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[S576]Small Business Customer Service

by Craig Klein, Cra

You know the feeling. We've all been there. On hold, wading through phone menus, wasting time. The most frustrating thing is when you tell your story to one rep, then they decide they need to hand you off to a different department, and so on.

Well I must give credit where credit is due. Yesterday I had two truley surprising customer service experiences. In a GOOD way!

My Dell notebook's wewbcam wasn't working properly. I went to their site and noticed a "chat with a technician" button and went for it. The technician responded quickly, asked the right questions, diagnosed the problem and posted a link to a download, then used GotoAssist to install and configure it for me. I was back in business in 30 minutes.

The best part was that during the entire chat, my cell phone was ringing off the hook and I was able to take every call and take care of business while the Dell rep was taking care of my computer. It was as painless as it could have been.

Then the same evening I had a rare opportunity to pick a pay-per-view movie of my choice and relax. The kids were having a sleep-over and my wife was out with her family. Comcast's Movies On Demand wasn't working properly.

This time I just called the number on the screen and started wading through the phone system, and got disconnected, twice.

So I hit their website and noticed the Chat button again. I tried it again and within 10 minutes, my movie was on. Again, the best part was that I wasn't chained to a phone. The pizza guy came while I was chatting with the Comcast technician, I let the dog out, a phone call came in, life continued uninterrupted.

One note - I asked both the Dell and Comcast reps where the actually were and they were both here in Texas. I think the fact they weren't overseas improved the quality of the experience.

My company has been using chat for technical support for a couple of years and its definitely been a win-win. Its more efficient for us and our customers find it quick, easy and convenient.

I have to give Comcast and Dell Customer Service Grades of A+ for the way they leveraged chat to do an excellent job taking care of me.

The great news is that its also easy to set up in any business, even the smallest of businesses. If your business has a website, you can set up a chat button within a day, or less. Boldchat and LivePerson are two that we've used and have been pleased with.

In any business, large or small, adding chat to your website is bound to be a win. There are always going to be times when you're team is tied up on the phone and the next customer ends up on voice mail or on hold. Chat can be another answer.

Now, imagine a client initiates a chat by entering their name or email, your attendant looks them up in a contact management database and sees the history of their relationship with your company and previous chats and service requests. Now your client is really getting treated like a king!

I know I'm going to be finding new ways to leverage chat. You should too.

For what its worth, I did end up watching "I Am Legend" with Will Smith. Pretty darned good.

Copyright (c) 2008 Craig Klein

21st Century customers are the ones every organization serves nowadays. They come in numerous variations, be they called clients or be they called patients. Customers are the ones being asked to accept and adopt an idea, an information, and finally a product or service. The customers are the the potential and current users of any organization's output. The organizations couldn't survive without their clients or patients, and customers , on the other hand, couldn't live without the services and products the companies can provide. It's a two way road, so to say.

The customers usually put in their money and sometimes their time and effort. What they get in return is a service or product, and even more, they are being asked to accept an idea, information, or changes, policies and procedures. The business owners and their advisors are also customers to each other, as they are all customers to their associates, customers, staff , family, close friends and acquaintances.

You can say that each and everyone of them is living on the other people's time, money and effort. So , depending on how much money the others are willing to spend, you can determine if the customers think they are getting good service or not. The most important thing is to keep up the good service in order to have a good business.

Another way of maintaining good business is to not to charge the customers as much for what they are getting or to give them a little more than they think they are paying for. Interesting techniques, isn't it?!

This is very useful because the customers always want added-value for themselves. And they are not the only ones to desire this. Management wants added-value from their employees and employees want added-value from their management. Added-value from both management and employees is also required from the firm's, organization's, or practice's potential and current customers, clients and patients.

In fact good service and good business are based on helping people spend their time, effort or money in a very efficient way. The 21st century will be owned by those individuals, firms, businesses or organizations that carry on the tradition of these all.
Customers must always be satisfied, so keeping up the good business is a matter of keeping the clients or patients think that they are getting all they can wish for for the money and time they have put in.

Article Source : What Is Customer Service

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Both Craig Klein & Dalvin Rumsey are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.

Craig Klein has sinced written about articles on various topics from Customer Service. Craig Klein, Entrepreneur and Author. Craig Klein's top article generates over 8100 views. to your Favourites.

Dalvin Rumsey has sinced written about articles on various topics from Finances, Pets and Recreation and Sports. Visit this site for . Everything you ever dreamed to have in order to develop great. Dalvin Rumsey's top article generates over 201000 views. to your Favourites.