Category: Customers and customer service

  • Are the best negotiators bees or sloths?

    The rest of the world often seems to be in a great big hurry. Cars zip by. Pedestrians charge past. Commuters race up the escalator. Everyone, it seems, had to finish something yesterday. Yet, all this urgency masks an important fact about negotiation: Waiting is often the best negotiation strategy available, particularly when we’re in…

  • “That’s policy”: First offers from our friendly customer service representatives

    We’ve all heard it a million times at a million retailers: “That’s policy.” It’s policy you must present a receipt, policy you must return it within a month, and policy you must bring a paper copy of the coupon. Policy being policy, the conversation usually ends there. But I’m here to tell you that policy…

  • What they want and why they want it: Providing exceptional customer service

    May I ask you to complete a difficult task? Please take a second and recall a recent experience in which you received exceptional customer service. Tough as that task may be, I’m sure we can all recall at least one time when we, the customer, felt like we were exceptionally well served. And I’m willing…