Articles

• 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

• 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