Customer service

While management skills can improve service systems, a manager is better off if he or she first has a clear understanding of the operating characteristics that set one service system apart from another. This author offers one view of services, which, if followed, results in a “rational approach to the rationalization” of services. His view, […]

Buyers expect the same level of service and flexibility as when they shop in their personal lives.

The best stay attuned to their customers’ signals in the social graph.

In the rush to build Internet businesses, many executives mistakenly concentrate all their attention on attracting customers rather than retaining them....

My personal e-mail inbox currently holds requests for feedback from twelve different companies: a couple of hotels, two web-based retailers, a credit-card...

Lessons from an American Express exec who threw out the script.

Quality is more important than quantity.

“I’m telling everyone I know about how rude your customer service people are.” If you were browsing Facebook or Twitter and you saw a comment like this about your company, we’d bet you’d instinctively want to respond to that customer to try to fix the relationship. Comments like these put us on the defensive — […]

A basic prerequisite for business success is to know — really know — your customers. There’s a variety of traditional research methods aimed at better understanding customers: usage analysis, conjoint analysis, cluster analysis, roundtables, panels. But there are a few reasons why traditional research sometimes fails to deliver: 1) Customers don’t always say what is […]

Companies should find ways to connect employees and customers regardless of whether "customer service" is in their job description.

Consultant Frank Rohde describes a system for evaluating frontline workers' interactions with customers.

The Inn at Little Washington, in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley, is one of America’s most acclaimed restaurants, rated number one in North America by Travel + Leisure magazine and listed among the top ten in the world by the International Herald Tribune. Yet, as co-owner and chef Patrick O’Connell explains, exquisite food is the norm at […]

Who knew they care so much about breakfast?

When you need a human to close the deal - and when you don't.

Marketers planning promotional campaigns ask questions to boost the odds that the messages will be accepted: Who should receive each message? What should...

To really win their loyalty, forget the bells and whistles and just solve their problems.

Peachtree Healthcare has major IT infrastructure problems, and CEO Max Berndt is struggling to find the right fix. He can go with a single set of systems...

The pandemic has cast a spotlight on a historically undervalued asset.

End users can energize your workforce far better than your managers can.

"Voice of the customer" applications - parsing, interpreting, and responding to customer input - are particularly promising.