Improving Customer Service

VistaPrint, an online supplier of graphic design and printed products, is a great resource for small business owners. One key to their success is learning from customers by listening to customers. Discover how they leverage customer feedback to implement a very effective continuous improvement program.

Retaining customers isn't an easy job. You need to constantly prioritize and refocus your customer retentions strategies. Surprisingly, in a study conducted in 2007, only 50% of the study group of employees from different companies was loyal to brands marketed by the companies they were working for. Given that, it's not alarming to think that not many customers would stick to the same products either.

Looking for sample customer surveys? Here's a sample customer satisfaction survey that can be used by small business owners to identify improvement opportunities.

Few things can raise the ire of a client more than failing to meet an understood and agreed to set of policies or plans. It's so simple to avoid and pays huge dividends later.

When people are angry they are not in a fit state of mind to listen to logic or practical solutions to problems. That's why it's important to calm angry customers down before trying to find a resolution to their dilemma.

Monitoring phone calls to improve customer service is an age-old practice, but improving customer service interactions by listening to calls requires a plan.

Customer service in restaurants gets tricky if a patron is drunk, unruly or is not wearing appropriate clothing. We discuss when restaurants can deny customers service and tell them to go somewhere else.

It's hard to overestimate the importance of an effective system of follow up when dealing with clients. Not only will it increase client satisfaction - but will help your business as well.

Customer service in non-profit organizations? You bet! Customer service is a universal challenge.and a universal opportunity. We provide some helpful thoughts on nonprofit customer service.

When you interact directly with customers, you need to make a good impression to keep customers coming back. We share some do's and don'ts of customer service.

AT&T Yahoo sucks. They did me wrong today. When you get 'SBC Yahoo! services suspended' on all your business email accounts, you know it will be a bad day.

While we tend to gather data from our customers, we often neglect to gather data on lost sales or non-repeat customers. In many cases, we can learn more from a lost sale than we can from a landed sale. By capturing this crucial data you can greatly improve your company and increase your chances of landing the next sale.

Training remains a constant challenge for employers. This article discusses one strategy to bring new employees up to speed quickly.

Without customers you do not have a company. Without repeat customers, you do not have a sustainable company. As a result, customer service and delivering what the customer wants is key to the success of any small business.

Keeping your customers happy is crucial to success. If your customers are waiting in line, don't aggravate the situation by having employees around who are not helping customers.

Yikes! We had to create a new page to contain all the negative comments we've been getting about HP customer service.

Here are some legitimate reasons to turn a customer away or ask them to leave your establishment.

This is part two of a two part article. Successful business owners understand that everything relies on good customer relations. Herewith, the top ten tips to help you provide for your customers needs and keep them loyal to you.

One of the keys to success in the financial services industry is effectively dealing with clients assigned from others. Leveraging their potential business may mean the difference between success and failure.

In this article on refusing customers service in a restaurant, we outline several reasons that are not legitimate reasons to deny a customer service.

Customer complaints are a blessing in disguise. It's only when you receive a customer complaint that you become aware that there is an opportunity to improve.

Microsoft has been unable to fix a very basic problem regarding turning Windows features on in Vista. We called for support and were told it would take 8 hours for them to get back to us. Acceptable customer service or really bad customer service from Microsoft?

We continue documentation of our Microsoft customer service experience while troubleshooting a problem installing Windows Vista components. We use this experience to highlight a few customer service tips for companies that make and market complex products.

Wondering how to improve customer service? Sure, you can hire customer service consultants or send employees to customer service training programs. But before you do anything, read this article on improving customer service.

Bad customer service examples offer great lessons on how to improve customer service. These customer service horror stories will give you a laugh.and a lesson.

HP customer service isn't the best. For entrepreneurs, there are many lessons to learn from companies that have bad customer service.

Angry and difficult customers are a challenge that every entrepreneur will face. When your time comes, will you be ready? This article explains how to deal with angry customers.

Web hosting company Hostway lost our business by allowing our site to be down for more than 24 hours, rather than taking 5 minutes to get our site live again.

The customer is always right. Or so we are led to believe. But what about when they aren't? Sorry, the customer is always right. Even when they seem to have come from hell. Here are a few tips on how to apologize to a customer.

In today's wireless world, your competitors are a mouse click or a cellular call away, so a rapid response to your customers' needs is more important than ever. Speed up your response time with these customer service tips.

This is part one of a two part article. Successful business owners understand that everything relies on good customer relations. Herewith, the top ten tips to help you provide for your customers needs and keep them loyal to you.

The idea of 'Don't ask, don't tell' does not work in website hosting, or any other business for that matter. Not when it concerns finding out your customers' opinions about your products or services. Unless you regularly ask customers their opinion of you, they are unlikely to volunteer their thoughts. Only when they really dislike you will you know what they think, but then it might be too late to retain them as customers. So how do you go about finding out what your customers think about you, your products or your services?

Advice on how to run an effective email customer service program. Emphasizes the importance of using a personal and conversational tone to make the customer feel important.

An awesome customer experience will not only retain customers, it will help them to spread the word across to friends and family. Such an experience is provided by exceeding their expectations.

You might be frustrating your customers. There are five things that you or your company does that are sure to exasperate.

Great customer service. Every business owner wants it, but few know what it actually looks like. Here are some of the most important features you'll find in truly great customer service departments and programs.

Small business owners have always known that great customer service is a competitive advantage. But how important is customer service to consumers? We've got the numbers you need to decide for yourself.

Customer loyalty initiatives can generate big improvements to business revenue. As it turns out, the best way to increase customer loyalty is through superb customer service delivered at the individual level.