Don Crawley, Author. Attention! (and Bad Customer Service) Word of the Week: Attention The word of the week is attention. As in, pay attention to what your customer is saying and doing. That’s part of the difference between good and bad customer service. Quote of the Week: Customer Loss There’s an often-repeated quote that says, “68% of customer lo…

Don Crawley, Author. How to Show Respect Word of the Week: Respect The word of the week this week is respect. Respect comes in two forms. Probably, the most common way of thinking about respect is in how you feel about another person, based on their words and deeds. We often say that someone must earn respect. It’s internal, it’s about your […] How…

Don Crawley, Author. “Shoulding” All Over Yourself and Misguided Self-Help Myths Word of the Week: Should The word of the week is should, a popular topic in self-help circles. That probably seems a little odd, but here’s why it’s the word of the week. Janet, my wife, and I were talking about the direction of her professional life. Like millions of …

Don Crawley, Author. How to Be a Powerful Uplifting Presence: A Positive Point of View We’re changing the format and the name of the Compassionate Geek blog starting with this post. You can think of the new format as a weekly motivational triple-play. In fact, that’s what I’m calling it: The Weekly Motivational Triple Play. We’ll publish one new po…

Don Crawley, Author. A Solution for Poor Customer Service This is a story with a simple solution for poor customer service. I like word puzzles. The New York Times puzzles are an ongoing distraction for me, whether it’s a crossword puzzle or their accursed spelling bee. There’s even one called Vertex, which is a mindless connect-the-dots puzzle. Th…

Don Crawley, Author. How to Improve Your Emotional Intelligence for Great Relationships In a breakout session on how to improve your emotional intelligence at IT Nation Explore, an attendee commented, “You say to avoid saying things like, ‘You make me so happy’ or ‘you make me so angry’ because it gives power to the other person. Yet, you also say …

Don Crawley, Author. Prime Time Management The 4 Quadrants of Urgency and Importance How is your time management? Are you spending your time on activities that are important or are you wasting your time on activities that don’t matter? Author Stephen Covey’s urgency/importance four-quadrant time management model is a powerful tool you can use to pr…

Don Crawley, Author. Technician’s Checklist for Customer Support This technician’s checklist is for anyone in customer support who responds to service tickets and requests. It’s also for anyone who deals with end-users, other customers, and coworkers. When preparing to respond to a support ticket or service request, even an informal one, be sure to…

Don Crawley, Author. When Clients Bypass Customer Support Systems We build customer support systems to take excellent care of our customers, but some clients just want to go around them. Does this sound familiar? Bypassing Customer Support Systems Terry, an owner of a mid-sized MSP wrote: “I’m wondering if you have anything on voicemail, specifical…

Don Crawley, Author. How to Handle an Angry Customer (Includes Video) For most of us, dealing with an angry or abusive customer is upsetting, even nerve-wracking. Still, sometimes it happens. When you know how to handle an angry customer, you can turn situations around, save relationships, and keep your stress levels under control. Here are five cr…

Don Crawley, Author. How to Deal with Inappropriate Behavior (Includes Video) Two years ago, I had to deal with inappropriate behavior toward me by a colleague in my professional association. I found the experience demeaning, disrespectful, and confusing. It still weighs heavily on my mind. I did nothing to encourage the bad behavior by the other p…

Don Crawley, Author. Inspiration and Perseverance in a Time of COVID Are you bombarded with promotions for webinars telling you how to deal with these crazy times? Yeah, me too. I could use some inspiration, so today, I’m taking a different approach with the Compassionate Geek blog and podcast. I’m offering uplifting stories about people, both ordi…

Don Crawley, Author. Your Life Matters and Relationships Matter UPDATE ON RELATIONSHIPS: I just learned that my friend Reggie Watkins died of COVID-19 and that my friend Ray Benson is terribly sick with this awful virus. That news makes this week’s blog post more timely than ever. Please, read on… My friend Roger is 87. He’s in great shape, both me…

Don Crawley, Author. How to Cope with the Stress When the Whole World is Upside Down Stress, when untreated, can kill you. That’s why it’s important to learn how to cope with the stress. Stress can cause heart attacks, strokes, a compromised immune system, diabetes, and obesity. It can cause headaches, fatigue, sleep problems, anxiety, irritability…

Don Crawley, Author. Caring for Customers Like Amazon Does People have strong opinions about Amazon. Regardless of how you feel about Amazon, they are focused on caring for customers. You may have heard the quote about Amazon, “We aim to be Earth’s most customer centric company.” I had an experience with Amazon that clearly demonstrated why I would…

Don Crawley, Author. What is an Active Listener: The Fine Art of Listening Well What is an active listener? In short, an active listener is engaged with the speaker. They ask relevant quetions, the avoid passing judgment until the speaker is finished, the give physical cues that they’re listening, and they make the speaker feel heard and respected.…

