How to Use Simple Video to Save Your Customers Headaches

Product assembly is a moment of truth.

For some customers, this is no issue. For others, its a potential exercise in frustration. If the assembly process doesn't go well, the product may be returned and that customer may never buy another product from your company again.

Hayneedle is an online home furnishings retailer. Many of their products require assembly. The instructions provided by the manufacturer often leave a lot to be desired.

The company solves this challenge using simple video. Here's how they do it and how you can do it too.

Let's say a customer purchases this Orbelle Contemporary Solid Wood Toddler Bed:

Image source: Hayneedle website

There's a little bit of assembly required. The written instructions from Orbelle can be a bit confusing to most customers. (See the instruction booklet here.)

Here's a screen shot:

This may seem simple to you, given your innate mechanical ability and savant-like grasp of obscure terms like "mattress base mullion," but think like a typical customer.

When I was a customer service manager, I once had to walk a customer through how to operate a music box!

"Now, turn that key to the right a few times. To the right. The other way. Yes, now let it go. The key, let go of the key. Yes, that's it. Do you hear the music?"

Fortunately, Hayneedle provides a video explaining the assembly instructions.

This simple video is very clear and makes the assembly process look much easier!

Notice there's nothing fancy going on. You can shoot similar videos using basic equipment, even your smart phone. There are just a few keys:

• Make sure the person on camera speaks clearly and slowly.

• Get enough lighting so everything is well-lit. 

• Zoom in on detail work so it's easy for your audience to see.

You can find some basic tutorials on lynda.com, such as this one for shooting video with an iPhone. (A lynda.com account is required, but you can get a free 10-day trial.)

Applications & Benefits

Video like this can be a great self-service option for customers. It can help your company in a few ways:

• Reduce customer contacts

• Reduce product returns

• Improve repeat business

Keep in mind that many customers don't complain about a poor experience. They simply give up and take their business somewhere else.

These videos also give your customer service agents another tool to help customers. Verbally walking customers through instructions over the phone is difficult and time consuming. 

Much better to direct customers to the video, which provides a clear visual reference. Customers can also stop, rewind, and re-start the video to review key parts.

There is one thing that Hayneedle can do a little better. The video link isn't always obvious. Let's look at the product page for that toddler bed again:

Customers may not see the link to the video, or they may not realize that it's a product assembly video. And, you won't see the videos mentioned if you go to Hayneedle's customer help page.

You'll make your videos even more useful if you can put them right where customers go looking for them.

This could mean your help center, your product page, or even your customer contact page. Better yet, put a conspicuous link in all three places since you never know how your customers will navigate in search of help.

9 Underhanded Ways to Boost Your Survey Scores

Updated: January 15, 2024

I'll never forget shoplifting class.

It was a workshop for associates at the retail chain I worked for in high school. The idea was to help us prevent shoplifting by showing us how shoplifters operated.

The class was amazing.

We learned advanced techniques used by professionals, such as how to defeat alarm sensors, conceal piles of merchandise, or confuse clueless sales people.

Quite a few thefts were prevented as a result of the class.

I write this blog post in the spirit of that training. Many customer service professionals are willing to stoop to underhanded means to artificially boost survey scores.

This post will help you catch them.

Technique #1: Manipulate Your Sample

You can't survey everyone, so companies survey a small portion of their customers, called the sample.

Ideally, your sample represents the thoughts and opinions of all your customers. However, you can make a few tweaks to increase the likelihood that only happy customers are surveyed.

For example, you could survey customers who complete a transaction using self-service. You'll likely get high scores since self-service transactions are typically simple and you are only surveying people who succeeded. Customers who get frustrated and switch to another channel for live help won't be counted in this survey.

There are other ways to get higher scores by being selective about your sample.

• Limit your survey to channels with simpler transactions, like chat.

• Limit your survey to people who have contacted you just once.

• Limit your survey to people who contact you for certain types of transactions.

