CUSTOMER SERVICE ARTICLES

4 Ways To Provide Customer Service That Outshines Your Competitors - There’s no real secret to getting your customers to come back. All you need to do is provide customer service that exceeds your customers' expectations and outshines your competitors' customer service.


Creative Customer Service - How Far Will You Go to Wow a Customer? - A large part of customer service success is creating a seamless experience. Customer needs are anticipated; systems are in place; employees are trained. The company runs like a well-oiled machine. But what happens when the unexpected happens? Customers have an “unusual” request or they simply don’t know the rules of the system? The unexpected, I suggest, provides the opportunity to stretch the system, improve the system, or even forget the system and Wow a customer.

5 Secrets Of Good Customer Service - Build Business to Customer Loyalty. "I have several business success secrets that helped me get to where I am today, and all of them relate to good customer service. These customer service secrets can equally apply to service contractors doing business with other businesses, as in my case, or to retailers doing business with the general consumer."...

How to handle customer complaints - Despite having all the best intentions to provide a first class service and product, it is virtually impossible for a business to avoid some degree of customer dissatisfaction at some time or another...

5 ways to halt customer service worker burnout - Customers today have more products to buy, and more channels through which to buy them, than at any time in history. Consequently, they have greater demands and higher expectations than ever before, most experts agree. As a result, more customer service employees are burned out and stressed out. Surveys show that only police and various government caseworkers hold jobs that are considered more difficult and draining.

7 Secrets of Customer Loyalty - This article shares "seven secrets" of customer loyalty with you.

10 Rules for Great Customer Service - Negative buying experiences are almost always linked to shoddy customer service. These days it's rare to find good customer support, even though most businesses claim that they put people first. Good customer service is essential for all businesses, and providing it isn't that difficult if you and your employees enact these 10 basic rules...

10 Strategies for Customer Service Success - Contact center managers can no longer define success by call duration alone.

15 customer service no-nos - Sometimes it seems like rude customer service is the rule rather than the exception. But there's rude — and then there's rude.

60-Second Guide to Establishing Great Customer Service - In just 60-seconds, you’ll learn to establish a way to keep your customers loyal to you.

ANSWERING CUSTOMER SERVICE E-MAIL: Five Errors to Avoid - Marilynne Rudick and Leslie O'Flahavan teach customer service professionals the writing skills they need to communicate with customers. Here, they share their expertise and let us know the common mistakes to avoid.

Automated Service Agents, CRM & the New Customer Service Challenge - In recent years, the Internet has radically transformed the way consumers and businesses interact. Commerce now moves at a pace heretofore unimaginable: Customers shop online or by telephone at all hours of the day and night, and companies fulfill orders as quickly as they are placed. Many types of products and services can be delivered electronically in an instant, and physical goods often reach a customer within hours of being ordered. Read about the consequences of this...

Automating The Telephone Support Call - Matthew Hemming reports on how service providers can optimise their support calls to produce the best possible service experience for customers.

Be Sure Your Customers Can Communicate With You - You need to make it easy for your customers to communicate with you by ensuring that you have the telephone and communications services that let your potential customers at least know that you appreciate their interest.

Boosting Your Customer Relationships With CRM - How technology can help your business mine new prospects and provide better service to existing customers.

CSRs: You Ought To Be Having Fun! - Customers appreciate it when employees are happy and helpful. They benefit when employees feel good about themselves. Work flies by when employees are having fun. Whether you're a CSR, a TSR or just a VIP (very intense person), Mirth makes dollars and sense. Find opportunities for frolic and enjoy the benefits to morale, productivity and attendance.

Customer Service and the Human Experience - With the explosion of e-commerce, the need to reinforce keeping the human element in the equation is paramount. Certainly now more than ever, customer-centric service is a necessity.

Customer Service: Roll out the red carpet treatment - The old adage of customer is king is as valid today as it's ever been. By designing for what customers want, rather than what the technology can offer, companies can reap great rewards.

Customer Service: Your Best Shot at Standing Out - Provide the best service in town, and many customers will want to give you their business--regardless of the cost.

Effective Complaint Handling - A customer with a complaint does not have to signify lost revenue for a business, advises the Better Business Bureau. By taking prompt and constructive action, businesses can turn discontent into customer loyalty and generate new income in the long run.

Get Personal, Even When Not Face to Face - One of the surest ways to turn me into a repeat buyer is to provide excellent customer service before, during and after the sale. If I am treated well by a sales representative, receptionist or business associate, my desire to continue a relationship with that company escalates significantly.

Getting Customers to Complain - If none of your customers are complaining, start worrying. Because it's the wheels that don't squeak that should concern you. Here's how to encourage customers to speak up...

How to delight your customers: Get personal - These days, it's all about "customer delight," says Sheri Bridges, a marketing professor at Wake Forest University. She defines a "delightful" consumer experience as one so personalized that an individual's preferences and needs are taken into account.

Hone Your Listening Skills for Success - This article focuses on listening skills as key to our success as communicators, leaders, servers and as human beings.

