Tag Archives: respect

Top 10 Human-Centered Change & Innovation Articles of September 2024

Top 10 Human-Centered Change & Innovation Articles of September 2024Drum roll please…

At the beginning of each month, we will profile the ten articles from the previous month that generated the most traffic to Human-Centered Change & Innovation. Did your favorite make the cut?

But enough delay, here are September’s ten most popular innovation posts:

  1. Three Reasons Nobody Cares About Your Ideas — by Greg Satell
  2. Six Key Habits of Great Leaders — by David Burkus
  3. Are You Leading in the Wrong Zone? — by Geoffrey A. Moore
  4. Projects Don’t Go All Right or All Wrong — by Howard Tiersky
  5. How to Cultivate Respect as a Leader — by David Burkus
  6. What is Your Mindset? Fixed, Growth or Hybrid? — by Stefan Lindegaard
  7. Embracing Failure is a Catalyst for Learning and Innovation — by Stefan Lindegaard
  8. ISO Innovation Standards — by Robyn Bolton
  9. The Hidden Cost of Waiting — by Mike Shipulski
  10. AI Requires Conversational Intelligence — by Greg Satell

BONUS – Here are five more strong articles published in August that continue to resonate with people:

If you’re not familiar with Human-Centered Change & Innovation, we publish 4-7 new articles every week built around innovation and transformation insights from our roster of contributing authors and ad hoc submissions from community members. Get the articles right in your Facebook, Twitter or Linkedin feeds too!

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Human-Centered Change & Innovation is open to contributions from any and all innovation and transformation professionals out there (practitioners, professors, researchers, consultants, authors, etc.) who have valuable human-centered change and innovation insights to share with everyone for the greater good. If you’d like to contribute, please contact me.

P.S. Here are our Top 40 Innovation Bloggers lists from the last four years:

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The Role of Respect in Customer Service

The Role of Respect in Customer Service

GUEST POST from Shep Hyken

Some of you will not recognize the name Rodney Dangerfield, who was one of the funniest comedians of his time, if not all time. He passed away in 2004. (For those who aren’t familiar with Dangerfield, go to YouTube and search for his name, but only if you want to smile and laugh. And just a warning, some of his comedy club material is R-rated.)

Dangerfield had a signature line: I don’t get no respect. For example, “I don’t get no respect …

… When I was a kid, I played hide-and-seek. They wouldn’t even look for me.

… When I was a kid, my parents moved a lot, but I always found them.

… When I was a kid, I was so ugly my parents had to hang a pork chop around my neck to get the dog to play with me.”

That was fun, but it’s time to get serious. I was recently asked about the Pillars of Customer Service. Specifically, I was asked what I thought was the most important pillar.

Respect Cartoon from Shep Hyken

First, there are many “Pillars” of customer service, and if you do a little research, you’ll find articles by experts and examples from companies’ vision statements. As I thought of many of these, one immediately came to mind as an overarching important pillar:

“Respect the Customer.”

It may seem obvious that we should respect our customers. After all, without them, we don’t have a business. So, with that in mind, here are three of my favorite stats and findings about customer respect from my annual customer service research:

  • 61% of customers don’t think companies or brands respect their time! Ouch! This is because customers don’t like to wait on hold for long periods of time, or anything else that seems like a waste of their precious time. And speaking of making customers wait on hold …
  • 51% of customers are likely or very likely to switch companies or leave a brand because they had to wait too long on hold. It’s impossible to never make a customer hold. And, the concept of “too long” is different from one customer to the next. However, to mitigate the appearance of disrespect, at least let your customers know how long they will have to wait, and even better, give them the option of being called back.
  • 60% of customers are likely or very likely to switch companies or leave a brand because the company didn’t respond fast enough. This goes back to respecting your customers’ time. How long do they have to wait for a response?

While these findings focus on respecting the customer’s time, there are many other areas and opportunities to show respect to your customers. So, sit down with your team and discuss the answer to this simple question: Do you show your customers respect?

Image Credits: Pexels, Shep Hyken

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