Has Customer Service Disappeared Because of COVID?
NOVEMBER 2022
 

When COVID hit the world in March 2020 the world was shut down, and customer service vanished. Was it because of COVID or because companies were thinking only of survival?

When I wrote Feelings in 1979, the first customer service program ever developed in the world. I saw organizations spending millions on advertising trying to lure customers to their place of business. I could never understand why companies didn't deliver great customer service. I released Feelings based on a very simple concept. When you get great service you come back and bring your friends. When you get lousy service you tell everyone and never go back.

Organizations have used COVID and the pandemic to give up on customer service. COVID is over in almost all parts of the world. I suggest starting January 2023, you again focus on delivering awesome service.

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Elon Musk Twitter Revamp and Speed

Elon Musk the richest man in the world closed his $44 billion takeover of Twitter, Inc. In the November 7 Wall St Journal he said when describing his management style, "Those include a hands-on-obsession over product decisions, a distaste for corporate structures and a focus on speed."


12 Online Customer Service-Learning Programs

We have 12 programs for you to choose from. A person can learn at their own pace. NO travel expenses. Advance your career.

The videos for Empowerment and Speed have been updated. Loyal for Life will upgraded by November 15.

With our online learning customer service programs, you and your employees can improve your customer service skills for only $97 per course with substantial discounts for volume. Visit here for courses to view. You can mix and match and can buy in volume and use the codes as you add new employees to achieve volume discounts. For each program, there is a free preview.


Customer Service Diplomas

Service Quality Institute has the strongest brand in the world when it comes to Customer Service. We are the only institution in the world that is offering a diploma program online or in-person on customer service. Advance your career with credentials that have real value at a fraction of the price of the typical MBA course. We have two diplomas you can earn. Here is the link.

Graduate of Customer Service: Online courses are $97 each. Seven SQI courses and 28 credits are required to achieve this Diploma.

Master of Customer Service: Online the courses are $97 each. Nine SQI courses and 48 credits are required to achieve this Diploma

As each person graduates, they will be added to our website so you can send the link everyone without any hassles or delays.


Five New Programs in Development with Special Pricing Ending November 15, 2023

1. Leading Empowered Team for An Awesome Customer Experience will be ready to ship by the end of November.
I have spent the last several months upgrading the two-day seminar. The focus is on Empowerment, Coaching & Feedback, Teamwork, and How to Create a Better Customer Experience. Pat Porras, our top trainer who does our Certification Seminars helped me with the updates. Most clients prefer SQI channel partners to facilitate. Reach out to Carmen Velasco for Latin America at Carmen@servicequality.com and John Tschohl at john@servicequality.com for our Certified Trainers in your region. Anyone that orders this program in 2022 will receive a free Leaders Guide and PowerPoint with your order of 15 participant kits or more. 

Use coupon code $500 (Through December 31, 2022)

2. Empowerment: A Way of Life
The video has been updated! You will love it. Is available now in English, Spanish and Russian. The leader’s guide and participant material are the same. There is a 14-minute demo on our website in English, Spanish, and Russian. It now looks like the video was filmed yesterday. Very current. The video is in the upper right-hand corner of the link. Empowerment: A Way of Life is implemented in 2 sessions of 2-3 hours each and 3-4 hours in developing countries.

Empowerment is the most difficult skill to teach employees. You will never be a service leader without empowerment. It typically takes 2 miracles at one time to get an employee to spend $10. Most employees fear they will be fired if they make an empowered decision. There are too many weird things that happen each day that employees need to make fast decisions on behalf of the customer to keep them happy.

The goal of every organization should be to have overly happy customers. If this happens, you don’t need to worry about the competition. I estimate that 80% of all empowered decisions cost less than $25, and many have zero cost. Most employees love and worship rules, policies, and procedures. I have never met a CEO who did not believe in Empowerment. Companies spend a fortune on marketing. Of which 50% is wasted. Nobody knows which half. Empowerment is very powerful but has to happen with your front-line employee who have 99% of the customer contact.

Save $500 with a 33% discount (Special Price of only $999 on our Introductory Start-Up Special for 25 participants) and free shipping worldwide through November 15, 2022.

Use coupon code $500 - Introductory Start-up

3. Speed
This video has also been upgraded.  It looks like it was filmed yesterday. You can view the first 14 minutes of the video. We have the program ready in English, Spanish, and Russian videos ready. The leader’s guide and participant material are the same. The video is in the upper right-hand corner of the link. Speed is implemented in 2 sessions of 2-3 hours each and 3-4 hours in developing countries.