Technique #2: Manually Select Respondents

Some employees can manually select survey respondents. This enables them to target happy customers while leaving out the grumpy ones.

The survey invitation at the bottom of a register receipt is an excellent example.

If a customer is obviously happy, the employee can circle the invitation, write down his or her name, and politely ask the customer to complete the survey.

What if the customer is grumpy? It's pretty easy to tear off the receipt above the survey invitation so the customer never sees it.

Look for any situation where employees have some manual control over who gets a survey. There's the potential for an employee to by choosy about who gets surveyed and who doesn't.

Technique #3: Survey Begging

This occurs when an employee asks a customer to give a positive score on a survey by explaining how it will directly benefit the customer, the employee, or both.

I've written about this scourge before, but it's worth mentioning again here. Employees beg, plead, and even offer incentives to customers in exchange for a good score.

In one example, a retail store manager offered a 20 percent discount in exchange for a perfect 10 on a customer service survey.

Technique #4: Prime Customers

Survey invitations can nudge customers to give a certain score. An invitation might use language like, “Tell us about our great service,” to get customers thinking more positively.

Other examples are more overt, like this vacation rental company:

The cashier at a sporting good store primed customers by stamping register receipts with the requested survey response:

Image credit: Jeff Toister

Technique #5: Fake Surveys

Anonymous survey systems are easy to game. These include pen and paper surveys or electronic surveys that aren't tied to a specific transaction or customer record.

Unscrupulous employees have been known to enter fake surveys, complete with top ratings and glowing comments. They enlist their friends and family members to do the same.

Technique #6: Write Positive Survey Questions

Survey questions can easily be slanted to elicit more positive responses. Consider these two examples.

This question is positively worded. Notice that the threshold for giving a top rating of "Strongly Agree" is pretty low; the customer merely has to be satisfied with the service they received.

This question is neutral. It's more likely to get a lower overall rating even though the feedback may be more accurate.

 

Technique #7: Use an Even Scale

There's a long-running argument over whether customer surveys should have a odd or even point scale.

An odd-numbered scale, such as 1 - 5, provides customers with the option to provide a neutral rating.

An even numbered scale, such as 1 - 4, forces customers to choose a positive or negative overall rating. 

More often than not, you'll tip customers into a positive rating by eliminating the mid-point.

Technique #8: Change Your Scoring Process

The exact meaning of a "customer satisfaction rate" is up for interpretation. You can interpret this loosely to increase your score.

Let's say you survey 100 customers using a scale of 1 - 5 with the following scale points and responses:

• 1 = Highly Dissatisfied (2 responses)

• 2 = Dissatisfied (6 responses)

• 3 = Neutral (7 responses)

• 4 = Satisfied (45 responses)

• 5 = Highly Satisfied (40 responses)

You could report the score as a weighted average and call it 4.15 or 83 percent. Or, you could simply add the satisfied (45) and highly satisfied (40) customers and give yourself an 85 percent rating.

Even better, combine this technique with an even-numbered scale. Those same 100 customers might respond this way:

• 1 = Highly Dissatisfied (2 responses)

• 2 = Dissatisfied (8 responses)

• 3 = Satisfied (50 responses)

• 4 = Highly Satisfied (40 responses)

Suddenly, you can boast of a 90 percent customer satisfaction rating from the same group! This little bit of trickery just boosted the score by 7 percentage points.

Technique #9: Adopt a Generous Error Procedure

Some people advocate rejecting surveys with an obvious error.

For example, let's say a customer rates your service as a 1, the lowest score possible, and then writes:

"Hands-down the best service ever. If I could give a higher score I would. I absolutely love their service!!"

You can reasonably conclude this customer meant to give a 5, not a 1. Using that logic, the survey could be removed. Some unscrupulous people might correct the score to a 5 (the highest score possible).

This technique manipulates your scores directly, so unethical service leaders might adopt a generous error procedure. 

