From time to time, I write about customer service. See Back to Basics, Continued — It Really Is All About Customer Service and Back to Basics, Continued — Customer Service, Again. Much of my inspiration for these blogs comes from Nancy Friedman a/k/a The Telephone Doctor. Nancy is the founder and chairman of Telephone Doctor Customer Service Training. She is a customer service expert based in St. Louis and speaks all over the country about how to motivate us to pay more and better attention to our customers. Nancy’s latest blog was titled “I Called Your Company Today – You Should As Well!”

This one struck a chord with me—mostly because of its commonsense approach and simplicity in execution. 

The blog encouraged business owners, CEOs and management in general to stop sometime today and call your own company—anonymously. Ask a basic question about products or services or even simply about directions as to how to get to the business location. Then, listen to how the CSR responds. We can learn a lot about the strengths and weaknesses of our companies by employing this simple approach—without spending a small fortune on annoying text messaging asking customers to “rate your experience” with us. 

Nancy’s approach to customer service starts with the basic concept that “we cannot fix what we do not know.” A call such as the one she suggests is a great way to learn about how our customers are really being treated.

Practice Pointer: If you are interested in more tricks of the trade, contact Nancy directly at Nancy Friedman Customer Service Speaker - Nancy Friedman. I don’t even get a commission!

Please Note: This is the two hundred-thirtieth blog in a series of Back to Basics blogs, in which relevant and resourceful information can be easily accessed by clicking Dentons - Consumer Finance Report.