The Profit Frog

22/01/2023

Customer Service is a communication service. It's more than a physical smile. It is about welcoming, engaging with, and thanking the customer.
You would never welcome your dearest family and friends the way some people deliver customer service. Imagine if we treated all customers, clients, guests, consumers, with a more HUMAN warmth - the same way we welcome family and loved ones.

Not in a "weird" too-personal kind of way, but in a genuinely warm and welcoming way.
We need to teach more communication and warmth in customer service.

10/10/2022

A speaker brings unity, entertainment, focus, reinforcement, even raising awareness if the message is strong enough.

What were your reasons for hiring your previous Guest Speaker?

*I'm available as a speaker on topics around Customer Service, Engagement, and Human Connectedness.

Why do companies hire motivational speakers? I get hired to do a lot of motivational speaking. But why would a company hire motivational speakers? Think about it. Why would a company hire you, if you’re a motivational speaker? If you ask this question to most speakers, they will give you answers l...

06/10/2022

Customer Service has changed.

More people than ever before - your clients, customers, patients, your teams, staff, employees - struggle with intense emotional challenges, with anxiety, and mental health issues.

These huge emotions, upheavals, mental wellbeing challenges COME WITH THEM into your business - whether as clients or team members - and disrupt the Customer Engagement Experience, leading to miscommunication, poor attitude, aggression, closed accounts, lost clients, bad reviews, and money left on the table, to mention just a few of the consequences.

Imagine training your team members in how to build genuine human connectedness with your potential through to paying clients.

Imagine the impact on your bottom dollar, if your clients were truly impressed and satisfied with your team's service delivery.

Imagine your workplace culture and how every employee - from the cleaner to the CEO - taking ownership of the Customer Service Experience could bring a positive uplift to your business.

Well, you are in luck... Because Customer Service Excellence through Human Connectedness is I WHAT DO!

From November 1, 2022 through to December 21, 2022 I am providing my fully revised and Human Connectedness driven Customer Service Excellence Training Program to YOUR business... Live, in room, and for a full one day program OR delivered over 4 sessions, 4 days.

Do this before Christmas and you'll see a measurable improvement in your Client experiences, from sales, to reviews, to referrals, to future engagement, and improvement in your work place culture and environment.

Message me for details.

Terri, the Human Connectedness Customer Service Expert.

24/08/2022

https://www.facebook.com/371921700933/posts/10159367782780934/

Have you had any experience with HP that you've found less than satisfactory?

I've just encountered their InstantInk program and what they do to you when you cancel being involved in it...

Still waiting for it to be resolved...

Share you story here.

We are committed to providing our customers with the best service experience possible, thus we are using WhatsApp moving forward so we can serve you better on both desktop and mobile devices.

Get help on technical support via WhatsApp now by clicking on this link: https://wa.me/61742436690

19/08/2022

Here's an interesting customer service story:
I bought an HP printer a short while ago, during lockdown I think.
After the original cartridges ran out, I was using recycled cartridges from InstantInk, never previously had issues.

Suddenly two of their cartridges stopped working - coming up with errors. (I suspect this was an HP thing, in a bid to prevent non HP cartridges from being used).
I had the inkstation inks refunded, and dared to trial the Hp InstantInk program...

The first two cartridges are meant to be free, to TRIAL, and they are big cartridges with extra ink.
I had some trouble getting them to fit, but with some fiddling they did eventually fit in.
But any communication with HP was limited.
I was on the 1.99 for 10 pages plan because I wanted to see if it would be worth it.
Within days I decided it wasn't.

So I wrote an email to cancel - and of course, while I KNOW I wrote the email and would swear that I sent it, I cannot find it in my sent emails -- and of course, the plan wasn't cancelled.
I was getting billed more than the 1.99 because I was using a few more than 10 pages.
I noticed this happened twice and I decided -- enough is enough, already.

I contacted HP and finally got to speak with someone, who was so quietly spoken and not overly helpful, that I became frustrated (yep, my bad) and had to haggle over getting the plan cancelled.
NOT ONCE was I asked to return the cartridges.
NOT ONCE was it explained to me that once the plan was cancelled I would NOT BE ABLE TO USE these particular two cartridges.

As it happens I didn't print that much for a while, and today I tried to print a planning document, only to find that the printer cartridges are NOT working and the message that keeps coming up is that I cannot use HP cartridges in my HP printer.

Like, what?
So, I attempt to contact HP -- and their phone number goes to a selection menu (of course), and when I attempt to go via the general inquiries line because the only other alternative was not related to my call, I was transferred through to another menu selection line.
When I identified that my printer was out of warranty because the other 3 menu options did not relate to my call, I was transferred yet again to another recorded message - this time in an Aussie accent, that basically told me to use WhatsApp to communicate.

For one, I don't use WhatsApp... the one and only time I was instructed to use it (when briefly employed with a storage company) I was getting spammed and harassed by loads of strangers and that was it. I was glad I was sacked from the job which I hated with a passion because I got to delete Whatsapp and will never use it again.

