Summer Reading: Difficult Conversations
Another summer reading installment! Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss What Matters Most is a wonderful business book that masquerades as a self-help book. I find it
Blog: Archives
Tight vs. Loose Cultures: Why it Matters for Support
It’s awfully difficult to break the world into two parts, and while the author of Rule Makers, Rule Breakers: How Tight and Loose Cultures Wire Our
Working with the Sales Team — A CSM Basic Skill
Sales and Customer Success can be invincible allies–or deadly enemies. Here are 5 tips to foster the former. Clarify As with any other collaboration, clarity
Empathy is not the answer
In its January-February issue, The Harvard Business Review reports on a survey of customer service reps that destroys the idea that high-empathy reps are the best.
Planning Ahead: 3 (!) Presentations at TSW San Diego 2017
I am delighted to have been asked to present on three different topics at the upcoming TSW conference in San Diego in May. Two presentations
Patient Compliance: a big headache for physicians, with lessons for support
I like to point out the many parallels between medicine and support, since they both involve a patient/customer and a physician/support engineer and they both require
Introducing The Art of Complex Support
After 18 years, hundreds of workshops, thousands of participants, and a towering stack of accolades, I am retiring the Managing Customers workshop and replacing it with
The Organizational Apology
This is the title of an article in the September 2015 issue of The Harvard Business Review, which focuses on entire organizations apologizing for serious
The Truth About Trust – a book review with practical lessons for customer success
I recently read The Truth About Trust: How It Determines Success in Life, Love, Learning, and More by David DeSteno and found many relevant observations for us
Change Management vs. Training
Over the years, we’ve had the opportunity to work with several vendors who were adding support channels (adding phone to an existing email channel, introducing