Welcome to the Kiplinger Store

When it comes to customer service, conventional wisdom is often wrong. This Special Report reveals how some seemingly innocent words can work against you — and how some of the responses and phrases customer service reps are typically trained to use can actually produce negative results. You'll discover how to:

• Avoid 14 commonly used phrases and other traps that cause customer animosity,
• Quickly get to the root of what the customer really wants — but not appear to be in a rush,
• Make sure customers are ready to listen before you jump in to solve their problems,
• Remove the "personalities" — yours and your customer's — from the conversation,
• Ensure customers accept you in a cooperative rather than adversarial role,
• And much more.

Confronting employees with problem personalities is a challenging but vital role of any good manager. Helping difficult employees improve their attitudes not only will make your life easier, it also will earn you the respect and gratitude of your entire team — as well as boost your bottom line. These practical strategies will help you rein in 7 of the most common disruptive personality types, including:

• The Egomaniac. They shrug off self-improvement because they figure they're already superior. The fix? Make their egos work for you.
• The Gossip. These employees waste valuable time talking about people behind their backs. Discover how to shut them down and boost productivity.
• The Constant Complainer. A single chronic complainer can crush your team's spirit. Here's how to help a whiner "just get over it, already!"
• The Change Resister. These workers cling to the status quo, rebel or resort to sabotage. Reassure them properly, and they'll flock to your new status quo.
• Plus much more.

Like most other customer service teams, you probably have a few high-potential hard workers performing at a reasonable level, and a larger group of average performers providing so-so customer service. You can use these relatively simple, low- or no-cost strategies, techniques and tips to transform at least some of the first group into true customer service superstars, and significantly boost performance of the second group well beyond merely average. You'll discover how to:

• Create a culture that nurtures stars and automatically establishes a higher standard of excellence,
• Turn your CSRs into entrepreneurs to boost accountability and pride in a job well done,
• Reduce turnover and boost morale using motivational techniques that encourage stars to shine,
• Stimulate enthusiasm by avoiding unnecessary rules, and bureaucracy, and much more.

Complacency sets in when employees view their workplace as predictable and risk averse. These step-by- step techniques will help you shake workers from their tired routines... get them operating at peak efficiency in short order... encourage bold, creative, employee-driven initiatives to excel in their own performance... and inject an air of excitement into your team's daily experience. You'll discover how to:

• Inspire your employees and develop their sense of accomplishment by sharing their individual success stories,
• Stimulate sluggish workers and generate excitement by establishing performance goals accompanied by motivational rewards,
• Generate respect and win over skeptics by working alongside your staff when the going gets tough,
• Eliminate half-hearted performance, prevent complacency and keep employees on their toes through praise and constructive criticism, and much more.

Substandard performance by your employees rarely happens by accident. The good news is, once you identify the cause there are a number of easily implemented strategies you can use to boost employee performance. This Special Report explains the most common reasons for underperformance, along with tried-and-true techniques to quickly get your employees working at peak capacity again, including:

• The five major causes of underperformance. They often go unnoticed because they're so simple. But once you know what to look for, they are equally simple to correct.
• Proven-effective techniques to remove roadblocks to productivity. You'll get specific solutions for each of the five main reasons why employees underperform.
• A comprehensive strategy to solve the problem at all levels of your organization. From employees, to middle managers, to the executive level and overall corporate culture, everyone plays a role in boosting productivity.
• And much more.