Articles tagged  "how to be a good listener"

Top 10 Ways to be a Good Listener

By Don Crawley  |  August 20, 2014 7:00 am

One of the most important skills any of us can learn is how to be a good listener. It’s an interesting paradox that, in order to be known as a great conversationalist you must first become a great listener. And, one of the four foundational skills of the customer service masters is to be a …

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Five Keys to Becoming a Compassionate Geek

By Don Crawley  |  May 6, 2015 7:17 am

Let’s define compassion and geek. Compassion is seeing others who are hurting and finding ways to help. Geek is a term of pride referring to a computer expert. The path to success as a compassionate geek is really the same as the path to success as a human. Here are five keys to help ensure …

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8 Ways to Show You Care

By Don Crawley  |  May 13, 2015 8:46 am

In working with end users, customers, and technical support staff, the most common phrases I hear relate to how much a support person cares or doesn’t care. The simple act of caring about your fellow human being is the starting point for providing great customer service. If you truly care about your fellow humans, the …

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How to Communicate Successfully Using Email

By Don Crawley  |  May 20, 2015 11:25 am

Email is often the most commonly used form of communication for support professionals. Email is a one-dimensional form of communication which, although efficient, fails to account for human emotions as a vital component of communication. (Other forms of written communication including texting, instant messaging, and even old-fashioned paper letter writing suffer from the same limitation.) …

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IT’s Role Within an Organization

By Don Crawley  |  May 27, 2015 6:55 am

The functional perspective of sociology says that each part of society contributes to the stability and operation of society as a whole. The organization where you work is much the same. Each department contributes to the success or otherwise of the entire organization. Within an organization, you could find a sales and marketing department, an …

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Understanding the Business in Addition to the Technology

By Don Crawley  |  June 3, 2015 6:55 am

In last week’s blog post, we discussed the importance of understanding the business processes within the organizations where we work. As IT professionals, we are responsible for supporting successful communication and collaboration between the people in our workplace. We are responsible for helping our sisters and brothers in every department work together more creatively, effectively, …

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Terms of Non-Endearment and, Dude, Breaking the Rules (Customer Service Rules)

By Don Crawley  |  June 10, 2015 8:19 am

I was in the self checkout line at my neighborhood grocery store when one of the checkers came up and said, “Did you find everything, Hoss?” Did he really call me “Hoss”? Yes, he did. We’ve all had other people call us by various names, including Sweetie, Buddy, Pal, Young Man, Young Lady, Dude, Bud, …

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