What is Customer Service?

Welcome to the new Customer Service discussion:

Servicing a customer is a part of every purchase and interaction with internal and external contacts. It can last a few seconds up to hours. So if we all do it and experience it everyday in almost everything we do, why isn’t good customer service the norm?

We all have stories about when we were treated exceptionally well or extremely poorly. We tend to share these extraordinary stories with others. We all know that word of mouth marketing can be the absolute best advantage, or the worst drawback for a company.

Warren Buffett said it best:

“It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently. “

We are going to explore how to create a customer service experience that is extraordinary for your customers and the norm for your business. My goal is to guide you to look at these issues in a new way and to encourage you to get creative about how to make every interaction a memorable service to the customer.

Some Upcoming Topics for Discussion:

  • Customer Service vs Customer Experience
  • Customer Service Strategies as a Differentiator
  • Creating a Customer Centric Culture
  • Attributes of a Leader in Customer Service

I fully expect this list to evolve based on our exchange of ideas and comments as we explore this overall topic together. I look forward to sharing my experiences with you and learning from you and your experiences. Together we can challenge the norm for service delivery and raise the bar in all our customer interactions.

Share your own experiences as a customer. What experience have you had that you consider to be exceptional and why? Which companies are the leaders in outstanding customer service and why?