For example, a neutral score of a 3 combined with a mildly positive comment might be kicked out as an error or even adjusted to a 4 based on the comment. These adjustments can really add up and significantly impact an overall average!

Conclusion

I want to be clear that I don't advocate the use of any of these techniques.

The real purpose of a customer service survey is to gain actionable insight from your customers that allows you to improve service. You can't do that if you use these methods to artificially inflate your scores.

You can learn more about sound methods for implementing a customer service survey via this training video.

Welcome from Using Customer Surveys to Improve Service by Jeff Toister

You'll need a LinkedIn Learning account to watch the entire course, but you can get a 30-day trial.

Angry Customers Just Get Angrier When You Do This

A switch gets flipped for many customers when they're angry.

They go from mild-mannered, easy-going people to stern, direct, and unyielding. These customers will tell a customer service representative what they want and how they want it.

Frustrated customers often encounter a customer service agent who fights back. Stonewalls. Obfuscates. Belligerently refuses to help the customer until their special little procedure gets followed.

Here are actual statements from customer service reps to angry customers:

• "I can help you, but you need to let me do my job."

• "We have a procedure to follow first."

• "I've been doing this for a long time, so we're going to do this my way."

Not the best words for an angry customer to hear.

You might be surprised to learn that many customer service employees say these things in heated moments because that's what they've been trained to do.

These employees are using a widely-trained skill called Call Control.

What is Call Control?

There's a good chance you train your employees to exercise call control, even if you don't use the specific term. Call control is a set of techniques that theoretically move a customer service interaction to a quick and successful resolution.

Many contact center agents are trained in some form of call control (or, contact control for other channels). Employees in other industries like retail or hospitality are often trained on control techniques as well.

There are generally three aspects:

• Workflow: Employees are expected to follow a standard set of procedures.

• Positioning. Employees are taught to be directive with customers to move things efficiently.

• Authority. Employees are expected to exercise other options before escalating an interaction to a supervisor.

All of these can be frustrating to an angry customer.

How Call Control Creates Problems

Each aspect of call control can be fine with a happy customer. We like a friendly customer service rep who is confident and can quickly serve us. But, those same techniques can be infuriating to someone who is already upset.

Workflow can reduce empathy.

Let's say a customer calls up because she's angry about an unresolved billing issue. The typical workflow for the customer service agent is to collect some information from the customer so he can pull up her account. Then, he needs to ask her a few questions to verify her identity. Finally, he needs to dig into the account to see what's going on.

All of this frustrates an angry customer because it delays real listening and empathy. It's frustrating because the agent insists on doing all that before letting the customer tell her story. In many cases, that's exactly what he's taught to do.

Positioning can feel like a confrontation.

Many customer service reps are taught to exercise their authority in an interaction. This works fine is most cases where you can use your expertise to guide the customer through a series of steps to quickly help her.

This same positioning doesn't work well at all when a customer is angry, frustrated, or upset. Now, the customer wants to be in charge. 

An employee who says things like, "Let me ask you a few questions first," is really trying to re-exert his authority over the customer. It starts to be a battle. 

In the customer's mind, the employee is being argumentative and unhelpful. In the employee's mind, the customer is preventing him from providing assistance.

Authority may seem like stonewalling.

Perhaps that angry customer is tired of telling the same story to a customer service rep who will robotically follow the same procedure the last three reps followed without success. She wants to speak to a supervisor and she wants to speak to them now.

But, the rep has a procedure to follow. He knows his supervisor will be upset if he simply attempts to transfer the call. So, he insists on following his standard procedure first.

The employee is protecting himself, but it makes the customer furious.

What to Do Instead

Employees should be trained to utilize de-escalation techniques before attempting to overtly control the call.

I like to follow a few steps that spell out the name LAURA. Think of Laura as a calm, patient, and kind employee who wants nothing more than to help that angry customer feel better.

