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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: 667 )

Customer Service and Customer Care Newsletter - by na
Newletter with a raft of hints, tips and even a quiz on customer service. Nice because it's got a good quantity of excellent customer care advice. (Added: 27-Mar-2012 Hits: 0 )

Success Built On A Smile - by Vincent Tse
Customers' behaviour should be tracked and acknowledged. Customer interaction points in the order cycle should also be critically identified and reviewed and interaction processes refined in a way that adapts to varying customer expectations. Staff should develop service and teamwork concepts. Meanwhile, to sustain programme effectiveness in service excellence, establishing appropriate measures and recognising service performance is a must. (Added: 9-Dec-2004 Hits: 1369 )

The Role Of Questions In Customer Service - by Donna Siegal
This article is a description of a good basic question technique that will allow employees to provide excellent customer service. If you are interested in improving the way that you or your employees gather problem-solving information from clients, you will find this article beneficial. (Added: 2-Nov-2004 Hits: 741 )

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: 1098 )

Power-Up Article - Dis-Un-Empowerment - by Scott Simmerman
An article on Dis-Un-Em,powerment, focused on helping people improve customer loyalty. It shares ideas for improving organizational and personal effectiveness. (can be printed - not for reproduction or distribution, please) (Added: 14-Apr-2001 Hits: 446 )

Your call is important to us... - by Wally Bock
This article is a commentary on the perils of voice mail messages as a substitute for human contact when a customer attempts to communicate with a business. Statistics are provided against the use of business voice mail recordings. (Added: 9-Dec-2004 Hits: 767 )

What's the relationship between "internal customer service" and customer service to paying customers? - by Robert Bacal
There is a relationship between how employees and departments treat each other (internal customer service), and the quality of service made available to paying customers. Here's the scoop. (Added: 24-Oct-2006 Hits: 778 )

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: 199 )

Is It Armageddon For Customer Service? (What is reasonable?) - by Bill Kalmar
Interesting opinion piece, but its value lies in thinking about this. Probably most people will agree with the customer in this disagreement. But ask yourself: Who made the initial error that set this in motion? What IS reasonable? How far do businesses need to go in accommodating and fixing consumer mistakes, particularly if there is a cost. (Added: 3-Mar-2010 Hits: 511 )

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: 561 )

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: 147 )

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: 1219 )

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: 363 )

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