Articles by Tripp Babbitt

The customer service business can be scary.  Customers saddle service companies with demands that are sometimes hard to satisfy.  However, it is service organizations that are inflicting pain, torture and suffering in a masochistic way. My recent trip to Disney allowed me to use a discount card called Tables in Wonderland.  Each time I used the card, I noticed it took a long time...Full Article »

I make my way down to Disney World for the Food and Wine Festival every year, and this year, I was joined by family and friends.  If I felt Disney did everything wrong from a customer service standpoint, I would not vacation there so often. Their IVR system, however, continues to aggravate me. I first wrote about my frustration with the Disney Resort reservation line in an earlier...Full Article »

Too many decisions about the design of service are based in costs.  The simple fact is to focus on costs increases them . . . always.  Nothing represents this better than web self-service, a strategy to reduce costs and what some customer service “professionals” say improves service. This is not to say that web self-service shouldn’t exist, but the fact remains that...Full Article »

Human resource and technology consulting firms sell services to improve agent performance. Tech consultants look for ways to monitor an agent, while HR experts offer ways to motivate agents through performance appraisal, rewards and incentives. All these efforts to maximize performance and get the most out of an agent are woefully misguided. When presenting the concept of systems thinking to...Full Article »

Call me­ a whiner and I will wear that badge publicly any chance I get. I travel a lot; 70,000 airline miles and 70-plus nights in hotels over four months. This has presented me with the opportunity to have seen the best and worse of airlines, hotels, rental cars, restaurants and wireless service. I don’t let poor service slide by as my professional purpose is to improve service....Full Article »

T he real battle for quality doesn’t lie in processes; it lies in thinking. The recent rift in the state of Wisconsin and other places caused in part by increasing government costs leads one to ask: “Who is responsible? Is it management or labor?” Gov. Scott Walker’s actions in Wisconsin highlight the need for new thinking about the design and management of work. However,...Full Article »

The new JD Power report is out and they have a list of the top 40 customer service “winners.”  Your service organization can too become just like them by buying the guide to the best practices of these organizations for a mere $495.  This offer appears to be a nice “short cut” to improved service.  However, it is not what you need. Best practice...Full Article »

I call it the zero-sum game.  The long held belief that there is a trade-off between providing good service and a corresponding increase in costs. The counter-intuitive truth is that costs go down when good service is provisioned. A recent article in the Wall Street Journal – Retailers Loosen Up on Returns - provided an MIT study supporting the fact that those who have...Full Article »

I know . . . here we go again, but the insanity has to stop at some point. Changing thinking sometimes becomes a redundant activity that if whacked on the head enough something might stick. When it comes to FCR (First Call Resolution) and AHT (Average Handle Time) nothing could be more true.   As I read comments, visit contact centers, and join discussions on Linked-In the same wrong...Full Article »

The latest episode of Undercover Boss was for 1-800-Flowers. Jim McCann (founder and CEO) and Chris McCann (President and COO) are brothers and seem to treat each other in that older brother-younger brother dynamic. This episode takes us on a journey through flower shops and a candy factory. Chris McCann’s visit to the candy plant was the most revealing. I’ve watched contact centers...Full Article »

Ah Rudolph the Red-Nose Reindeer , the holiday classic that as a child I looked forward to every year. Sam the Snowman (Burl Ives) narrates and sings us through the trials and tribulations of Rudolph, Hermey the Elf and Yukon Cornelius the prospector. All three are misfits by their own admittance. And so it is with customers and contact center agents. Customers are sometimes pegged as being too...Full Article »