I believe somebody needs to hear this: Mark 9:23

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Anything is possible if a person believes, Faith, Mark 9:23, positive affirmation, positive self talk

2013 Webinar Calendar Just Announced

Immediately improve your customer experience and build brand value with Myra’s high-impact webinar series

All webinars are recorded and you can purchase the digital recording of past webinars. Access to webinar recordings never expires and you can share the video freely within your organization. Pretty sweet deal, huh?

View our 2013 Customer Service webinar series

“I really do love your webinars, Myra. They are very well done and extremely beneficial. I always find little helpful hints in your information.”

Kristy L. Bolen 
Project Manager 
Carlson Hotels Worldwide

“Back in November 2012, my team and I participated in the “Stop screaming at me” Webinar. We were all extremely pleased with the abundance of relevant information, tips and techniques we were provided with!  Today, we have the privilege of showing the material and webcast to our employees and have integrated it to our mandatory training programs.”

“Worth every minute and every dollar!”

Jacynthe Laflamme, Manager, Employee Training and Development - Brookfield Global Relocation Services

 View our 2013 Customer Service webinar series

Chick-fil-A Customer Service Tip: #customersremember

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Chick-fil-A Customer Service, FaceBook Customer Service, Fast Food Customer Service, Responsive Customer Service

This afternoon a friend on FaceBook shared her experience with Chick-fil-A.

So I drove to Chick-fil-A for lunch and the line was wrapped around the corner but two managers were outside greeting people, taking orders and creating a pleasant experience. Next door was Carl’s Jr. with NO WAIT. I drove up to CJ since it appeared faster but after 1.30 of waiting without being greeted, FINALLY some unhappy person took my order. Now I see why the line at Chick-fil-A was around the corner. #servicematters #customersremember #creategoodexperiences

I commented on my friend’s status and asked if I could share her experience on my blog. Here’s her response:

Hi Myra – Happy New Year! Yes, I’m totally open to that. What was crazy was that the line at CFA moved quicker and seemed more responsive even in it’s busy time. It’s clear that being unproductive breeds among your staff and onto your customers. In the future, I’d rather experience the jovial on-going service of CFA than take the short cut of frustration with CJ for sure!

Based on my friend’s disappointing experience with a competitor, it’s no surprise that Chick-fil-A customers were willing to wait in a line that wrapped around the corner. Chick-fil-A managers proactively and eagerly served waiting customers and the efficient staff kept the line moving quickly. The instinctive action on the part of Chick-fil-A left an unforgettable impression on my friend and resulted in positive word-of-mouth advertising on FaceBook and now Twitter and a blog via my posting.  As for the competition, I like the way my friend put it: “Being unproductive breeds among your staff and onto your customers.”

Take a tip from Chick-fil-A: Take care of your customers. Customers remember. Service matters.

 

Related post:

Chick Fil-A WOWs in the Pouring Rain! 

Rapper Ludacris Gets Customer Service

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Ludacris

Perhaps this is why Ludacris is so successful…He gets that profits come from customers…customers that come back and bring their friends with them. Shout out to Ludacris!

Click the image to view Tweet from Ludacris about profits and customers…

Why I Run

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running

(My Pearl Fuel running shoes. I’ve run 336 miles in these shoes!)

Last Saturday I returned from my 8 mile run hot, sweaty, stinking and exhausted. My visiting nephew sarcastically asked, “Why are you running again?” I smiled and said, “Good question Anthony.” As I recuperated on my patio, I thought about Anthony’s question. Why do I run?

Running is hard work. It’s time consuming. And it makes me stink. I’m sure Anthony smelled my funk. And he saw that I was a hot mess. But even with the sweaty hot mess, running makes me feel so amazing.  After thinking about my nephew’s question, I realized I run for 5 reasons…

1. When I run I am me in the raw. No makeup, no jewelry, no body shaper, no fronting. Just the real me. How often do we get to be so free, so real?  This feeling of authenticity is exhilarating to me.
2. Running is a spiritual experience for me. Most of the time I run sans music. I spend much of my run time expressing gratitude to God, praying for my family, and relishing nature. There’s nothing like spending 6, 7 or 8 miles in reflective prayer. My runs are very spiritual.
3. Of course, there are the health benefits. I consciously reflect on how every step I take is blessing my heart and lungs. I love knowing I am improving my quality of life on every run.
4.  I run because I can. I’m blessed with mobility and the physical ability to run. I run simply because I can run.
5. Running has given me incredible legs.  I have been amazed at the transformation my legs have gone through as I’ve gone from the couch to long-distance runner. My legs are toned, shapely and sexy.

The bottom line is I run because running makes feel good. What’s a pastime that you enjoy simply because you can and because it makes you feel good?

Empathy Training for Customer Service Professionals

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Empathy Training for CSRs

The Empathy Experience 

Using the Power of Empathy to Deliver a Warm and Genuine Customer Experience

Your empathy training kicks off with a radical experiment in empathy that our team custom designs for your company. Your employees will take themselves out of their shoes and put themselves in your customer’s shoes. The result: a profound understanding of your customer’s needs, feelings and perspective.  

