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Customer Service - General

Since our entire site is about customer service, it's seems a bit odd to have a category for general customer service advice and strategies. Think of this section as a place you can find overviews, and ideas that don't quite fit into our more specific customer service categories.

Overview of Customer Service and Company Success

Customer Service Starts At Home - by n/a
This article discusses the pivotal role that a company's Human Resources Department can play in generating good customer service. Some of HR's initiatives for good client service should include practicing excellent recruiting practices, providing good training. Read the article for full details on how your Human Resource Department can contribute to good customer service. (Added: 1-Nov-2004 Hits: 646 )

Are You Driving Your Customers to Your Competitors? - by Angela Wu
If your customers contact you via e-mails, there are some essentials rules and procedures that you should follow to maintain your reputation for prompt and caring service. This article offers such advice. Learn how to be more effective about dealing with e-mail inquiries and customer complaints so that your customer service is not compromised. (Added: 3-Nov-2004 Hits: 557 )

Customer Service: 5 Tips for Building Trust and Rapport - by Joe Boe
Have you ever had a sale that didn’t close and you weren’t sure why? The key is to build trust and rapport with your potential customers. Improve your sales by learning how to earn your prospect's confidence. (Added: 13-Dec-2004 Hits: 794 )

The Impact of Conflict Management Training on Customer Service Delivery - by Rosanne D'Ausilio
This article stresses the importance of training within a company to improve customer service. Recent research has demonstrated that Conflict Management Training can significantly reduce stress, improve employee performance, increase customer satisfaction, and do so in a timely fashion, thus having a positive impact on the bottom line. (Added: 15-Nov-2004 Hits: 411 )

How Customer Service Can Save Billions a Year: Biggest Survey Charts How Companies Save and Lose Business - by na
The first large-scale survey of the impact on revenue through bad customer service levels has estimated that a total of $338.5 billion is lost per year when consumers move to competitors or abandon altogether their purchases. (Added: 7-Feb-2010 Hits: 527 )

Customer Service For The Affluent - by Donna Siegal
Yes, the rich are different according to the author of this article. That is, they expect different things as a result of giving their business to one establishment over another. This article presents several reasons why affluent customers expect a special level of customer service and how a business interested in catering to those special needs might go about ensuring the affluent client's satisfaction. (Added: 2-Nov-2004 Hits: 544 )

How Consumers Killed Customer Service Business - Technorati - by RetailProfit
The problem is that retailers didn’t make poor customer servcie happen. We—the consumer—did. The fact that "service stinks" is entirely our fault. We’re the only ones to blame.""We demanded the lowest airfare wherever we flew. We went to the buy-one-get-one sales. We made Walmart what it is today. We camped out for Black Friday. We built the dollar store channel. The bottom line is that we voted with our wallets and customer service lost. We killed customer service. (Added: 16-Dec-2009 Hits: 516 )

Making many happy returns - by Kenn Peters
This is a discussion about how relevant that good customer service should be in every industry. The concept is simple. A business should take the time to demonstrate to the client that he or she is valued and respected. Read how some companies accomplish this easily. (Added: 1-Nov-2004 Hits: 841 )

Customer Responsiveness - by Donna Siegal
Reponsiveness is a key element to excellent customer service. A major complaint from customers is a lack of information from vendors. Learn the five keys of implmenting customer responsiveness in your company. Do you know how best to understand your client's needs? You'll learn how by reading this article. (Added: 2-Nov-2004 Hits: 1260 )

Customer Service May Not Be the Answer - by Shep Hyken
That is an interesting statement coming from a guy that lives, breathes and shares with the world ideas and strategies on customer service."Okay, maybe it is semantics. However, what do we really want with customer service? Is what we want an organization that is nicer and responsive to the needs of others – both inside and outside customers? Sounds nice, doesn’t it. But where does it get us?"Here’s the bottom line. What most businesses want is more business. That means they want more sales, which comes from two places: new customers and existing customers."Customer service is simply a means to that end. (Added: 1-Mar-2011 Hits: 135 )