Improve the Customer Experience on Your Web Site - The more you improve the overall customer experience on your Web site, the more you'll improve your order-conversion rate, the metric used to describe the rate at which Web-store visitors become paying customers. There are several things you can do to make your Web site more customer friendly...

In Challenging Times, Customer Service Matters Most! - In difficult economic times, some businesses cut costs by cutting corners on customer service. This is exactly the wrong thing to do. Right now, service matters more than ever. Here's why...

Internal Customer Service: Getting Your Organization to Work Together - Providing exceptional customer service lies at the heart of the mission of many organizations. It is the central theme of books, articles, motivational seminars and business courses. Its value is undisputed in business circles. What many companies fail to focus on, however, is the primary path to exceptional customer service: internal customer service.

Is your Online Business Customer- Friendly? - Customer service is increasingly seen as one of the most valuable uses for a commercial World Wide Web site. Your Web site is available on a 24 hour, seven days a week basis. So it is well worth exploring ways in which your customers can virtually “serve themselves," without the need for overtime staff, or lengthy voice mail procedures.

Keep Customers Coming Back for More - Offering several payment options and loyalty programs will attract customers to your business.

Keep your customers happy and coming back for more - No doubt you've heard something about the 80/20 rule. Originally devised by a nineteenth-century Italian economist named Vilfredo Pareto, the law grew out of his keen observations about the trivial many and the critical few. Pareto noticed that 80% of the possible value of business activities tends to come from only 20% of the effort put into it...

Make customer service a priority - Customer service is clearly the most important thing to keep focus on in a business. Customer service is normally the interaction between the customer and an employee. It is this interaction that determines the success of a business.

Making A Great Second Impression NEW!!This "extra mile" service will be way beyond what they expected and it will build a powerful business for you.

Making the Most of Your Existing Customer Base - Robert Gerrish - For many, one of the greatest moments in business is the joy of attracting a new customer or client. In such circumstances it is easy to get so caught up in the excitement, that we forget to spend time on realising the value of one of our business's best assets - our existing client base.

Most valuable players - customer service - SLASHING PRICES TO KEEP UP WITH THE BIG CHAINS CAN SPELL DISASTER FOR THE AVERAGE ENTREPRENEUR. IT'S BETTER TO STICK WITH WHAT YOUR BUSINESS DOES BEST: OFFERING CUSTOMERS VALUE-ADDED SERVICES.

Multichannel Customer Service Done Right - How to devise a successful multichannel contact-center strategy.

Not Measuring Your Customer Service? Then You Are Not Even Close to Managing It - Most companies and call centers measure success by their sales numbers but they overlook one small detail - the customer. Do you know how your customer feels about doing business with you? Do you believe companies when they say they really do care about their customers? Most people don't believe that claim. Instead, they think businesses are not walking their talk. The following are five tips on how to understand customers and how to measure customer service at your business or call center...

Online Customer Service Basics - In a traditional brick-and-mortar store, if a customer needs help, he or she can look around and find someone. In e-commerce, obviously, that's not an option. So how can you provide customer service as a part of your online sales experience? It's probably easier than you think. There are several ways that you can provide high-quality customer service with a minimum amount of work.

Personable, Positive & Persistent - An unbeatable combination for sales success

Reward your best customers - The strategy is simple: Give high-paying customers an incentive, and they'll come back and buy more. That way, you boost sales, find new customers through referrals and lower your costs of marketing and customer acquisition. Learn how to accomplish this...

Standing Up To School Yard Bullies NEW!!Clients can be rude and too demanding, How should you deal with them?

Telephone Greetings that Customers, Prospects, and Employees Love-
Three Easy Steps to Success - Talk about first impressions; telephone greetings are critical. Prospects are deciding whether or not to do business with you. Irate customers are deciding how helpful and competent you are. This article talks about incorporating three easy elements: pleasantry, brevity, and sincerity.

Ten Suggestions to Build Customer Loyalty - Too many businesses neglect this loyal customer base and chase new customers instead. Since it costs significantly more money to attract new customers than to maintain relationships with existing ones, your efforts toward building customer loyalty will certainly payoff.

Ten tips to excellent customer service - Keeping customers happy, ensuring that they come back in the future and encouraging them to sell the merits of your firm to their friends, relations and colleagues is an aspiration of the majority of businesses. There are a number of ways to do this and one of the most effective of these is to provide excellent customer service...

The Keys to Good Customer Service - Good customer service boils down to four cornerstones that will strongly support any business. Get out your mortar and trowel if you want to build a strong customer following.

The Value of Customer Satisfaction - What is the connection between customer satisfaction and the bottom line? Read this article to find out...

The Voice of Customer Service - Your voice is the most multifaceted customer service tool in your toolkit. Your challenge: to insure your voice reinforces the service you strive to deliver through your actual words and action.

Top 10 Customer Service Mistakes - Good customer service is a valuable asset, especially in today's high-tech-oriented, increasingly impersonal business world. Therefore, if you are aware of common customer service mistakes and go out of your way to avoid them, you may strengthen your position in a competitive market.

What is customer service? - Running a successful business is all about acquiring and retaining customers. Without its customers, no business will be profitable and having happy customers is the best asset a business can have...