Be Nice... Always - Featuring Guest Buddy Rice

Amazing Business Radio on the C-Suite Network features customer service expert
and New York Times bestselling author Shep Hyken, who interviews leading business
professionals and other customer experience professionals. Each guest shares insights
and tips on how to succeed and create amazing customer experiences.

The bright business minds featured on Amazing Business Radio come from all over
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Be Nice… Always – Featuring Guest Buddy Rice

Why (and How) to Put Your Customers at the Center of Your Decisions

Shep Hyken sits down with his close friend, colleague and customer service expert Buddy Rice. They discussed how he helped Delta Airlines with their customer service culture, what customers are really looking for, and the RATER service quality model.

Top Takeaways:

Customers aren’t always looking for money or a “yes” to fix their problems. They want a professional that can give them options and solutions to their specific issues.
In certain industires, especially in the airline industry, people are willing to pay extra to be guaranteed better levels of comfort.
Empowered companies have employees with the ability to make a decision that’s right for the customer. If you put the customer at the center of your decision, you cannot go wrong.
RATER is an acronym and model that can help you measure and improve service quality. It stands for:

- Reliability: Getting it right the first time
- Assurance: Keeping your word
- Tangibles: Giving your products/services the best look and feel
- Empathy: Understanding and caring about people
- Responsiveness: Having a sense of urgency
Creating an organizational mission statement starts at the top with the leadership. The six-step process of creating a vision can be described by The Six D’s, which are:
- Define: Leadership defines it
- Disseminate: Tell everybody
- Deploy: Train people on that vision, and constantly train them over them over and over again.
- Demonstrate: The leadership is the role model
- Defend it: If somebody or a group is out of alignment
- Delight: Celebrate it

About:

Buddy Rice is a customer service expert, keynote speaker, and master facilitator for Shepard Presentations. For 13 years, he helped Delta Airlines deliver one of the top customer experiences in the airline industry. For 15 years, Buddy has partnered with Shepard Presentations to offer their unique customer service program, The Customer Focus.

Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio.