Critique Wall.com

During the College's pre-session we had a presentation on Outstanding Customer Service, Ritz Carlton Style, presented by Jeff Hargett from the Ritz external traning unit. It was interesting to me how strongly the attributes of good customer service correlate with the attributes of excellent Web usability and customer experience. I've always considered one of my job titles to be online customer service specialist and Hargett's presentation confirmed that role and challenged me to do it better.

Some of the highlights

Respect people. Respect especially their time. Make it easy to accomplish the things they need to do.

Interactions should be hassle-free: "Get rid of re-occuring mistakes. All mistakes should be new mistakes."

Provide personalized, genuine service, use the customer's name and ask "may I do something else?"

"Great service connects emotionally with the customer."

Know your market. Have we heard this before?

3 Steps of Service:

1. Warm sincere greeting
2. Anticipation and fulfillment of each guests needs
3. Fond farewell. Give a warm good-bye and use their name.

Everything speaks. Everything is a representation of your organization. The off-duty employee, the building, facilities, and I include the Web properties and published materials. It's our responsibility to make sure the trash is picked up in our Web properties. The Web site is likely the first impression many will have of our organizations.

The challenge: Leave this presentation and "do something about customer service, we can't do everything, but please do something."

My complete notes are attached.