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Articles
- IT Customer Service Fundamentals
- Listen Carefully Before Talking
- How to Build and Manage Great IT Teams
- How to Retain High-Performing Tech Employees
- How to Successfully Manage High-Performing Tech Employees
- How to Successfully Hire High-Performing Tech Employees
- Principle #3: Empathy
- A 7-Year-Old’s Lost Home Run
- How Not to Serve Your Customer (Bad Customer Service)
- Three Customer Service Fails
- Understanding True Intent of End Users and Other Customers
- Volunteer as a Means to Enhance Customer Service
- Self-Improvement: Honing Your Skills
- Setting Customer Expectations
- The DLL Stress Management Tool for IT Pros
- When Management Makes Changes
- How to Know How Much They Know (Your Customers, That Is)
- How to Mentor and Help a Struggling Team Member
- Confirm Resolution Before Closing a Ticket
- Two Rules on Grammar (for Grammandoes and Non-Grammandoes, Alike)
- Making Small and Positive Human Connections in Another Person’s Life
- Correction or Humiliation?
- Your Implicit Service Level Agreement
- Amazing Your Customers Every Day of the Year
- When Customer Focus Includes Sharing Customer Information
- Trying to Understand Intent
- Judging Books (and People) by Their Covers
- Never Assume a Level of Customer Knowledge
- Transforming Relationships with a Thank You
- IT People Setting a Standard for Respect and Civility
- A Hierarchy of IT Needs
- How to Handle a Customer Support Chat Session
- How to Deal with a Customer Service Question (Answer It!)
- Positive Customer Choices When Choices Are Limited
- The Real Problem with Customer Service Systems
- 5 Keys to Successful Conflict Resolution
- Simple Self-Improvement Steps to Being Even Better Than You Already Are
- The Dangers of Jargon
- The Importance of Following Up on a Hall Conference
- Why You Must Never Discuss Other Customers in Front of a Customer
- Communicate or Die!: The Importance of Communication in Customer Service
- The Power of Appreciation with Your Customers and Colleagues
- Impressions Matter in Customer Service
- Workplace Culture and Your Personal Style
- How to Say No to a Customer Without Being a Jerk
- Why You Must Market Your Value as an IT Professional
- Customer Focus: It’s Not About Technology, It’s About People
- The Danger of No Communication
- Client Testimonial: Keynote Speaker and IT Customer Service Training
- 11 Tips for Dealing with Authority Figures in IT Customer Service
- Speaking on Service at CompTIA ChannelCon 2016
- A Privilege to Serve (A Letter from a Webinar Attendee)
- Authentic Gratitude
- Why It Is Important To Be Proud And Show Your Pride To Your Customers
- 5 Ways to Handle a Chatty Customer
- How a Receptionist at One Company Torpedoed Job Applicants at Another Company
- How to Choose the Best Communication Method When Dealing with a Customer
- Seeing My New IT Customer Service Book for the First Time
- The Importance of Assessing Customer Competence
- How Labels and Painting in Broad Strokes Can Undermine Good Decisions
- Two Contrasting Approaches to IT Customer Service
- Automation Creep: How to Succeed in a Changing Job Market
- 10 Tips to Help You Keep Your Cool When Everyone Around You is Really Hot (or Angry)
- Successful Communication Techniques for Technical People: Interview with Lisa Voso
- How to Turn Around a Failed Client Relationship
- 5 Concepts IT Pros Need to Understand About Their Jobs and Careers
- Championship Performance Under Pressure: Interview with Maureen Manley
- 7 Ways to Find Motivation When You Don’t Like Your Job
- What to do if Your Company Won’t Provide Training
- How to End a Support Call or Visit Gracefully
- Condescension Karma
- Techniques for Successfully Hiring and Managing Technical Staff
- IT Careers: How to Start and Build Your IT Career
- Technical Competence: How Much is Enough?
- IT Customer Service Reading Recommendations
- IT Customer Service and the 3 Ps
- Treating Guests (and Customers) Like God
- Listening Skills as a Critical Part of IT Customer Service
- Complain Effectively Without Being a Jerk
- Empathy for a Frustrated Customer or End User, Even When You Can’t Relate
- How to Handle Customer Complaints in Three Practical Phases
- Tech Skills or Customer Service Skills: Which is More Important?
- How to Deal with an Irate Customer or End User
- How Compassionate Customer Service Can Improve Customer Satisfaction
- The Importance of the Business Mindset in IT Customer Service
- The Problem with Over-Sharing with Customers (TMI)
- The Problem with Micro Digs and Insults in Teamwork
- How to Use Emotional Intelligence at Work
- How to Handle IT Customer Service Calls
- How to Answer the Telephone in IT Customer Service
- 800 Minutes of Meditation: Day One-Eight Minutes
- How to Handle Other People’s Emotions When You Just Can’t Relate
- Overcoming Obstacles
- Three Roadblocks to Success with People
- Terms of Non-Endearment and, Dude, Breaking the Rules (Customer Service Rules)
- Understanding the Business in Addition to the Technology
- IT’s Role Within an Organization
- How to Communicate Successfully Using Email
- 8 Ways to Show You Care
- Five Keys to Becoming a Compassionate Geek
- Stress Management for IT Professionals
- Four Magical Customer Service Phrases (What to Say in Nearly Any Situation)
- How to Deal with an Angry Type A Customer
- Four Success-Blocking Character Traits (Don’t Do These Things!)
