Lisa Ford is a speaker with over 20 years of experience presenting to businesses, associations and government. She speaks throughout the United States and internationally on topics of customer service, leadership, team issues and change. Lisa is best known for her work in the areas of customer service. She is the author of the videotape series How to Give Exceptional Customer Service, the #1 selling business tapes in the U.S. for over 3 years. Her other videos and audiotapes include: Developing a Customer Retention Program, Building a Customer Driven Organization: The Manager’s Role and Personal Power. Her recent book is Exceptional Customer Service – Going Beyond Good Service to Exceed the Customer’s Expectations.

Lisa designs content personalized to the audience and issues they face. She has also customized numerous videos for clients to use in their ongoing education efforts. Lisa’s experience includes working with Pfizer, Viacom, Edward Jones, CSX, Kaiser Permanente, Morton’s of Chicago, Citgo,
American Gas Association, American Diabetes Association and American Veterinary Medical Association.

In 2002, Lisa was inducted into the Speakers Hall of Fame by the National Speakers Association. She is one of 140 speakers who have been honored over 30 years. She also serves a Board Member of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Tennessee.

Lisa's Most Requested Programs:  

Why Customer Service Is NOT Enough
This is a presentation on why customer service alone will not lead to long term survival. Everyone has read the books, many businesses have pledged fidelity to its customers but few have implemented actions that match their attitude. And most efforts are faint hearted, gimmicky or off the mark. Today’s organization must focus on customer’s satisfaction and retention with renewed energy. This speech is a combination of content, examples and motivation. The challenge is to get customers to love your products, services and people. Lisa relates statistics, strategies and stories so the audience leaves with skills and the desire to win and keep customers

Exceptional Customer Service
Your employees and their customer service skills may be the only thing that differentiates you from the competition. This seminar is for front-line employees who do the daily demanding job of serving more sophisticated and educated customers. The skills of employees must constantly be updated to meet customer’s expectations. Lisa delivers hands-on techniques that employees can use immediately. The content is combined with examples and humor so employees have a chance to laugh and learn. Here’s what people will learn - how to calm down an angry customer, listen to uncover customer’s needs, recover from a problem the organization created and win the customer back, handle conflicting needs of customers and keep enthusiasm and an attitude of "customers first" all day. This seminar is based on Lisa’s best-selling videotape series, "How to Give Exceptional Customer Service".

Create A Service Focused Team
Face it--front-line customer service is a tough job. One of the biggest challenges is keeping your team inspired and motivated every day. Learn what works when it comes to inspiring exceptional service and creating loyal customers. This session will cover the environment you must create to encourage a strong, involved team, your role in modeling the right behavior and the strategies to maintain the right service attitude. Other hands-on information includes how to train a staff that's emotionally equipped to handle front-line intensity, what to discuss at team meetings to keep the momentum, and managing today's generation of team members.

Leading A Customer Focused Team
The competition may be able to copy your products or services, but they cannot copy your team. This session will give you the strategies that will set your team apart from the rest. The ideas covered are: how leaders guide success; what the best organizations do; create trust to gain respect; develop operating agreements to ensure accountability; and get the team to make their own decisions. Lisa will also cover the characteristics of a successful team member and how to reward and recognize each team member to keep the motivation high and the team on track.

Build Loyalty and Repeat Business
Customer retention must be a key strategy for your business. Keeping customers means increased profits. This session is about creating partnerships to get customers to love you and to continue to choose you. People will learn why retention is smart business by determining the cost of losing a customer and how to find out why customers leave or love you. Lisa will share strategies on how to build partnerships, create complaint handling systems so you can capture customer complaints, build recover skills, and how to use guarantees to add value. Other ideas include how to empower employees and align the entire organization to focus on retention. This session is packed with tools and examples of what companies are doing to keep their customers.

Everyday Excellence
The best way to survive in today’s fast moving and changing workplace is to be better and smarter every day. You must examine what value you add to the organization and you team. This session covers how individuals must make a difference and increase their results daily. People will learn to understand and love change, take risks and action to make things happen. Lisa shares questions to identify what value you add and create an action plan to increase your value. You will also hear how to create your own luck and success and maintain an attitude of energy and enthusiasm. Today’s world is one where everyone must accept that we are all "self-employed". Lisa will give people a chance to laugh and learn while accepting the new reality.

Change Works
Everyone is aware of the pressures of this fast changing world. Some people are able to adapt a little faster and easier to this new environment. Learning the right strategies and attitudes can help the individual and organization embrace change successfully. This speech will help people understand their fears around change, why resistance exists and how to overcome it. The strategies covered are common sense ones that encourage people to take responsibility to make change work. This presentation will also discuss how to get staff to make needed changes. The goal is for the audience to understand that flexibility and adaptability are key success strategies for the future of their career and the organization

Testimonials:

“ Your research into our business and the challenges facing our meeting participants ensured that your message was crafted to specifically address the “hot buttons” of retailing in the gasoline and convenience food industry. A speaking style filled with engaging personal stories, anecdotes and plenty of humor, kept the audience entertained, while offering significant content”
Mike Pooler, Region Marketing Programs Manager, CITGO Petroleum

“ I also wish to compliment you on the thoroughness of your pre-conference research on our Association and the work that we do in support of our mission. It made your presentation relevant to the audience, as well as fresh and engaging. The afternoon provided a solid foundation to what is being judged as a highly successful conference and an important turning point for our organization. Our staff left the meeting motivated to strive for excellence in customer service and , more importantly, with a strong sense of how to create that environment in their office and communities in the year ahead.” 
Thomas Bognanno, Executive Office, American Diabetes Association

“ You’ve done a superb job on every assignment – even more impressive since most involved brand new content. As you were presenting the other day, I found myself thinking how truly insightful your ideas were – then I found myself thinking, “And how great that she not only comes up with that but is able to present it so dynamically and she’s so down to earth and easy to work with!” Thank you for bringing so much value to us.” 
Patty Wirth, Director, Branch Staff Training and Development, Edward Jones

“ Over the years we have had numerous speakers at similar events but our participant feedback on your session is the highest we’ve ever received. You did a masterful job of customizing your remarks to our particular group and your vivid illustrations provided one or two “nuggets” that participants could apply directly to their own jobs.” 
Thomas Robinson, Manager -Quality, Public Service Electric and Gas Company

“ In the recent past, we have had industry representatives speak at our Opening Session and we had some concern that any “outside” speaker might not be “on message” with our group. You proved our concerns totally unfounded. Your preparation, message and delivery were perfect!”
 Eric DeGesero, Executive VP, Fuel Merchants Association of New Jersey