Here are the specific steps:

1. Listen to the customer so she can share her problem first.

2. Acknowledge the customer's feelings.

3. Understand the customer's emotional needs (she wants to feel better!)

4. Relate to the customer in some way, so she senses you're on her side.

5. Act to resolve the issue.

Notice that taking action is the last step. A successful customer service employee starts an interaction with an angry customer by addressing her emotional needs.

An angry customer wants their emotions to be validated. They want to feel that the employee understands why they're angry and is on their side. Unfortunately, this important need is frequently overlooked.

The amazing thing is once you address a customer's emotional needs, you can often go right back to those call control techniques you were trained to use.

After all, they work well when a customer isn't angry at you.

That Crappy Job Can Make You Awesome

You can learn a lot from a terrible job.

My own early career was a bit checkered. There was a two-week stint as a telemarketer one summer while I was in college. (Folks, I'm really, really sorry for calling you.)

The first job I had out of college was at a company so painfully mismanaged that it started contracting not long after I joined. I was laid off after just over a year. 

The next company would have laid me off if I stayed there for six more months. The same goes for the one after that; that company went out of business not long after I left.

These were all miserable experiences in their own way. At the same time, I learned many critical lessons that are still valuable today.

Resiliency

Working for a terrible company can be a grueling test.

My first job out of college was a National Account Manager for a company that sold uniforms. Our quality was terrible. It sometimes felt like half the orders we shipped out had an error. These errors aggravated my customers, hurt sales, and caused me personal embarrassment. 

There were many times when I wanted to throw in the towel and either quit or just stop trying. But, I learned that things could get better through hard work and perseverance. I spent time understanding the production process and forming relationships with key people so I could identify the root causes of errors and make sure they didn't keep happening.

Gradually, I got nearly 100 percent of my customers' orders to ship without an error.

Customer service professionals need to be resilient in even the best companies. There's always a new challenge to tackle, and we're often on the receiving end of our customers' frustrations.

Ownership

One of the worst days in my career was the day my company's CFO told me the company was struggling to make payroll and I needed to lay off about a third of my customer service team by the end of the day.

It was a terrible thing to do, but it also helped me think like an owner and not an employee. I realized that I could have foreseen (and possibly prevented) some of the layoffs if I had done a better job managing labor costs.

That experience taught me how to better translate my customer service plans into dollars and cents and show how service impacted profitability. I became a much better manager as a result.

We can't control everything our company does, but we can often expand our circle of influence more than we realize.

Politics

Like it or not, politics are part of every organization.

Terrible companies seem to be extra-political. It often feels like every employee is separately pursuing their own agenda with little regard for cooperation or team-work.

In one company I worked for, I learned the value of developing personal relationships with key people in other departments. Without a personal connection, some departments would flat-out refuse to cooperate with each other. Once I had struck up a genuine friendship with someone, I was able to get things done in an instant.

My friend, Grace Judson, offers a refreshing take on the subject in her book, The Five Deadly Shoulds of Office Politics. She emphasizes the need to empathize with co-workers so we take their needs into account when we are asking them for something.

Conclusion

There are some times when it's not worth sticking around in a terrible job.

In my book, Service Failure, I interviewed quite a few employees who would have been better off someplace else. One person deliberately provided hotel guests with poor service because her co-workers would have ostracized her for providing true hospitality. Another person found himself lying to customers because his boss instructed him to and he was afraid of losing his job.

If your job is like this, get out as quickly as you can.

Until then, learn as much as you can, do the best job you can, and always remember that your customers are still counting on you!

How DMV.org's Jenny Dempsey Serves Through Song

Customer service can be amazing when you connect with someone on a personal level. 

Jenny Dempsey is a master at doing that. Her day job is the Customer Care Manager at DMV.org, where she helps people navigate the complexities of dealing with their local department of motor vehicles. She's also the co-author of the excellent Customer Service Life blog.

