product advertising campaigns now pales against the screaming voice of the customer. Whether it be a United Breaks Guitars song or the audio of the Comcast employee who kept a disgruntled customer on the phone for 45 minutes, the single customer service close encounter on the front lines has repercussions in today's marketplace louder than even a Super Bowl ad campaign.

So why has the landscape changed in such a profound way, and what is the message for those involved in the fight for customers? The power of social media in every channel is now indisputable. Companies who strive for customer success and market position cannot afford to ignore the voice of the customer as heard via social. Sitting on the sidelines with only a passing interest may be just as dangerous. The pulse of the customer must be monitored consistently and constantly. But simply monitoring the customer's heartbeat is not enough. Engaging in social media with two-way communication is necessary to keep the heart pumping. Giving a jolt from the paddles in the ER when a bad customer service close encounter goes viral just won't guarantee that the ailing patient lives!

Do you have to be a corporation with a Chief Customer Officer and a team of hundreds to compete? If you are a large corporation, the simple answer is yes. If you are a small business, the answer is obviously "I can't do that!", so what do you do? First and foremost, listen to your customers where they are talking EVERY DAY. Find out what they are saying and respond quickly whether the feedback is positive or negative. What if you are a small hotel or B&B and not Hilton? You can still monitor Trip Advisor customer feedback and respond to complaints and compliments. Let customers know how you are going to make it better for the next guest. What if you are a mom and pop printing business? Take interest in your Yelp profile; pay attention to what customers are saying about your quality, responsiveness, and delivery time and make business adjustments with those in mind. The scale may be different but the truth is, it now actually may be EASIER and obviously less expensive for a small business to respond to customer input than for their counterparts in high ivory towers. There lies the small business competitive advantage in today's world!

I am your customer. Hear me ROAR.... If you want my vote in this year's customer election, you better be not only listening, but responding with a common sense customer service strategy that keeps my heart pumping and my wallet spending!

Teresa Allen is a highly acclaimed customer service speaker and is the author of Common Sense Service: Close Encounters on the Front Lines. Visit her AllenSpeaks.com website to find more ideas on building your customer service culture. To contact Teresa call 800-797-1580 or email tallen at AllenSpeaks.com

As a provider of financial industry sales and service training for 20 years, I have been nothing short of horrified to learn about what Wells Fargo has been doing to their customers.  It truly was not a big surprise as my daughter opened Wells Fargo accounts as a young adult several years ago after moving to Los Angeles. Even though it has been many years, I have not forgotten her call to lament all the charges she was getting from Wells Fargo for products and services that she never requested.   I am married to 'an officer and a gentleman' (bank loan officer) and recall how it took him days of effort with nearly 4 hours on the telephone to get her out of all the accounts and services that they put her in without her permission.

Over the years when a potential bank or credit union client calls my office to ask about my sales training programs, I have asked two fundamental questions:

1.  Is your customer service where it needs to be?

In my humble opinion, it is not a good business decision to embark on sales training if your service is not top notch. Let us explore an analogy of olympic diving to illustrate this point.  The diver walks out onto the edge of the board, stands and thinks about the dive they are about to take and then has the all important bounce that propels them into the air giving them the inertia to have a good chance of completing the dive as designed.  If the right bounce is not there, the dive is doomed from the outset.  Similarly, unless you know your customers, and have asked questions to understand their needs, and have a strong foundation of service, you have no business attempting to sell them anything.  Yet many organizations look to sales training as a silver bullet to solve all of their problems.  Let me save you some money... invest first in customer service training, build strong relationships and then and only then invest in sales training.

2.  I tell the person inquiring about my financial service sales training programs that I am NOT in the business of teaching people to PUSH products and services on their customers and members.  

Why?  Pushing products and services on customers is a SHORT TERM success strategy.  I am interested in bringing a LONG TERM success strategy to my clients.  If you have your interests in mind more than your customer's, the customer will eventually see through your motives.  And that will be a fork in the relationship road that ever changes the dynamic of TRUST.  Wells Fargo is not the only financial institution or business to be guilty of such a strategy.  I have seen countless examples of this reckless approach (although none quite as blatent or widespread) in my 20 years of providing sales and customer service training to businesses of every type.  

Regardless of what industry you are in, learn a lesson from the failed strategy of Wells Fargo and others like them. Lead your staff to build relationships based on a position of trust that considers the customer's business and life goals and objectives a far more important factor than what your business happens to need at the moment.  If you do this with a foundation of great service, you will build long term profitable relationships!