Myra Golden has spent 15 years benchmarking, interviewing and mystery shopping the best service companies in the world and in this training she shares her insights to help her clients improve their own customer experiences by creating a strong culture of empathy, compassion and concern for customers. Your employees will learn 4 keys to empathy, get empathic examples from Apple, Starbucks and Zappos, engage through powerful experiential exercises and they will set specific, time-bounded personal goals for improving their own empathic responses to customers. 

 In this 4-hour experiential course, your people will:

• Explore the way Apple store expects all employees to convey empathy and learn just how they do it

• Hear compelling evidence that humans are hard-wired for empathy

• Gain effective techniques for genuinely conveying compassion and concern

• See demonstrations for how to establish rapport and connect with customers

• A lesson from Stephen Covey: The importance of understanding the other person before attempting to be understood by the other person

• How to most effectively use tone, pacing and emotion to improve the customer experience

• How to make customers feel smart/good even when they ask “silly” questions

• Get specific examples for how Disney employees convey empathy and friendliness

• Discover the art of PEC – Personal emotional connections and get some powerful examples from Zappos.com employees

• Experience an exercise that gives you a powerful analogy for always identifying the customer’s expressed and unexpressed needs

• Discover why some words need to be avoided and learn more positive communication techniques

• See why having a sense of urgency helps you build customer confidence

• Get the easy strategy for creating warm customer experiences over the phone or in person

• How Apple focuses on enriching customer’s lives and how you can do this too

At the conclusion of  this training experience, your people will set S.M.A.R.T. Goals for improving their ability to consistently express empathy to your customers

Training length: 3.5 – 4 hours

A Training Partner with a Commitment to Return on Investment

Myra Golden Seminars, a division of Myra Golden Media, is one of North America’s most respected providers of customer service and contact center training. From telephone skills to how to handle difficult customers to surprise and delight, our training helps companies improve the customer experience, retain more customers, and boost profits.

Our professional training approach to improving the customer experience and building customer loyalty is to combine exceptional customization with interactivity and focused reinforcement. All Myra Golden training programs include:

• Interviews and research to collect the necessary information to customize and tailor the message to your industry, company, and most importantly, your people.
• A precision-crafted training session (following the Myra Golden Participant Centered Model) to help your attendees retain and apply the new ideas and strategies.
• Targeted reinforcement materials that vary by program, and can consist of a take-away wallet card or S.M.A.R.T. Goal Setting.
• 6-week follow reinforcement online video course.
• A certified Myra Golden trainer with demonstrated and documented expertise in customer loyalty, customer recovery, customer winback, and the customer experience. And a trainer who is engaging and energetic.

Talk to us more about this training or book the training right now!

Why Not Brand Your 404 Error Page?

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Brand Your 404 Error Page, Small Business Tips

Click image to enlarge

I just happened to stumble upon a broken link on my website (www.MyraGolden.com) and I noticed that the Page Not Found page was white with black text, dull and boring, just like all the 404 Error pages I come across. And I thought, why not make that page fit in with the theme and brand we’ve worked so hard to develop? So I did just that. Now our 404 Error page has the same color scheme, logo, and friendly tone that all of our web pages have. Instead of reading “Page Not Found” our error page now reads:

We’re So Embarrassed!

We can’t seem to find the page you’re looking for.

Here’s why this may have happened:

• We have a bad link out there – and we’re fairly certain Myra, the Customer Service Expert doesn’t know about this!
• You may have typed the page address incorrectly.
• Our web server is acting up.

You can always call, get online help with Myra’s Online Assistant or email us.

Call: 866-873-8419

email: info@myragolden.com

Work with Myra’s Online Assistant

Go to our home page.

Visit our online store.

Branding your 404 Error page is small thing, no doubt, but if you do it right, it can make you stand out. So why not brand your 404 Error Page?

3 Things That Helped Me Easily Go From PC to Mac

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From PC to Mac, Mac, Windows on Mac

I recently made the switch from PC to Mac. This wasn’t an easy decision for me. Change has always been a challenge for me and this would be a big change. I’ve used Windows all my computing life (except for a little DOS in high school). My biggest concern though, wasn’t the change. I needed to be certain I could run the applications that my business depends on. Applications like Word, PowerPoint, my live webinar streaming application and my office management platform.

Incredibly, I was able to make the switch from PC to Mac with virtually no learning curve, with no interruption of productivity and without sacrificing the customer experience for my clients. I made the smooth transition by integrating the best of both worlds…combining my new Mac with Windows.

If you’re a lifelong PC user who is itching to try out a Mac, but you want to be sure you can run all of our business-critical applications, know that it can be done and it can be done easily.

Here are 3 answers for the PC user who is reluctant to try Mac.

1. Mac is Microsoft Office Friendly. I made this discovery when I got my iPad. Mac (and iPad) users can create, open, save and share documents with PC users. Apple’s iWork suite lets users open Word, Excel and PowerPoint files and users can easily share native Mac documents in Microsoft formats.

