Find creative solutions

It’s easy to say “no” to a customer—especially if they have an unusual request—but that’s not what amazing
customer service people do. They instead engineer creative ways to say “yes.”

1. Can you think of a time when it would have been much easier to say “no” to a customer, but
you found a way instead to say “yes”?

2. How did the experience make you feel?

3. How do you think the customer felt?

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4. If your company already has a policy like that at Ace Hardware of “one to say yes, two to say
no,” then you know that you must try to think creatively of ways to say yes to a customer
before you go to a manager for approval for a no. But even if your company doesn’t officially
do that, you can still try to work within your organization’s guidelines to engineer a helpful
“yes” for your customers whenever possible. What is an instance in which you said no to a
customer, and you could have perhaps looked for a more creative solution?

How can you bring this attitude to bear in other situations?

5. If you do feel you have to turn down a customer request, who could you go to on your team for
input before issuing the “no”? Perhaps they will have ideas for you!

The contents of this page are the property of CrossKnowledge.

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