Jenny recently posted a story on her blog about a customer named Ben from the UK who wrote her a "song of gratitude" to say thanks for helping him. I was impressed but not surprised. If you know Jenny, these kind of things happen.

Still, I wanted to see what lessons other customer service professionals could gain from Jenny's experience, so I reached out and asked her a few questions. 

---

Me: How did you originally help Ben from the UK?

Jenny: Ben sent an email to DMV.org customer care asking for advice on taking a road trip in the US. He needed to know how to purchase and register a car, as well as how to obtain insurance as a non-citizen. I replied with advice on the steps to take.

Me: Do you know what prompted Ben to write a song and put it on video? 

Jenny: In my reply, I also told him to enjoy the road trip and send me a postcard. He mentioned that he may not remember the postcard, but his housemate was impressed with the advice given [so they] wrote/recorded the song. (You can watch the video here.)

Me: Was there any hesitation to reply with a song of your own?

Jenny: Initially, I wasn't 100% sure. But, we're given lots of freedom here to showcase our brand personality, which is friendly, personable, and creative. I took the risk to write a song and send back to him. (You can listen to Jenny's reply here.)

Me: Have you gotten any more videos since then?

Jenny: Actually, YES! While unrelated, a visitor to our website wrote in sharing her song of sadness about an experience with the Florida DMV. (You can see her video here.) With the trending DMV musical, I replied with a song to encourage her to have some faith. (You can see Jenny's song reply here.) 

Me: I have no musical talent whatsoever. What advice would you give to people like me who want to connect with customers in interesting, unique, and impactful ways?

Jenny: Think about what creative avenues you enjoy and make something happen. Is it a thank you card drawn with crayons? A custom photograph that you took, relevant to the situation you are working on with the customer? A Snapchat? A personalized meme? A poem? Even if it seems silly, if your company allows you the freedom to communicate creatively with the customer, do it! Your customer will never forget you or your company. 

When Your B Work Is Better Than an A

I never knew marshmallows could be AMAZING until I tried Terra's.

Terra American Bistro is a farm to table restaurant in San Diego. In 2011, they moved to a new neighborhood when their old lease was up. Chef Jeff Rossman used the new location as an opportunity to add a few new touches.

One addition was presenting guests with complimentary house made marshmallows at the end of the meal. The marshmallows were exquisite - a perfect balance of sugar, texture, and a little orange.

Then, just as soon as they appeared, the marshmallows were gone.

The restaurant stopped giving guests marshmallows after just a few weeks. It was the right decision. As you'll see below, sometimes your B work is better than an A.

A's Take More Time

The customer service rep wanted to build rapport with his customer. So, when he learned the customer would soon be visiting his home town on vacation, he suggested a favorite restaurant.

And then, he suggested another. And another. Soon, he was rattling off a whole list of places the customer could try.

The customer appreciated the extra information. Yet, the prolonged conversation prevented the customer service rep from serving other customers who were waiting on hold.

A single restaurant recommendation would have done just as well.

That's the challenge with always shooting for an A in customer service. It takes extra time, and that time can take away from serving other customers. There's almost always a trade-off when you spend extra time on something.

Making fresh marshmallows each day was a time consuming task at Terra. The trade-off was that guests either had to wait longer or the restaurant had to hire extra staff. Part of the reason for moving to a new neighborhood was keeping prices lower, so spending the extra time on marshmallows went against that goal.

A's Cost More

Time is money. If you pay someone to make marshmallows instead of doing something else, that increases the cost of doing business.

Companies wrestle with these decisions all the time.

Should you offer 24/7 service? Invest in a new smart phone app or a new website with all the bells and whistles? Give everyone free shipping? 

Customers might appreciate these touches, but it also increases your costs. Higher costs mean lower profit margins. That's okay if you can make it up in higher volume or improved customer loyalty.

Which begs the question, were the marshmallows driving enough customer loyalty at Terra to justify the added time and cost?

Focus on Value

The short answer to the marshmallow question is no.

