Customer Care Tips . Info (tm) - Customer Service

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Customer Service Is Still The Key To SUCCESS!
Pick any industry. Who is at the top? How did they get there? I can guarantee the answer to that question is two words: "customer service." Sure, cost is important, variety is important, all those things are important. But when you're new to a business, good...Continue

Customer Service: The Six Handicaps In After-Sales Customer Relations
Experience and research show that nurturing existing customers and building customer relationship with these existing customers are cheaper strategies than regularly looking for new ones. Many know this to be true whether you are a small or medium...Continue

Retail Customer Service: Tips For Improving Your Level Of Service
Today I witnessed a customer service miracle in action. I took my son to our local fast food restaurant, so he could have some lunch and play in the indoor playground. While I was waiting for our food to be ready, a woman approached the counter with a...Continue

Ten Ways To Improve Your Customer Service
Here's some simple yet POWERFUL ideas on how to improve your customer service. Nothing can do more for a business than having "happy customers". 1. Stay in contact with customers on a regular basis. Offer them a free e-zine subscription. Ask customers...Continue

The Golden Rules Of Customer Service
Everything I know about customer service I learned from working at McDonalds as a teenager. Hard to believe, but true! In this day of highly competitive cyber business, the companies that will succeed will be those that offer superior customer service. The...Continue

The Meeting Planner's Online Advantage: 7 Ways to Cut Down Customer Service Issues
Meeting planners can dramatically reduce customer service issues by getting their attendees' information right, with personalized, consistent communication and by getting the payments handled efficiently. 7 Things You Can Do NOW with a...Continue

Customer Service - A Sweet Essence

Due to unusually heavy call volume, our customer service agents are busy helping other customers. Your wait time is approximately 15 minutes. Please continue to hold...Please continue to hold...Please continue to hold...

First let us specifically define customer service. It is the performance of a duty or responsibility due to a customer as a result of selling them a product or service.

We must distinguish between customer sales and service versus customer service. Whereas customer sales and service is largely concerned with selling an additional item or an additional service subsequent to an initial sale, customer service is mainly concerned with customer care.

True customer service is synonymous with "ACCOMMODATION". When we sell a product or a service we accept the responsibility and the obligation to potentially provide our customers with a broad range of possible actions. These actions we define as customer service and may include necessary "ACCOMMODATIONS" to make the initial product or service reasonably useful in the way it was intended and in the way that it was marketed.

"Due to unusually heavy call volume our customer service agents are busy helping other customers. Your call is important to us. Please continue to hold... Please continue to hold... Please continue to hold..." WILL SOMEONE STOP THIS INSANITY !!! No article on customer service would be complete without addressing automated telephone systems. We are all consumers. It does not matter what else we do, whether we are manufacturers or clerks or customer service agents. We should make ourselves available so that our customers can speak with us. Nothing beats face to face contact but the next best thing is a person's voice. Overall, I believe that automated phone systems may be the worst single tool ever invented for all of us as consumers. There are a very few select companies whose systems serve us well by pointedly and quickly getting us fast service. But the vast majority of these automated telephone systems are nothing more than roadblocks to consumers. We have all been there and have been frustrated all too often. You might as well try to call the president of the United States.

WE, ALL OF US, ARE PUTTING EACH OTHER ON HOLD ON THE TELEPHONE LINE... !!! Why not hire a live breathing caring human being who knows their job depends on their customer. This is not rocket science !

When was the last time that you received outstanding customer service? Did you feel like you wanted to do more business with that company ? Did you like the people who were helping you ? Right there is one of the most powerful forces in customer service - customer loyalty and retention. What else is there in business with such a sweet essence ?

- Jim Hoyle

About the author:

Since 1979 Jim Hoyle has owned and operated Lamp Outlet - North Carolina's Most Unique Table Lamps, Floor Lamps and Antique Lamps - Antique lamps and exclusive new unique table lamps and floor lamps. Contact Jim at junguljim@bellsouth.net or his company's website www.hoylelamps.com.