2. You can simply install Microsoft Office. If you have any reservations about Apple’s iWork suite, just buy Microsoft Office for Mac and you can work in the exact same environment you’re used to. I bought Microsoft Office, but I’m not sure it was the best decision. Office costs a little more than iWork and it does exactly the same thing.

3. Run Windows on Your Mac. One of the most important applications I use for my business is GoToWebinar. We host live webinars every month and we sell archived webinar recordings weekly. Much to my dismay, I discovered that GoToWebinar does not have a recording feature for Mac users. It never occurred to me that this would be a problem, as I’ve recorded live webinars from my PC for the last 8 years. With my new Mac I could broadcast live webinars, but could not record them and later offer them to clients. That was not going to work.

My workaround for that problem was to install Windows on my Mac. Yes, you can do that. Using Parallels Desktop software, I can pull up Windows on webinar days and it’s like I’m running a computer within a computer. Running Windows on your Mac can come in handy for any applications that are solely Windows based.

I’ve combined the best of both worlds and you can too. Today, I am enjoying Mac’s amazing features like Time Machine, the incredible Spotlight Search, speed and performance like I’ve never experienced and great apps. I also get to work in the Windows environment when I need do. If you’re itching to make the switch from PC to Mac, I hope this blog post gives you some of the answers you need to make the best decision for you.

Don’t Steal From Me. Just Ask Me and I’ll Give it To You.

Last week I discovered one of my most popular blog posts was posted on another blog. Quite by accident, I made the discovery. My creative work was copied word for word. And there was no mention of my name, my company name or my url. My jaw literally dropped and I was in shock.

I left a kind comment on MY post on this blogger’s site. Simply, I asked him to give me credit for my post and I gave him my tagline and contact information. I blessed the blogger, shook it off and moved on.

Curious, today I went back to the blog to see if the blogger was now giving me credit for my article. Nope. In fact, I found that not only was one blog post lifted from my blog, but 3 other posts that I wrote were stolen and featured right there on his blog!!! He carefully removed links back to my site, www.MyraGolden.com, and placed links back to his own site. He even took each of the examples I used in my posts and used them as his examples. In one post I talk about my husband and I watching a movie. He replaced that line to say “He and his sister watched a movie”. I was sickened by the blatant theft. The entire blog had only 4 articles and they were all mine. Now I was livid!

So, I located the blog owner’s contact information and sent him a harsh rebuke and demanded that my four articles be immediately removed. That really meant deleting his entire blog since my content made up 100% of his blog.  The blog owner apologized and agreed to remove my posts within 48 hours. You best believe I’ll be checking up on that.

Here’s the deal. I love it when people reprint my articles. I write to help people. I write to inspire. I write to give hope. I want my articles read and disseminated. But I want credit for the work I do. I’m teaching Business Ethics right now. I am preparing my students to enter the work world with the ability to make good decisions, to protect their organizations from liability and to be able to sleep at night because they’ve done the right thing. Theft of written work is unethical. If you want to reprint or feature my work or the work of any author, blogger or columnist. Just ask. I’ll give you permission. But don’t steal from me.

Five Minute Friday – Waking up

Today I’m joining others in a five minute writing exercise called Five Minute Fridays. It’s simply an exercise of writing for 5 minutes every Friday on a presented subject. I hope you’ll play along, too. This has nothing to do with customer service. But it is an exciting exercise that I enjoy sharing with you, my clients, readers and friends.

Waking up

The day started off as good as any Professional Speaker could ask for. I had no conference calls, no event to speak at and no plane to board. A treasured break after the 3-day business trip I just returned from last night. I awoke with a smile as I thought about the easy day I would have.

As soon as my husband left to take the kids to school, I set my scene. I brewed a cappuccino, lit my gas fireplace, picked up my brown suede journal, and grabbed the very-worn sage throw from the couch. Within 10 minutes of my husband and kids walking out the door, I was nestled in front of the fireplace and journalling. I start most mornings by turning on my iPhone and iPad. But not this morning. This morning I’m totally unplugged.

After journaling my gratitude, gripes, and goals for 30 minutes or so, I got up and went out to my patio. It was gray, cool, windy and drizzling out. I stood still and watched the leaves of my neighbor’s Bradford Pear trees blowing in the wind. Above my head on the powerlines, a row of birds sang. Though it didn’t look like it or feel like it this morning, spring had just sprung. I stepped off the patio and walked barefoot in the grass, still sipping my white mocha cappuccino.

The spirit of gratitude I began on my journal pages continued in the form of spoken-out-loud praise as I walked along the north side of my house. I settled on my kids’ swing set. Mom always says it’s safe to start planting herbs and vegetables after April 15th because the last potential day for frost has passed. In three weeks I’ll plant Basil, Rosemary, Thyme, and Parsley. Still thinking about cucumbers. They didn’t do well last year. I sat on the swing a few minutes longer, sipping my cappuccino and feeling so grateful for this day; my life.