Speed means how you shrink the time by 90% or more. To go from 12 days to 11 days is not speed. To go from 12 days to 6 hours is speed. We have several problems with Speed. First, the mindset of employees is slow. There is no empowerment. Then company policies and procedures further slow everything down. If an employee has 4 days to complete a task, they wait until the 4th day, and then they say I didn’t know there would be traffic today or that it would rain or snow. Amazon built a business around Speed. Why not train your entire staff on Speed and become another Amazon?

Save $500 with a 33% discount (Special Price of only $999 on our Introductory Start-Up Special for 25 participants) and free shipping worldwide through November 15, 2022.

Use coupon code $500 - Introductory Start-up

4. Loyal for Life/Service Recovery
This is a one-session program. We have upgraded the video, so it looks like it was filmed yesterday. View more details. The 12-minute demo is on the top right corner of the link. On our website, you can view each program part of the video, leader guide, participant book, technique card, and certificate. Every organization makes mistakes. Most employees lie and run for cover when there is a problem. We teach 4 skills that every employee should master. The video is now available in English. We will have Spanish and Russian within 2 -3 weeks

  1. Act Quickly

  2. Take Responsibility

  3. Be Empowered

  4. Compensate

Save $400 a 33% discount (Special Price of only $799 on our Introductory Start-Up Special for 25 participants) and free shipping worldwide through November 15, 2022.

The coupon code is $400 Introductory Start-up

I also have a book called Loyal for Life.

5. Smile
This is a new one-session program; A First Impression Can Change Everything. In Minnesota, where I live, most people smile. This does not happen across the world. We started production on Smile on August 2. I have the first draft of the new participant book and expect the video script any day. Our expected release date is January 2023. We have to script the participant book, video, leader guide, and support materials and then hire the talent, film the video and edit it. The design is another critical element.  I believe packaging is everything. Finally, we have to go to print and duplication. It is like building a new plane from scratch in 5 months. We then have to put the program into Spanish, Russian, Greek, Bulgarian, Chinese, Azerbaijan, Georgian, German and Indonesian. All of our programs are instructionally designed so a person on your staff can easily facilitate Smile.

Anyone ordering the 3-year service culture plan before December 31, 2022, will receive Smile at no cost as part of their Service Culture plan. With the 3-year service culture plan, you get 3 new programs a year for 3 years. For 100 -499 employees, the per-person fee is only $127 a year. It includes the facilitation of Leading Empowered Teams for An Awesome Customer Experience and Coaching for Success plus free Train the Trainer seminars, facilitator, and participant material. The price goes down to $41 a person for volume. This is 3 programs a year. We discount pricing by over 50%.

To help you get started on the service culture plan, we will give you the pricing for the first employee program at 1/3 of the annual service culture plan. This is over a 65% discount. Select any of our programs for the entire workforce. If you have 100-499 employees, your price is $42.33. If you have 500-2,499, your price is only $26.67. You then have 90 days after the kickoff to decide if you want to move forward with the heavily discounted 3-year service culture plan.


Christmas and New Year’s Gifts - Books that can Change Your Life

We have fantastic books that can change lives, help a person increase their wealth, get promoted, make more money and learn how to be a service leader. As you look for corporate or personal gifts, the most valuable gift is a book written on customer service by John Tschohl. You might have a young adult in your family you want to help grow. It could be a spouse or your top customers. Also excellent gifts for birthdays and anniversaries. 

All books ordered by December 10 will be personally inscribed and autographed.

You can mix and match to achieve better volume pricing. Discounts start at 11 - 49 15% off, 50- 99 26% off, 100-249 30% off and 250+ 35% off Individual books in the US will be mailed media mail for $2 each. Books are available for download for only $9.99 each. If you send John Tschohl an email John@servicequality.com with the names of each person you want an inscribed message with. John's autograph will make a powerful gift. If shipping Internationally, then give yourself 2 weeks to ensure delivery is on time. In Russia and Georgia, you need to work with our publishers.

Palitra in Georgia is releasing in Georgian 2 of my books this month. Relentless and Empowerment

Relentless $27

Customer service must be your core operating principle. A great gift for customers, employees, and family members. Easy to read. Also available in Russian and Georgian.

