
How to Update Your Employee Training Without Stressing Everyone Out
The most common thing we deal with here at Hickory is my chocolate cravings. It’s bad. We make emergency runs to Whole Foods for the special Icelandic bars with sea salt. If you haven’t had them, I recommend. The second most common thing we deal with is a need to...

How To Ask Better Questions (And Why The Success Of Your Employee Training Depends On It)
I’m obsessed with questions. The questions we ask define our lives. They frame information, opening new ways of thinking, expose gaps in our current thinking. As we’ll see, when it comes to training employees, asking good questions will define the success or failure...

The #1 Thing Most Customer Service Training Programs Get Dead Wrong
We’ve had the good fortune of watching numerous companies create and update their customer service training programs over time. It’s a fascinating exercise, and every single program has unique differences, problems, and focuses. Even with their...
How Much Does Speed Impact Customer Satisfaction Scores?
We dig data here at Hickory. We find that many problems become far simpler when we can have the right numbers. When it comes to improving CSAT scores, there are two key stats we try to capture with the companies we work with: Speed of resolution Speed of response We...

The Biggest Myth In Customer Service, Debunked
Customer service bloggers and speakers love to talk about the value of “personal, above-and-beyond support at any cost.” They’ll share stories of Ritz-Carlton’s legendary customer service policies. They’ll tell you about the one time a Nordstrom rep opened the store...

3 Ways To Build Failure Into Your Employee Training (And Why You Should)
Most employee training programs are designed solely around knowledge delivery. Employees attend a class or watch a video series, then they take a quiz to “certify” their understanding. The problem? 70% of employee training is forgotten within five days. If that much...