Blog entries

Coon Huntin' or Organ Practice

Don R. Crawley — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 03:34:25 +0100

This is an episode to let you know a little about me. It's nice to meet you!

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Art of Customer Service: Responsiveness

Don R. Crawley — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 11:02:38 +0100

Among the many things are customers expect from us is responsiveness.

This is the willingness to respond to customer needs by answering their phone or email requests quickly, by acknowledging them quickly in-person, and being willing to do what it takes to respond effectively to a service request.

Responsiveness is adopting a can-do attitude, and a willingness to go the extra mile for the customer. There is an increasing large body of research suggesting that softRead More...

An Event that Left Me Hopeful for the Future

Don R. Crawley — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 21:01:03 +0100

Yesterday, I was cajoled, hoodwinked, and nagged into volunteering by my friend Sara to moderate a Toastmasters event at a local high school. I didn't really understand what she wanted me to do, but I wanted to do her a favor so I agreed. I was completely unprepared for what happened.

It turned out that the event was part of the College Success Foundation. Use the link to learn more about the foundation. For the purpose of this post, I'll just say that the kids Read More...

Business Emo: Managing Your Emotions and Influencing the Emotions of Others

Don R. Crawley — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 17:10:43 +0100

It may seem a bit odd to think of “emo” in business. We usually associate the cultural slang term “emo” with a genre of emotionally-charged music for 17-year-olds who wear black and don’t smile. Anyone who deals in customer service, however, has on occasion dealt with emotionally charged individuals who aren’t smiling. (Perhaps they’re even wearing black!) Sometimes, those emotionally charged customers affect our own emotions aRead More...

Five Quick and Easy Ways to Drive Your Customers Away

Don R. Crawley — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 19:34:57 +0100

I like to write and talk about things TO do, instead of things NOT to do. Talking about what not to do is similar to telling someone not to think of a pink elephant. What immediately comes to mind of course is a pink elephant. Cliche perhaps, but true. We tend to do that upon which we focus, regardless of whether it's what to do or what not to do. Having said that, I'm going to break my own rule with this list. These are five fatal flaws of customer serviceRead More...

How to Deliver Great Customer Service: What's Your Empathy Quotient?

Don R. Crawley — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 19:41:41 +0100

In business, everyone is involved in customer service. No matter what your job title, you’re also a customer service rep. For those of us in small businesses or who are sole proprietors, our customer service skills are even more important. In most cases, small businesses thrive or die based on the customer service skills of the owners and employees.

There are many articles and books that discuss the importance of providing great customer service. Very few,Read More...

The Soul of Service Podcast

Don R. Crawley — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 06:00:00 +0100

This is a podcast about service: service to customers, service to end-users, service to friends and family, and service to yourself.

Episode 2: Emo for Grownups: Managing Your Own Emotions and Influencing the Emotions of Others

October 25, 2009

We usually think of "emo" as a genre of emotionally-charged music for teenagers who wear black and don't smile. In this podcast, I'll share some ideas about "emo" for grownups. Download Episode

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Ten Ways for Help Desk Staffers to Delight End Users

Don R. Crawley — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 04:11:41 +0100

As a help desk technician, you could very well be a hero to your user today! Your job is incredibly important, because you are often the bridge between where a user is on a project and where s/he wants to be. You even have the power to help your users have a great day by solving their problems and freeing them to think more creatively and be more productive in their jobs. There are many studies that have shown how well-trained help desk personnel add directly Read More...

Finding a Guru when You Need One

Don R. Crawley — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 21:45:00 +0100

One of the biggest challenges of being a small business person is finding support for the things you want to do. In a large corporation, there's usually some department staffed with subject matter experts on commonly needed areas of expertise. When you're a small business operator, however, you sometimes feel all alone in the world. (Sob!) Sure, there are forums, blogs, and Google, but often you don't have time to spend researching a particular topic to find just the right answer. I've often beeRead More...

The Three Secrets to Profitable Email Marketing

Don R. Crawley — Tue, 20 May 2008 11:27:00 +0100

Legitimate email marketing is a great way to stay in touch with your customers and prospects. It’s inexpensive, fast, efficient, and environmentally friendly. Email marketing allows you to target your customers and prospects by their particular interests, it allows you quickly announce special promotions (either planned promotions or impromptu promotions based on changing conditions). Email is the perfect way to send a monthly newsletter. Email marketing’s efficiency was underscored in a studRead More...

Creating and Exchanging Electronic Documents

Don R. Crawley — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 15:01:00 +0100

I'm a big believer in "eating my own dog food". In other words, if I'm going to recommend something to you, it's usually because I do it myself. (The exceptions are when a particular tool is not relevant to my business, but offers tremendous benefit to other businesses, such as automated appointment scheduling.) This post is all about digitizing as many of your paper documents as you can. There are several ways to digitize your documents. Suppose you need to share a document, perhaps a proposRead More...

How to Automate Appointment Scheduling

Don R. Crawley — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 16:16:00 +0100

One of the great promises of the digital age is to free people from mundane and routine tasks so they can work on more interesting projects. The human brain allows us to reason and think creatively in ways that machines can't (at least not yet).

In this post, I'm going to talk about automating the appointment scheduling process. This applies to you if you're a hair stylist, a dentist, a massage therapist, an oil change shop, a psychologist, a plumber, or anyone who sets appointments wRead More...

The Three Magic Questions to Ask Before Hiring the Wrong I.T. Consultant

Don R. Crawley — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 16:01:00 +0100

I often hear horror stories from business people in all types and sizes of organizations about I.T. consultants. It's not necessary to dwell on the bad experiences, but there's no doubt that the I.T. consulting field has its share of incompetent or just downright shady characters. The good news is there are also lots of qualified, experienced, and knowledgeable consultants available to help you with your company’s digital nervous system. How can you, as a business owner or manager, separate tRead More...

Sterling the Plumber

Don R. Crawley — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 13:30:00 +0100

Sterling the plumber just left my house. We had a minor backup and I found Sterling through a Google search. There were two reviews of his services, both positive. Some of his bigger competitors had quite a few negative reviews, so I called Sterling. Sterling is self-employed, competent, reasonably-priced, and a nice guy. I'll definitely call him when I need a plumber in the future.

But I'm not really writing about plumbing issues. You see, Sterling did everything right to earn my futRead More...

Going Digital without Going Postal™

Don R. Crawley — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 21:01:00 +0100

I've recently been asked to speak to different groups about migrating from the old ways of doing things (paper and ink, for example) to the new ways of doing things (digital documents). I realized that a successful migration to the new ways of doing things could not only save even a very small business operator thousands of dollars each year, but could also help that same operator increase their business exponentially at minimal expense.

In our own business as I.T. trainers, we save hRead More...