Moving Up $19.95

A perfect gift if you want someone to become indispensable and extraordinary. Ideal also for a family member. An easy read. Every child over 12 should have a copy.

Achieving Excellence Through Customer Service $19.95

The bible of customer service. Also available in Spanish, Russian and Vietnamese.

Empowerment: A Way of Life The only book on empowerment $19.95

Without empowerment you will never be a service leader.. Easy to read. Also available in Spanish, Russian and Georgian.

Cashing In: How to Make More Money, Get a Promotion and Love Your Job $14.95

Give to everyone in your family and circle of friends, if you want to help them achieve more success. Also available in Spanish and Vietnamese.

Loyal for Life $14.95

An easy-to-read book that teaches you how to master service recovery. A must-read. Also available in Spanish and Russian.

The Customer is Boss $19.95

Learn how to demand great service and stop putting up with poor customer service.

See all our books.


John Tschohl Creating Passion for Customer Service Seminars

Ethiopian Airlines has me to doing 6 seminars on November 19, 20 and 21 in Ethiopia for their leadership teams. They then will also have 50 people trained to facilitate Empowerment: A Way of Life, Speed and Loyal for Life (Service Recovery) All the materials are branded with Ethiopian Airlines.

Cleopas Chiketa, our partner in Zimbabwe has me doing two open public seminars on November 24th on Strategy and 25th on Driving Customer Experience Delivery in Harare. Cleopas@dimensionsconsultancy.com
Whats App +263-7-1283-1668

Watch this video to learn more

Sergio Flores, our lead partner in Latin America has me doing two half-day seminars on January 25 and 26. No travel expenses.

Strategies for Customer Loyalty: Building Customer Service Culture
A LIVE seminar with John Tschohl

— Official website: https://www.servicioalcliente.org/lealtad/

— January 25 & 26, Virtual Campus

Will be in English and Spanish. Contact estraegia@servicequality.com
Whats App +52-1 55-6474-0712

Jose Luis Acevedo, our Distributor in Mexico has a service strategy seminar in Guadalajara on March 23, 2023. Jose Luis has sponsored over 20 seminars with me in Mexico. JoseLuis@plusconsultores.com.mx  
Whats App +52-1 33-1410-6000

If you want to have your entire leadership team to have passion and commitment to the Service Strategy, I encourage you to book me for a keynote 60-90 minutes or 1-2 day seminar. This means owning and dominating the market. I share with clients the Proven Process for Driving a Service Culture.

Every presentation is customized. I can do keynotes for 60-90 minutes or a full day or 1-2 day seminars. Seminars can be live or on Zoom. Visit my speaking site.

My 8 books can be used to reinforce the message I deliver. Most of my books are also in Spanish and Russian. Virtually no speakers have the depth of products to reinforce the service strategy message after they deliver their keynote. If you want to use me for a keynote or 1-2 day seminar in 2022, contact:

Carmen Velasco, VP Latin America & North America
Carmen@servicequality.com
Whats App 1-619-862-7694

John Tschohl

John@servicequality.com
Cell/Whats App 1-612-382-5636


Certification Seminar in Minneapolis May 22-25, 2023 Virtual and In-Person

Our next Certification seminar is May 22-25, 2023, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It will be both virtual and in-person using Zoom. If you want to be certified and learn how to facilitate Feelings, our Flagship program and Leading Empowered Teams for an Awesome Customer Experience is a powerful way for you to advance your credentials and career and be able to buy participant material for these 2 programs at an 80% discount off your seminar prices.

Both programs are instructionally designed. All our programs are built around discovery learning. This means 80% of the time is a group discussion, not a facilitator talking. The programs are easy for you to facilitate.

If you need a visa, it is best to apply early. It might take up to 5 months to get a visa appointment. The US Embassy is super slow. If you need an invitation letter, let me know. All virtual participants are allowed to attend a future in-person Certification Seminar at no cost. 

Register or find additional information here.

SQI In The Media

Customer Service Heroes: Companies That Go the Extra Mile
CSM Magazine

The Need for Speed
HCM Sales

Writing a “Relentless” Service Culture Plan
Call Center Times

Why the Need for Speed is so important now
Today’s Restaurant

Reviewing Employee Performance
American Fastener Journal

The Need for Speed in Customer Service
Franchising.com

Awesome Customer Service from the US Post Office
CSM Magazine

Writing a “Relentless” Service Culture Plan
Franchising.com

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