- The Mysterious Tattooed Barista (or How to be a Good Listener)
- How to Change Perceptions of Your IT Department
- Emotional Intelligence Interview with George A. Harris, Ph.D.
- The Five Principles of IT Customer Service
- The Single Most Important Customer Service Skill for Help Desk (and other IT) Staffers
- Going Too Far with Authenticity
- Authenticity: An Interview with Jennifer Yost, MA and LMHC
- How to be Authentic in Your Authenticity
- A New Year, The Same You and Me (Self-Improvement)
- Four Simple Life-Changing Books every IT Person Should Read
- Unaware or Don’t Care: Bad Either Way
- From the NFL to IT: Coach Carroll’s Three Rules (Teambuilding)
- Compassion Test: What Would I Do?
- Gratitude: How to be More Grateful
- Reputation Management: The Power of One
- IT Management by Wandering Around
- A Salute to Veterans
- End Users and Customers Are People First
- The Problem with “Not My Problem”: How Teamwork Solves Problems
- How to Troubleshoot Nearly Anything
- Five Critical Customer Service Mistakes
- What to Do When You Don’t Know the Answer to Customer Questions
- How to Say “No” Without Alienating the Customer
- The IT Competency and Charisma IT Career Success Model
- Is Arrogance Killing Your Career?
- Six Ways to Show Respect to Other People
- Top 10 Ways to be a Good Listener
- Seven Ways to Improve Your Empathy
- 7 Ways to Become More Compassionate
- 5 Rules for How to Deliver Bad News
- The Importance of Listening
- Supporting the Reluctant User: IT Customer Service with Challenging Users
- A Customer Service Reminder: We’re All Clueless Sometimes
- Defying the Odds: The Tenacity of Starcia Ague
- Call Center Articles: Humor in the Danger Zone: When Jokes Interfere with Our Job
- Get the Ugly Out: How to Deal with Negativity in Your Life
- Hobnob with the Elite Geeks of Seattle
- There’s a new Compassionate Geek coming soon, very soon
- Success in Marriage and the Help Desk: Some of the Same Human Relations Concepts Apply
- New 5-Week Compassion Workshop in Seattle (Free)
- How to Talk to a CEO; Communication Skills for the Helpdesk
- A Customer Service Example From Country Music Hall of Famer Ernest Tubb
- Why Certify? Is IT Certification Truly Valuable?
- How to Win Your Audience: 6 Easy Tips for Giving a Great Speech
- How to Lose Your Audience: 5 Easy Keys to Giving an Absolutely Awful Speech
- How to Avoid the Wrath of a Grammando: Commonly Misused and Abused Words
- Those Superlatives Are Simply Brilliant! Sheer Genius! (Or Are They?)
- Three Tips for Anger Management: What to Do When You Get Angry
- How to Deal with an Angry Customer or End-User
- I’m Fabulous! Thanks for Asking. How Are You?
- Rule Number One: First, Do No Harm
- But, I Didn’t Think I Was Being Rude! (Why Your Customers Might Think You’re Rude When You’re Not)
- The 6 Steps in a Successful IT Support Call
- 10 Ways to be a Better Listener: Customer Service Training 101
- The Five Levels of Listening (How to Be a Better Listener)
- Grace: A Balance for Being Human
- Are We Creating Advocates or Detractors?
- Are Your Conversations Cooperative? Follow These Four Maxims
- Five Ways to Become More Compassionate
- The Six Steps for Handling a Tech Support Call
- The Other Skill Set Required for Success in IT
- Mister Rogers, IT, and Gratitude
- Three Examples of Great Customer Service
- How to Deliver Great Customer Service: What’s Your Customer Empathy Quotient?
- How to Keep the Training Evergreen
- Always be Authentic
- Customer Service: Choosing the Right Tool for the Job
- The Four Traits of the Customer Service Masters (Video)
Books
- Tweeting Linux: 140 Linux Configuration Commands Explained in 140 Characters or Less
- The Accidental Administrator: Linux Server Step-by-Step Configuration Guide
- The Accidental Administrator: Cisco Router Step-by-Step Configuration Guide
- The Accidental Administrator: Cisco ASA Security Appliance: A Step-by-Step Configuration Guide
- The Compassionate Geek: Mastering Customer Service for I.T. Professionals
Podcasts
- IT Customer Service Fundamentals
- Listen Carefully Before Talking
- How to Build and Manage Great IT Teams
- How to Retain High-Performing Tech Employees
- How to Successfully Manage High-Performing Tech Employees
- How to Successfully Hire High-Performing Tech Employees
- Principle #3: Empathy
- A 7-Year-Old’s Lost Home Run
- How Not to Serve Your Customer (Bad Customer Service)
- Three Customer Service Fails