What Makes A Customer Loyal? - by n/a
Two reasons given for customer loyalty are good price and the 'my little secret' angle. But this article states that customer loyalty remains as long as the product or service is reasonably priced and convenient for consumption. Read why the author of this article thinks that today more than ever, good customer service is essential for a corporation's survival. (Added: 2-Nov-2004 Hits: 607 )

Dealing with Difficult Customers - by Dave Kahle
Covers some basic principles to be applied to interactions with difficult customers and those we don't like, including removing blame, cracking the egg. (Added: 14-Jun-2004 Hits: 1210 )

Service Where You Sell - by Susan Meriwether
Customer satisfaction is only as good as your weakest link. If you sell using mobile and social channels but are not providing service there, you have a very weak link."With more and more transactions are taking place on mobile apps and facebook, you’ll need a full multi-channel customer experience strategy to tie it all together. (Added: 27-Jul-2011 Hits: 86 )

Customer Delight or a Brilliant PR Stunt? You Decide | CustomerThink - by Graham Hill
There is an interesting true story doing the rounds of customer service blogs at the moment. In it, Peter Shankman a customer service writer, blogger and regular customer at Morton’s Steakhouse jokingly tweeted to Morton’s that he would like a Porterhouse waiting for him upon landing at Newark airport after a long day on the road. Much to his surprise, when he landed that is exactly what was waiting: a uniformed waiter complete with a steak dinner, some side-orders and silver cutlery. Naturally, Peter was delighted and blogged about it immediately. The twitterverse got hold of it and now everybody is talking about Morton’s, about their greatest/worst experiences at Morton’s and more importantly, putting this forward as a great example of customer service.""But is it really customer service? Or is it something entirely different? (Added: 23-Aug-2011 Hits: 93 )

Customer Service Strategy Slide Show - by na
A short, concise slideshow presentation (19 slides) on the four elements of a customer service strategy. Ideal for small business looking to think or rethink how they meet the needs of customers, and how to use customer service as a competitive advantage. (Added: 7-Jan-2010 Hits: 547 )

How To Improve Customer Service - by Doug Howardell
Organizations exceed customer expectations by focusing improvement efforts in three areas: customer friendly processes, employee commitment to customer service, and customer dialog according to Eberhard Scheuing in his book Creating Customer s for Life. Each of these three areas has an internal component and an external component. (Added: 14-Apr-2001 Hits: 1078 )

Customer Service: What Is It? (And how to improve it!) by John T. Self - by Dr. John T. Self
This article offers a great definition of customer service. It does answer the question: what is customer service. If you are currently looking for a mission statement for your corporation, maybe how you define customer service can also define your corporation's mission. (Added: 14-Dec-2004 Hits: 1451 )

Customer Service Doesn't Cut It Anymore - by Roger H. Humley
The bottom line of this article is that any business that figures out what their customer wants and then provides can win at business. This articles lists the key characteristics that a customer needs to experience in order to stay loyal and increase profits. The following charactertics are discussed in detail: tangibles, reliabilty, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy. (Added: 2-Nov-2004 Hits: 576 )

Where's The People Factor? - by Dave Bowman
It seems organizations are becoming more anonymous and technologically robotic every day. They're substituting machines for people at an ever-accelerating rate. And, when a human being is present, it's so often a low-paid, untrained, discourteous person, at least judging from the quality of service (or lack of it). (Added: 7-May-2001 Hits: 420 )

Why Customer Service Seminars Don't Work / Carol Verret Consulting and Training / Oct 2000 - by Hotel Online
Without the comprehensive support and reinforcement system, customer service seminars don%u2019t work in the long term. The comprehensive system works in so far as there is commitment on the part of senior management to providing superior levels of customer service as the best sales tool to retain clients. Customer service seminars that stand-alone are expensive in that they do not provide an investment for the long term without the above elements to perpetuate the intent. (Added: 30-Nov-2004 Hits: 351 )

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