Service first podcast • Fresh insights for customer service leaders

Good customer service isn't just about getting big things right, it's about the importance of service quality in every little action that's carried out. The little things add up to making a big impression, so it's your attention to detail in customer service that makes or breaks the customer experience.

In this episode, you'll hear two contrasting stories of how small details add up to customer delight and, conversely, customer dissatisfaction. You'll also hear how a failure to listen to customer feedback leads to increased dissatisfaction and a customer's intention to take their business elsewhere.

Whilst organisations are increasing their investments in online customer service technologies, customer survey results still indicate a need to do better. What simple methods are there to improve online customer service and support, and deliver better ‘right first time’ service using online channels?

In this episode, you’ll hear case study examples of avoidable online service failure, and how following the ABC of effective online service makes the difference in providing a positive online customer service experience.

What are the factors that persuade customers to use online channels for service delivery, and why does human psychology tell us that a failure of customer trust has long-lasting behavioural implications? What are the business case criteria you need to consider in designing services for online channel delivery?

In this episode, you'll hear a case study of why an electricity provider's outage app powered the shift in this customer's channel choice from the phone to online. You'll also learn how you can help your own organisation's online channel shift business case to succeed.

What makes a bank think it's a good idea to delete transactions without asking, and fail to inform the customer about their decision?

In this podcast, you'll hear a story of organisational inflexibility and a refusal to learn from a customer complaint, that causes avoidable and unnecessary customer service pain.

You'll find out why relationships matter and four things you can learn to prevent your customer relationships breaking down.

What is good online customer service, and how can we improve the multi-channel customer experience? What have the last twenty years of technology advances taught us about making the business case for customer channel-shift more successful?

In this podcast, you’ll hear three things customer service leaders must do to improve multi-channel customer service performance.

We’ll hear a case study customer journey from chatbot to website, through contact centre and e-mail, as two major organisations try to resolve a simple process problem.

What changes would you make with 2020 hindsight? This episode has four action steps to help you create your personal, professional and operational development plan for the year, by learning lessons from the past.

We’ll talk about what’s been covered in the first ten episodes of the service first® podcast during 2020, and how you can use these insights and resources in developing your plans for the year ahead.

If you run a customer facing contact centre, you’ll know about the challenges of operational delivery and how hard things can become when calls surge and the pressure is on. It's important to be prepared and take on lessons learned by others.

In this case study podcast, you'll hear ten lessons learned that every contact centre can apply, based on the Grenfell Inquiry's report investigating operational call handling on the night of the tragic 2017 fire.

To improve customer service performance, you’ll need to take action. So what can you learn from the story of Battle of Britain pilot, Wing Commander Jack Rose, that’ll help you improve customer service in the workplace?

In this episode, we’re going to start looking at lessons learned - and why good preparation and taking swift action are such critical steps in improving your performance.

What can you do as a call centre leader, front-line advisor - or as a customer - to make someone's day in your next call centre customer experience?

In this podcast, you’ll find out what it was that an AA Insurance call centre advisor did to deliver great customer service – and what the customer did next to make their day.

There are five tips for call centre staff and customers on giving, and rewarding, great customer service.

Good customer service is important, but is ‘good’ enough to really build customer loyalty?

In this podcast, you’ll learn three practical ideas that’ll help you turn good service into excellence, and customer satisfaction into customer delight.

Customer loyalty – that’s when people keep coming back for more because of the customer service experience you deliver. What can you do as a customer service leader to create loyalty from your customers?

In this case study podcast, you'll hear from Sandy and Alex Stoddart at Blacks Hotel in Ophir, New Zealand on how they've turned an isolated rural pub hotel on the Central Otago Rail Trail into a memorable experience that generates customer loyalty.

As a customer service professional, how can you create a world-class customer experience with every customer interaction you have?

In this podcast, you’ll learn from the story of FedEx Craig about three actions you can take that’ll improve your customer service performance and turn every customer’s experience into a story of customer delight.

Attitude matters – and it’s your customer service attitude that makes a difference to the people you deal with every day. As a leader, your managerial attitude affects employee behaviour – and that affects the customer experience.

In this podcast, Dr. Jason Price uses a customer service case study to show why managerial and employee attitude is so vital to customer service – and the difference that your leadership behaviour makes.

In this case study of customer service chaos, we're going to look at how the simple act of buying a washing machine from a national retailer turned into a customer experience nightmare.

It's a story of cascading process failures and avoidable customer pain, with lessons for every organisation to learn.

If you're in customer service, this is a story you can learn from.

As a customer service leader, you need adaptive leadership styles and leadership qualities when managing change. The ‘stages of concern’ model helps you consider people’s individual needs when you’re leading your teams through change.

Dr. Jason Price explains the 6 stages of concern and how to apply this model when you’re making customer-facing change in your organisation.

This podcast features in the video: Preparing your teams for life after lockdown.

You can't give great customer service in a zoom meeting if customers and colleagues can't hear you!

Dr. Jason Price helps you understand how your choice of audio connection affects your video call performance, with audio tests on the typical kit those new to working from home may find themselves with.

This podcast supplements part three in our video series - "Lights, Camera, Action! Improving your video conferencing".