As 2018 winds to a close, it's time to take a look back at the past year. 

One thing I like to do is review my blog to see which posts resonated the most with readers. There were a couple of surprises here, including my most popular one.

#1: A Hidden Reason to Be Polite to Rude Customers

Serving angry, obnoxious, or rude customers is one of the most difficult aspects of customer service. This post explored an unexpected reason to keep your cool. It turns out that if you handle the situation correctly, the next customer is more likely to enjoy your service and even empathize with your situation. The key is doing one thing.

#2 How Fast Should a Business Respond to Email?

This research comes from a survey of over 1,200 consumers in the United States. Spoiler alert: businesses should be aiming for a response time of one hour or less. What surprised me was who wanted the fastest response.

#3 What Exactly is a Service Culture?

There are a lot of business concepts we all think we agree upon, but it often turns out we're talking about different things. For example, you'd probably agree that leadership is important. Okay, so what exactly is leadership? Ask a room full of people and you'll get different answers. That's why I thought it was important to define what I mean by service culture.

#4 Nine Ways Your Employees Waste Time at Work

This post started when I found a survey from Salary.com where 57 percent of employees admitted to wasting at least one hour per day at work. I'll add my own commentary and say if that's what people admit to, the real number is probably much higher. That's because our workplace is filled with hidden productivity killers that we're not always fully aware of.

#5 Who First Said "The Customer is Always Right?"

I can't think of a single phrase that makes customer service professionals bristle more than this one. Customers are often wrong. And issues can get worse when a customer is wrong, but digs their heels in and hides behind the "customer is always right" mantra. So I decided to find out who first said this statement. The conclusion was a bit surprising.