From the category archives:

customer service

Dear Mass Market: Promoter or Detractor

by Pete Abilla July 21, 2010

I received an email recently from Qwest Communications requesting that I complete a survey. I read the email, then the signature had the executive’s name, which caught my eye: Dan Yost Executive Vice President Mass Markets Is that what I’ve become? A Mass Market?  Does Qwest really call their customers “Mass Market”? Here’s that email: [...]

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Using 5 Whys to Write Customer Support Help Pages

by Pete Abilla June 28, 2010

Customer Support Help Pages is a self-service method for the customer to resolve his or her own concern without having to chat with a customer service agent, call customer service, or email customer support. Sometimes, self-help methods are not very helpful. But, one way to make them more helpful than they are is to apply [...]

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Sears Customer Service, Hall of Shame

by Pete Abilla May 28, 2010
This entry is part 5 of 4 in the series sears customer service

My experience with Sears Customer Service and Sears Repair Center can be found here: Sears Customer Service, Part 1 Sears Customer Service, Part 2 Sears Customer Service, Part 3 Today’s post is a compilation of Sears Customer Service stories, to show that my experience is not an isolated one, but just the tip of the [...]

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Sears Service Customer Experience, Part 3

by Pete Abilla May 27, 2010
This entry is part 4 of 4 in the series sears customer service

In Part 1 of my experience buying a Kenmore Dishwasher from Sears, I shared the detailed steps of what happened, what did happen but should have happened, and quantitative details such as how many phone calls I made, how many call transfers occurred, how long I was on the phone with Sears Customer Service, etc. [...]

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Sears Service Customer Experience, Part 2

by Pete Abilla May 25, 2010
This entry is part 3 of 4 in the series sears customer service

In Part 1 of my recent experience with Sears, I shared what I experienced in the process of buying a Kenmore Dishwasher from Sears.  I share my experience in a timeline and the pain I experienced going through Sears Customer Service 1. In Part 2, I’ll share what I believe the flow of information looks [...]

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Sears Service Customer Experience, Part 1

by Pete Abilla May 21, 2010
This entry is part 2 of 4 in the series sears customer service

Sometime in April, our dishwasher broke.  When you have a huge family like I do, having a dishwasher is really important. On April 20, 2010 our experience with Sears – Online Department Store Featuring Applicances, Tools, etc. – began. Here is my experience.  But, first, the timeline 1: April 20, 2010: Went to sears.com to [...]

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Stand in a Circle, 5 Whys, and a Call Center

by Pete Abilla May 11, 2010

Sometime ago while consulting for a huge call center, I took a group of customer service agents for a little Gemba walk and a quick activity to demonstrate a few Lean fundamentals. What was scheduled for a 60 minute exercise turned out to be an experience that awakened the agents, several of whom went on [...]

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Just Dial “0″ (“Zero”)

by Pete Abilla February 3, 2010

On the way to work this morning, a commercial on National Public Radio (NPR) caught my attention.  It was a commercial for Ally Bank and one phrase piqued my interest (I’m paraphrasing): To open an account, call xxx-xxx-xxxx and to talk to a real person, push “0″ anytime. In the radio commercial, they emphasized “real [...]

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Respect for People, Underutilized People, and Waste

by Pete Abilla September 24, 2009

The two pillars in Lean Thinking are Continuous Improvement and Respect for People.  What is not well understood is that most of what we know as The Toyota Production System comes from these two pillars.  The Lean sub-culture tends to over-emphasize the “tools” of Kaizen, but miss the point altogether, since the tools stem or [...]

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