They were a nice touch, but that's not the reason people went to Terra. They went for the outstanding food that was expertly prepared with fresh ingredients. They went for the reasonable prices and the friendly service. 

None of those changed when the marshmallows went away.

In their book, Uncommon Service, Frances Frei and Anne Morriss describe the importance of making trade-offs. The key is excelling at what your customers truly value while investing less in places where customers aren't as concerned.

No assigned seating on Southwest Airlines means the airline can offer cheap fares. Slow order turnaround times at In-N-Out Burger mean the chain can make every burger fresh to order. High prices at The Ritz-Carlton mean the hotel can offered exceptional luxury.

So, back to A's and B's. 

Find out what your customers truly value and deliver that. Be careful when going beyond what customers care about so you don't waste time or money.

The Secret, Undercover Customer Service Team

Great organizations have a secret customer service team.

These employees work undercover to help their organizations consistently deliver outstanding customer service. Customers may never see them or realize their impact, but they're there.

Take Alaska Airlines, for example.

In 2016, the airline topped the traditional carrier segment in J.D. Power's North American Airline rankings for an eighth consecutive year. Part of their success comes from their friendly, caring, and helpful employees in customer-facing positions like reservations agents, gate agents, and flight attendants.

The airline's success also comes from their undercover, secret service team. This talented group of men and women work hard to make every flight a success.

Who are they? Look closely, and you'll see.

Photo credit: Jeff Toister

They're the people who handle your luggage so it arrives where you do. Alaska Airlines has a 20-minute baggage delivery guarantee that wouldn't be possible without them.

Undercover service agents also include the person who fuels your plane, the mechanic who keeps it running, and the cleaning crew who keep it clean. Their tireless efforts ensure Alaska has one of the best on-time records in the industry.

Many more people form the airline's undercover team. They work in departments as diverse as marketing, finance, and human resources. All of them help contribute to the company's exceptional service.

Who's On Your Undercover Team?

Almost every company has an undercover customer service team.

Unfortunately, they're often so deep cover that even they don't realize the impact they have on customer service. These employees are excluded from customer service training. Their bosses inspire them to complete tasks, not delight people.

For example, an accounts payable clerk might not understand that she helps contribute to her company's reputation through the timeliness and accuracy of the payments she makes. As I detailed in this post, accounts payable is actually a fantastic way to test an organization's customer service culture.

Here's an exercise that you can try:

1. Think about a basic product or service that your company provides. 

2. Identify all of the people who contribute. (Better yet, map the process.)

3. Talk to these people. Do they know they're undercover?

The results can be eye-opening.

Focusing Your Undercover Service Team

Many undercover teams provide internal customer service. These are departments that provide service to other departments so the company can function effectively and ultimately serve it's customers.

The process for developing these undercover teams is almost identical to the one used for customer-facing departments. It's detailed on this page, but here's an overview.

1. Create a customer-service vision to get everyone on the same page. 

2. Develop SMART goals to measure progress. 

3. Conduct an assessment to identify a road map to success. 

Customer service training is also an option. Just be sure you ask your trainer to adapt the content to internal situations or use these techniques to customize off-the-shelf content such as a training video.

How Customers Perceive Service

The prank was pure genius.

Two boys stood on opposite sides of the road. As a car approached, the boys pantomimed picking up a rope and pulling it taut across the road. 

This caused speeding cars to slow down as the drivers perceived they were about to run into whatever the boys had stretched across the road. They couldn't see anything in front of them, but the boys' actions told the drivers' subconscious brains that some danger lurked ahead.

Of course, there was no rope. You can watch the prank here.

The drivers were reacting to the boys' actions, not reality. Customer service is often the same way. The experience is almost always amplified for good or bad by the actions of the individuals serving us.

Here are just a few examples:

A restaurant meal can become "an amazing experience" or the "worst meal ever," depending on the rapport the server can develop with her guests.

