Top 5 Customer Service Articles For the Week of November 25, 2013

TOP CUSTOMER SERVICE AND BUSINESS ARTICLES

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.

3 Customer Service Lessons Learnt From Other Retailers’ Mistakes by Kelly Atkinson

(Business2Community) We took the key findings from the annual Global Consumer Pulse Survey and turned them into 3 lessons you can use to go one better than the competition.

My Comment: Sometimes we can learn from other’s mistakes. In this case, we get three simple, yet important, customer service lessons that we can use in any type of business, not just retail. My favorite of the three is about respecting your customers’ time.

7 Tips for Delivering Great Customer Experiences Over Live Chat by STELLAService

(Happy Customer) 7 lessons for those who have implemented live chat software, or those who are considering it as a customer service channel.

My Comment: Live Chat is becoming a mainstream channel for customer support.  If this is a technology your company is currently using, here are seven excellent tips for creating a better Live Chat experience with your customers.

Two More Customer Experience Facts and Suggestions You Can’t Ignore [INFOGRAPHIC] by Bob Hayes

(Business Over Broadway) For me, these two new facts help summarize the infographic. I’m also providing a couple of suggestions based on those facts. What do you take away from Keepify’s infographic.

My Comment: There is a lot of information packed into these two customer experience facts and suggestions, and even more impressive is the infographic about customer loyalty.  Many companies focus on customer acquisition.  The stats and facts included here really make the case for the importance of customer retention.

5 Ways to Keep Customers Knocking on Your Door For More by Rebekah Epstein

(Entrepreneur) While the pair spends a lot of time talking about analytics, their impeccable branding plays a big role in BaubleBar’s success. There is a lot to learn from Yacobovsky and Jain, so let’s take a look at why their customers are so loyal.

My Comment: This is a great list of five ideas to get customers to come in and come back. Customer service is marketing.  Take care of the customer and they come back, talk about you to others, which in turn gets new customers to start doing business with you. If that’s not marketing or branding, I don’t know what is.

The effects of a good and bad customer experience [INFOGRAPHIC] by Nicola Brookes

(NewVoiceMedia) Check out this infographic to discover the real impact of poor customer service, taken from independent research NewVoiceMedia carried out recently.

My Comment: There is so much information out there that makes the case for delivering great customer service; customers spend more for it, come back more often for it, etc. What is the cost of bad customer service? This infographic, created by NewVoiceMedia in the UK, has some pretty interesting information that all businesses should consider.

Shep Hyken is a customer service expert, professional speaker and New York Times  bestselling business author. For information contact (314)692-2200 or 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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