Don Crawley, Author. How to Manage Your Own Emotions Emotional Intelligence can make the difference between having a successful career in IT and struggling in your career. Successfully managing emotions can also make the difference between having successful personal relationships and struggling in relationships. One of the four domains of Emotional…

Don Crawley, Author. IT Customer Experience Like a Michelin-Starred Restaurant I’d heard about Le Violon d’Ingres, a Michelin-starred restaurant near the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France. One of my foodie friends described his meal there as the best dining experience of his life. So my friend Shea and I agreed to meet there for lunch. We set the meeti…

Don Crawley, Author. What Compassionate Customer Service is NOT In a recent corporate training session, I spoke with the group about compassionate customer service. Cindy sat on the front row. She was friendly and professional with me, but shortly into the session, she said, “I don’t get it. I act professionally around my users and I’m efficient. W…

Don Crawley, Author. How to Be a Better Listener Video (Three Types of Listening) One of the most common reasons companies ask me to speak to their teams is to teach them how to be a better listener. In order to help team members improve their listening skills, I explain that there are three different types of listening, each of which requires diff…

Don Crawley, Author. How to Practice Gratitude: The Life-Changing Power of Sincere Gratitude The United States’ holiday Thanksgiving is coming up shortly. It’s a day when we express our thanks for the gifts we’ve been given, spend time with our families, watch American football, and eat ourselves into oblivion. This is also a time to reflect on how…

Don Crawley, Author. One of the Most Important Customer Service Mistakes to Avoid (Includes Video) My client was frustrated with team members who were brusque with end-users. These particular team members didn’t support paying customers, they supported an internal engineering team. They didn’t see their end-users as customers. In fact, their behavi…

Don Crawley, Author. What it Means to be Patient with End-Users (Includes Video) When we ask about the important characteristics of customer service providers, IT or otherwise, one of the most common answers is patience. People who are receiving customer service want the provider to be patient. Similarly, one of the most common complaints is that c…

Don Crawley, Author. Career Roadblocks On Your Way to Success Note: This blog post on career roadblocks is a transcript of an excerpt from my keynote speech How to be a Compassionate Geek. As we talk about the five principles, are there some roadblocks that might possibly get in your way? And the answer is, of course there are. There are many, but …

Don Crawley, Author. How to Lose a Customer in 10 Minutes (Includes Video) Here’s how to lose a customer quickly! Hint: It’s about bad decisions by the customer service rep and business owner. It’s easy to avoid! I recently changed health insurance plans. My neighborhood pharmacy is covered by my new plan. I like to support local businesses and I k…

Don Crawley, Author. Poor Customer Service Examples: Missing Appointments and Not Doing Your Homework (Includes Video) This is a story about poor customer service. The salesperson left a voice message to tell me his assistant had given me inaccurate information and he wanted to correct what I’d been told about their service. He also sent an email, …

Don Crawley, Author. Six Ways to be Sincere (Includes Video) A viewer on my YouTube channel recently asked how to be sincere. Good question! In this post, you’ll learn six ways to be sincere. Be genuine. That means that you say what you mean and mean what you say without being nasty to the other person. Always speak the truth, but that doesn’t mean…

Don Crawley, Author. Customer Service Support: Why Things Go Wrong (Includes Video) Sometimes, when we’re working on customer service support or even helping a colleague, things seem to go off track unexpectedly. Of course, when you’re dealing with other people, you will occasionally get a surprise reaction! Here are some common reasons why things …

Don Crawley, Author. Proactive Customer Service Examples (Includes Video) My wife Janet needed a new rearview mirror for her car. We called the dealership to see about getting one. (You can probably imagine where this is going!) It was exorbitantly expensive. Even Stephen, the parts guy, was shocked when he found out how much it cost! He suggested …

Don Crawley, Author. Customer Care: 8 Ways to Show You Care (Includes Video) In IT customer service, sometimes we fix the technical issue, but our customers still don’t think we care. Here are eight simple ways to show customer care. 1: Be on time. If you’ve ever said the words, “I’m sorry I’m late. The traffic was terrible.” or words to that effec…

Don Crawley, Author. Collaboration in Work (Includes Video) Do all the parts of your business work together like a well-oiled machine? If you don’t work in business, how about your school, government, church, or non-profit? Does your workplace provide a good environment for collaboration in work? Any organization is comprised of many parts. Think a…

Don Crawley, Author. Service and Sales Conflict: Successful Management (Includes Video) Jared, the salesperson for a mid-sized MSP, had been working on a customer deal for weeks. Finally, it looked like the deal was going to close, but the customer wanted one more service included before she’d sign the contract. Jared agreed to the request without …

Don Crawley, Author. Never Argue with a Customer Never argue with a customer. Here’s why. I walked into the luggage store with my carry-on bag following dutifully behind me. I was the only one in the store…no customers, no employees. After a moment, an employee emerged from a back room. He looked at me, said nothing, and walked on. I scratched my h…