Today, I have emailed [email protected] to see if they bother to respond to my message, because all other alternatives have been a whopping great failure.

And, I have time to wait so I went back through Inkstation and re-ordered some more ink cartridges -- because I know they are local, and provide good high standard customer service.

Ideally I will extract the ink from the HP cartridges and inject it into the inkstation ones when they run low. *If I even know how to do that.

What a lousy experience.
HP has one of the worst customer service experiences I have endured in a while.

What's your customer service horror story -- and what would you recommend as the remedy?

Photo by ANTONI SHKRABA: Pexels.com

27/05/2022

A bit of Friday fun... 🐸💩
😁😅😅😅

14/01/2022

https://theconversation.com/empty-car-parks-everywhere-but-nowhere-to-park-how-cities-can-do-better-99031

An expense - or just misused and poorly planned?

Why have a garage?
Here's why I use my lock-up garage at home:
I refuse to pay several tens of THOUSANDS of dollars on a vehicle, only to leave it exposed on the street, subject to Melbourne's horribly unpredictable weather, or to potential theft, or other inconvenient abuse.

I won't pay the kind of money I paid on my vehicle only to treat the garage as a dumping ground for "stuff" -- most of which families would be better off not accumulating in the first instance -- resulting in vehicles being left out on the street or in the driveway.

My brother is guilty of having a very lovely vehicle and a double garage so full of "stuff" (granted, much of which serves a purpose as he uses the garage more as a workshop) that his vehicle is in the drive way -- all the time. Despite the fact that a number of years ago, his earlier car was broken into while sitting in the driveway.

My own earlier car was "broken into" as it sat in the drive of a house I rented that did not have a garage to park in. I had left the doors unlocked, and as is my way, I never left anything of value in the car anyway. The would-be thieves found nothing, rifled through the glovebox and messed up the papers, and left the doors open allowing all the mosquitoes to get in!!!

These days, with vehicles costing more than the average wage a lot of the time, and with insurances so expensive, does it make sense that you ought to keep your vehicle protected in a garage?

Or, am I alone in my thinking here?

What are your thoughts?

There are thousands of empty parking spots in cities. So what can we do to make better use of this space?

30/12/2021

Is customer service a dying art?
How seriously invested in your customer service are you in your business (whether working remotely, in office, onsite, or on the road)?
Customer service is not a redundant skill relegated to the older generation.
Customer service is NOT sales, and should never be confused with the role of selling.
If you want to hire team members in a sales role, call it what it is.
If there is a customer service component to the role, be sure you train your teams to understand the difference.
Most importantly, your operatives should never sound exasperated, or condescending, or dismissive and disinterested when they do not understand the customer request.
It is not personal.
How many sales are you losing because your teams are unable to distinguish between their personal mindset (where they react defensively, or feel slighted), and their capacity to turn on the Professional, Sincerely Friendly, Responsible, Problem Solving Persona?

Today, two businesses that compete in similar camping and 4WD markets LOST my potential business when the first could not be bothered engaging with me to sound interested in my needs, and the second was schooled in the "we don't have that, sorry" attitude.

Absolutely NOT the approach to take.

If you would like to learn Customer Service Excellence, and undertake specific 4-week training that will not only UPSKILL your entire organisation but will guarantee a minimum upturn in sales of 10%, then please do yourself and your teams and your customers a favour and call me.

My training is personalised, customised, and totally UNIQUE and can be in-room (which is much better now with COVID restrictions eased), and will teach every person in your business what Customer Service ACTUALLY is, and how to apply it unfalteringly in such a way as to impress every person in contact with your business - from the phone, to the net, to the walk in.

(There is the option to do it via zoom... to be discussed.)

Get it RIGHT, first time.

18/11/2021

https://www.victorianchamber.com.au/news/covid-19-restrictions-relaxed-as-victoria-approaches-90-per-cent-jab-target?utm_medium=email&utm_source=chamber_news&utm_campaign=fortnightly-2021_11_17

These are major changes to daily life, business, and schooling.
Congratulations Victoria.
To all of you who have contributed to this outcome, well done.
It's time to let go of divisiveness, and work toward a new version of life, like our grandparents, and generations before us.

As a result of the hard work and sacrifices of Victorians, more freedoms have been brought forward by Premier Daniel Andrews, as the state races to its 90 per cent vaccination target ahead of schedule.

30/08/2021

I have personally observed that if the social media post is giving something away to others, is controversial, is hot-topic related (something that's trending now), or by a celebrity, your socmed posts will do well.
If you're promoting yourself, and you don't hit those buttons mentioned above, you won't rate.
What's your experience?

A two-prong survey among social media users and businesses that rely on social media for customer engagement shows that consumers expect more from brands and retailers on social than simply to be marketed to. They want engagement.

25/08/2021

https://www.theprofitfrog.com/post/rude-customers-pay-your-bills-rude-staff-don-t

You cannot afford to treat any customers - not even the rude ones - poorly. Not in this tough economic climate - so make NOW the time for decisive action against lost profits by being a Customer Service Superstar. If your Customer Service sucks, then nothing you spend in advertising is going to fix....