A retail shopper can become "a customer for life" or vow to "never go back," based on the retail associate's ability to listen carefully to his customers' needs.

A cable company can ensure a problem is "quickly solved" or deliver "nightmare customer service" based on the technician's ability to solve a problem and make customers feel okay in the process.

Somehow, many executives miss this important lesson. 

They understand the product or service they sell, without considering how their employees impact customers' perception. These spreadsheet jockeys know the numbers, but not the people.

In researching my book, The Service Culture Handbook, I discovered that elite customer service organizations do something differently. These organizations focus on their people first. They work diligently to hire, train, and empower employees who will create positive perceptions with the customers they serve.

That's because companies with customer-focused cultures understand that customer perception, not product, is the most important aspect of a company's reputation.

How to Train 35,000 People Before Lunch

Updated: June 2, 2025

Training large numbers of employees is a big challenge.

There are several factors working against you. Employees are spread out over multiple locations. You need to keep people running the operation while employees are getting trained. And, the logistics of coordinating a large number of participants involved can be daunting.

Some people thought e-learning could solve this problem. The problem is it's boring. A lot of e-learning is nothing more than an amateurish voice over PowerPoint.

The future is in video. Short, engaging, and beautifully produced video that's incredibly scalable. You can use video to train 35, 350, or even 35,000 employees.

For example, more than 1 million people have taken my Customer Service Foundations course on LinkedIn Learning. Now in it's third edition, the course has earned a 4.8 star rating from over 10,000 reviews.

Let's dive deeper to see how video can work for your team.

The Power of Video

Video offers a number of distinct advantages over other forms of training.

It's engaging. People enjoy watching video. According to Statista, adults in the U.S. spend 17 hours per week watching online video.

You want training to be engaging enough so employees enjoy the process. Here are just a few comments from people who have taken the Customer Service Foundations course:

"This course has really been an eye opening in all aspects of customer service.. I enjoyed every bit of it."

"He did a great job keeping the material interesting."

"The author's positive attitude is contagious."

And, it's always good when a participant feels the training made a difference:

"I am about to start my first working day as a customer service representative and thanks to this course I feel myself more confident and equipped with essential knowledge on making my customers feel satisfied."

It's easy to access. Employees can watch training videos from their computer, their tablet, or even their smartphone. 

LinkedIn Learning videos are broken into short segments, usually about five minutes each. This allows employees to watch a specific module and then immediately apply what they learned before going back to the next video.

Check with your team. They're already doing this now with YouTube videos.

It's faster. Employees can complete training much faster than a traditional class. Customer Service Foundations has a total run time of 1 hour, 11 minutes. Factor in team to complete activities and quizzes and it's still far less than the eight hours the live version requires.

There's no set-up, scheduling, or logistics to handle either. It's ready to go right now—your employees could easily start the training in the morning and finish before lunch.

It's inexpensive. Here's a cost comparison between live training and using video. Video can cut your costs in three ways:

• Delivery is less expensive per person.

• Development is less expensive (if you buy pre-packaged courses).

• You spend 50-75 percent less on employee wages since video-based training goes faster than a live course.

LinkedIn Learning has an impressive array of features to improve how companies can manage video-based training.

• Quizzes to test participants' knowledge.

• Certificates of completion that can be added to your LinkedIn profile.

• Management features like custom playlists and LMS integration.

Don't Forget the Special Sauce

There's one danger of using video. It's a problem called Popcorn Learning where participants just consume the training and then do nothing. (This problem exists for classroom-based and e-learning programs too.) 

You can avoid this problem by adding this secret sauce to the mix:

• Set clear objectives for the training

• Prepare your team using this guide

• Customize the training using these five techniques

I've created guides to help you facilitate my most popular customer service courses with your team:

• Customer Service Foundations

• Phone-Based Customer Service

• Managing Customer Expectations

• Serving Internal Customers

• Working with Upset Customers

Getting Started with Training Videos

You can access a wide range of customer service training courses on LinkedIn Learning or explore many of their other topics such

You'll need a LinkedIn subscription to view full courses, but you can check everything out with a 30-day trial.