Don Crawley, Author. The Benefits of Management by Walking Around You can’t overstate the benefits of management by walking around. Janet, my wife, our friend Bruce, and I went to Duke’s Chowder House in the South Lake Union area of Seattle for Sunday lunch. The views are of sailboat masts, looking out over a marina toward the Museum of History and…

Don Crawley, Author. The 5 Principles of IT Customer Service Success (Includes Video) (The following is a transcript of a portion of a keynote speech I gave at Automation Nation in 2015. The five principles, covered in this post, are the foundation for all of my work in IT customer service.) I’ve had the privilege of working with IT people all over…

Don Crawley, Author. Competence Charisma IT Career Success Model I want to introduce you to the competence charisma model for IT career success. This is a model that I created to help understand the two broad skill families that are required for success in IT careers, and if you’ll take a look at this model, you’ll notice that in the lower left qua…

Don Crawley, Author. Communication Style: 3 Ways to Choose the Right One (Includes Video) Communication is the process of one person sending a message and another person receiving and understanding it. Your communication style helps determine whether the receiver understands the message you intended. That puts the burden of responsibility for commu…

Don Crawley, Author. How to Handle a Really Angry Person It happens every now and then. One of our customers gets really angry or a co-worker loses his or her temper. Our ability to successfully handle a really angry person is something that can make us into heroes in the workplace. It’s important to think long-term when dealing with anger. Think a…

Don Crawley, Author. IT Customer Service Fundamentals Kansas City Chiefs’ place kicker Harrison Butker made a perfect 39-yard field goal to tie the recent AFC championship game with 8 seconds on the clock and send it in to overtime. It was a dramatic moment in a game filled with drama. That had to be an unbelievable amount of pressure on Butker, bu…

Don Crawley, Author. Listening to Customers Successful businesses know the importance of listening to customers. I’ve talked before about my model railroading hobby. (In case you’re interested in such things, I run O Gauge.) I had an electrical question and I couldn’t find an answer online, so I decided to visit an area train store to see if I coul…

Don Crawley, Author. Best Team Building Exercises for IT Teams It’s hard knowing what are the best team building exercises for IT teams. Many people say they hate team-building exercises. When I’m at a conference or a meeting and I hear there’s going to be some sort of team-building exercise, I run from the room! Perhaps you feel the same way. Choo…

Don Crawley, Author. Employee Retention Strategies: How to Retain High-Performing Tech Employees (Includes Video) This is the third and final installment in my series on how to hire, manage, and retain top-performing tech employees. In this post, you’ll learn five critical success factors in employee retention strategies to help retain your best em…

Don Crawley, Author. Leadership Qualities: How to Successfully Manage High-Performing Tech Employees (Includes Video) This is the second in my series of I.T. leadership and team-building posts for IT managers and supervisors. What are the leadership qualities that allow you to successfully manage the team and retain key individuals? Key Leadership …

Don Crawley, Author. How to Hire High-Performing Tech Employees People who hire tech people tell me over and over again how hard it is to find the best people. No doubt, in the current competitive job market, that hiring is a challenging process, especially for critical tech positions. You’ve got to create just the right combination of pay, benefit…

Don Crawley, Author. Principle #3: Empathy The Third of the 5 Principles is the principle of customer empathy. Empathy is the ability to put yourself in the other person’s position, to imagine what they’re going through, to try to feel what they’re feeling. Of course, there are times where you simply can’t put yourself in the other person’s positio…

Don Crawley, Author. Encouraging Words for Coworkers: A 7-Year-Old’s Lost Home Run Never underestimate the power of encouraging words for coworkers. It’s 1961, on the playground behind Robert E. Lee Grade School in Columbia, Missouri. I’m 7-years-old and up to bat in the P.E. softball game and I’m terrified. Let’s just say that sports, or anything …

Don Crawley, Author. How Not to Serve Your Customer (Bad Customer Service) Here’s an example of really bad customer service. My next-door neighbor is 86 years old. She’s in great physical shape and her mind is as sharp as can be. She’s fun to be around and I’m lucky to have her as a neighbor. She doesn’t understand modern technology, so she occasio…

Don Crawley, Author. Three Customer Service Fails I’m going to rant about a customer service fail, actually three customer service fails. I’ve been on the receiving end of three customer service fails within the past week. If you have these fails, you’ll lose customers and credibility and, if you are part of an internal IT organization, you’ll alie…

Don Crawley, Author. Understanding True Intent of End Users and Other Customers My audience member, Josh, was driving home from work when a speeding car came up behind him. The driver was aggressively dodging in and out of traffic. He tailgated Josh’s car before an opening came up and he swerved around Josh. He was driving like a crazy person. Josh…

Don Crawley, Author. Volunteer as a Means to Enhance Customer Service Why is it that some people are always volunteering? They volunteer at the hospital, at the food pantry, the animal shelter, or the soup kitchen. They provide rides for people who need them. They help an elderly neighbor. They go shopping for a single mom. They help clean up litte…