Top 5 Customer Service Articles For the Week of December 3, 2012

Each week I read a number of customer service articles from various online resources. Here are my top five picks from last week. I have added my comment about each article and would like to hear what you think too.

Office Depot Customer Service: Competition Is Right Next Door by Donna Gurnic

(CustomersThatStick) The team at Office Depot turned a simple order for clipboards into a link in the chain of customer loyalty, and it only took a smile, some attention, and a quick WOW.

My Comment: Great example of two businesses with two completely different cultures: One where the attitude is apathetic, and the other where the attitude is helpful, service minded and customer-focused. The punch line to this story is when the employee of the second business asked the customer to announce over the loudspeaker, for everyone – especially the other employees – to hear, just how happy she was.

Ten Powerful Employee Engagement Lessons by Vala Afshar

(Switch and Shift) In business, winning is a team sport. Building a team that is engaged and committed starts with a mindset that celebrates collaboration. Here are ten building blocks towards developing a culture of engagement.

My Comment: Vala Afshar is one of the smartest people I know in business. Engaged employees have an amazing benefit to the company and its customers! Anybody in a leadership position in any company can benefit by implanting some, if not all, of these ten strategies on employee engagement.

Guest Post: Ritz-Carlton Customer Service Secrets Posted by Douglas Hanna

(Service Untitled) Recently, I sat down with Ritz-Carlton Vice President Diana Oreck to see if she could share any more secrets to the company’s customer service super sauce. She heads up the company’s executive training program, The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center. Here is what she had to say.

My Comment: Great insights from a legend in customer service, the Ritz-Carlton. This is like a sneak peek behind the curtain.

Amazon Founder Jeff Bezos Talks AWS, Innovation, Customer Service & Space Travel At Re: Invent by Frederic Lardinois

(TechCrunch) Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s founder and CEO, took the stage at the company’s re: Invent developer conference for a wide-ranging discussion with the company’s CTO Werner Vogels about Amazon’s web service and retail business, as well as his view about entrepreneurship and his personal projects, such as the 10,000 year clock and the Blue Origin space program.

My Comment: Jeff Bezos is an amazing man. The summary of the chat with Amazon.com’s CTO Werner Vogels has some great insights from Bezos on innovation and customer service (my favorite topic).

Digital Customers Now Rule The World. Are You Ready? (Part 2) by Dr. Volker G. Hildebrand

(Forbes) It’s obvious: those companies who deliver a better overall customer experience than others will gain a sustainable competitive advantage. The big question is: what do they do differently?

My Comment: This article has some great stats to support the idea that customer experience focused companies outperform the laggards. I really like the “goes around comes around” question. Ask an executive to describe what he/she thinks a good customer experience is. Then ask if their company is delivering a similar experience. Brilliant!

Shep Hyken is a customer service expert, professional speaker and New York Times bestselling business author. For information contact (314) 692-2200 or http://www.hyken.com. For information on The  Customer  Focus™ customer service training programs go to http://www.thecustomerfocus.com. Follow on Twitter: @Hyken
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