In the meantime, here's a preview of Customer Service Foundations.

Keeping your customers happy from Customer Service Foundations by Madecraft and Jeff Toister

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

How can organizations ensure that video-based training leads to real behavioral change, rather than just passive consumption?

Training is more likely to be used if you have an implementation plan. This is true for training videos, e-learning, and even live training. Use the Workshop Planner tool to create an action plan for your team. I’ve also created a comprehensive guide to getting the most out of training videos.

What are the best practices for customizing pre-packaged video training to align with a company's specific needs and culture?

You can combine training videos with other content like your customer service standards, policies, and procedures to tailor the training to your unique situation. Get more ideas from this guide.

How does the cost-effectiveness of video training compare to traditional in-person training in the long-term?

Training videos are initially far less expensive than live training since you save on content and labor. They have a big cost advantage over in-person training over the long-term. You can easily ask your team to review specific video modules without spending money to gather everyone in one place. Combine them with my free Customer Service Tip of the Week email newsletter to create weekly reminders.

What features should organizations look for in a video training platform to maximize engagement and learning outcomes?

A good training video platform should include high-quality, professionally produced videos. Look for courses divided into short segments, quizzes, and hands-on activities.

How can companies measure the success of video training programs in improving customer service performance?

The success of any training program is ultimately measured by whether people apply new skills and achieve better results. Set clear objectives for the training and then measure progress. You can get more ideas from this guide to measuring customer service training.

Book Review: The Five Deadly Shoulds of Office Politics

Buy on Amazon

This book was a huge surprise. But first, I have a confession.

If you're a friend of mine and you write a book, I want to buy it. I'm going to try to get you to sign it. And, I'm going to read it whether it's relevant to me or not. Taking time to read someone's book is a good way to support a friend.

So, let's get this out of the way. Grace Judson, the author of The Five Deadly Shoulds of Office Politics is a friend of mine. I'm especially indebted to her because she was one of the editors for my own book, Service Failure. Considering that I work for myself, it's very unlikely I would have found and read a book about corporate politics if I didn't know the author.

Ok, what's the surprise?

This short book is incredibly relevant to customer service. The focus is on office politics, but it's really about empathizing with other people and realizing their goals and interests might be different than yours.

Judson explains that politics are part of every human interaction. We don't often realize this when interacting with friends or family members because it feels authentic. It's situations where we don't have a strong relationship with the other person where politics feel forced or contrived.

The premise of the "Shoulds" is that we often tell ourselves that politics should work a certain way, but they don't. We limit ourselves and our success if we ignore reality. 

The first deadly should is:

I should be able to succeed without participating in office politics.

Judson goes on to explain that this feeling leads people to try to do good work without considering the wants and needs of others. This is a recipe for failure with co-workers who have different goals and face different pressures. It's also a recipe for failure in customer service when your customer may want something very different than you do.

And, it's especially difficult when you, your customer, and your boss all have different agendas. 

Judson provides case studies and practical advice for facing these challenges. I finished the book while traveling to a business meeting last week and immediately put a lesson to use.

The lesson centered around identifying power. In this case, I was advising a colleague on how to tackle a challenging internal service issue. She was having difficulty getting the support she needed from her boss for a key project.

Her boss had the power to support her, but her boss also seemed reluctant to use it.

Recalling Judson's book, I asked my colleague what sort of power might be influencing her boss. She thought about it and realized that he may have made some commitments that were counter to her project. So, his lack of support might stem from a fear that her project, while beneficial to the company, might make him look bad. 

My colleague decided she was going to find the hidden power source that was influencing her boss and then try to find a way to make him look good while still making her project a success. I think she'll succeed.

The Seven Deadly Shoulds of Office Politics is an easy read that's highly recommended for customer service professionals or anyone who has co-workers.