Companies have paid lip service to customer service for years, yet still treat customers like serfs.
Some firms improve customer service by empowering customer service reps to drop fees or reduce costs when customers complain.
What could have been a customer service request that fell into the black hole of customer service requests, this one was, instead, a Ninja-like example of surprising and delighting the customer.
FORBES: Apple Might Take a Page out of the LEGO Playbook as It Plans Its Next 'Innovation'
In Why Service Stinks, a book we co-wrote with BIGresearch several years ago, we reported that customers think the number one cause of rude service is rude customer service staff.
Though inside sales frequently involves an element of inbound call handling like a customer service department, in its pure form it is not customer service.
FORBES: What is Inside Sales? The Definition of Inside Sales
Customer service is without doubt a huge arrow in the marketing quiver, and a smart customer service representative is worth his or her weight in gold.
FORBES: Writing An Awesome Letter To A 7-Year Old, And Gaining A Lifetime Customer For LEGO
Even though it would have been a whole lot cheaper to outsource customer service abroad or even to the midwest, Popick made a strategic decision to keep customer service under the same roof as product development and marketing in San Francisco, which is a particularly expensive part of the country.
The strategy builds on several initiatives, including Executive Order 13571, Streamlining Service Delivery and Improving Customer Service, and Executive Order 13576, Delivering an Efficient, Effective, and Accountable Government.
The survey of 4, 000 current customers measured satisfaction with call quality, company image, account management, initial activation, service plan options, and customer service, with Virgin scoring 751 on a 1, 000-point scale.
ENGADGET: Virgin Mobile takes top prepaid honors in J.D. Powers survey
Participants in research led by Ella Miron-Spektor, a lecturer in organizational psychology at Bar-Ilan University in Israel, were told they would be playing the role of a customer-service worker, then asked to listen to recordings of angry, abusive remarks by a customer to another customer-service worker.
Global service at Verizon Wireless carries 24-hour customer service from trained Verizon Wireless U.S. based employees.
ENGADGET: Verizon Wireless confirms FaceTime over cellular on all data plans
So say the results of a survey done last week by online customer service rating agency Stella Service.
Banks may also need to balance customer service improvements against customer attitudes and behavior towards fraud, especially if losses increase significantly.
This isn't to say that companies don't invest heavily in customer service through insightful customer relationship management (CRM) technologies or other gadgetry.
The resolution took no less than two and a half months, during which time I observed an astonishing inability to leverage the most fundamental of customer service capabilities and customer intelligence tools.
FORBES: 5 Stupefying Statements from the CRM Call Center (and what to do about them)
It could be improved quality to reduce their defects in manufacturing, it could be improved levels of service to reduce delays, and it could include increasing customer service to get a better outcome.
This service ComcastCares would take any form of service request from customers online and respond through the efforts of a team of customer service representatives.
FORBES: A Tale of Maintaining Congruency In Customer Service
That for me has always summed up the difference between great customer service and a great customer experience.
Add in NetFlix near ubiquity on devices, cheerful customer service, and strong customer satisfaction and the model has not yet been unseated.
He responded to their complaints of slow service and arrogant engineers by adding 400 customer-service agents to take orders and quote jobs faster.
Re-train their employees not just on these new processes and how to use the technology at their disposal, but on the speed and kind of service the new customer demands, whether that service is being delivered digitally, on the phone, or in person.
FORBES: Perpetual Connectivity Will Change How We Experience The World
Complaints about its broadband service often related to line faults while landline quibbles focused on billing and customer service, Ofcom said.
It sends SIM cards to deliver its service, all online, so it has low prices, and operates with no customer service or call centers, and (sorry to say) almost no advertising.
Giving your customer service agents insight into the mobile customer experience will significantly increase customer satisfaction, retention and order values.
FORBES: The Trouble With Mobile Commerce: The Experience Stinks
Bringing their audience and advertisers to the table, established publishers are now partnering with these full-service firms that handle all the grunt work of deal sites like production, scheduling, customer service, etc. so the publisher can keep doing what it does best: creating great content.
FORBES: The Trouble With Groupon: Daily Deal Sites Need To Go Local
Not just by advancing insurance payments for cleanup and other initial response work, insurers can also provide enhanced customer service to expedite each of these specific customer needs if only by being impeccably responsive when inquiries as to scope of coverage are made, or clarifications on notices or extensions are sought.
FORBES: The Next Big Superstorm Sandy Story: Are We Really in Good Hands?
Companies like Nordstrom have built legions of repeat customers through unparalleled customer service, going above and beyond for each and every customer.
Because of their direct contacts with customers, sales people and customer service reps are exposed to a wealth of information about customer concerns every day.
Finally, in the retail industry, customer service centers are using Fast Data solutions for clickstream analysis and customer experience management.
This means that all media team employees are required to complete customer service training to ensure they are well-prepared to handle anything a customer throws at them, internal departments such as marketing, legal and investor relations are expected to closely collaborate and most importantly, all employees are given the opportunity to contribute content.
FORBES: Why Social Engagement Is Critical To Business Success
应用推荐