Customer Support 101
In life, there is room for improvement in almost everything do. So does customer support. A bunch of scripts, few email templates and a well defined process might work to your benefit most of the time. If you want to make it work all the time, the customer support process must be agile and iterative. Yep, I just threw couple of swanky software engineering words at you. That’s because people are unpredictable and the process currently in place might have to be tweaked time and again like there’s no tomorrow. Customer support is probably one of the domains where looking around and picking up the best practices from other businesses is allowed. Keeping that in mind, we at HappyFox thought it might be a good idea to put together a list of links that contain tips and insights worth reading. Here we go:
How to Improve Your Company’s Customer Service
This article from Inc. magazine sheds light on how to improve your company’s customer service even when the economy is in the tatters. Written as a survival guide sorts, but is a great resource nonetheless.
5 Best Customer Service Ideas
Entrepreneur magazine emphasizes not to get into business at all, if you aren’t following their five ideas. Their suggestions includes picking not only the right employees, but the right customers as well.
60 Customer Service Tips for Entrepreneurs
A great collection of quotes and suggestions from people who are handling customers in the businesses. My personal favorite is “Manage customer expectations, and then exceed them.”
5 Tips for Creating and Maintaining Customer Loyalty
Folks at Mashable know more about social than anyone. So, when they share their wisdom with respect to keeping customers loyal, one should definitely pay attention.
Great Products Have Customers Who Inspire
Written by our fearless leader, the article is a walk down the memory lane explaining how he was inspired by our very first customer and how customers go out their way to help, educate and support a brand they care about.
Start-Up Customer Service 101
Couldn’t have had a better title! Authors of the Harvard University published book “Uncommon Service: How to Win by Putting Customers at the Core of Your Business” share the history and trends in customer support.
Why Cheap Customers Cost More
People in the SaaS or service business might have heard the argument how customers who opt for the cheapest plan always end up blocking the support queue. This brilliant blog post quashes that prejudice with a very technical explanation.
21 Customer Service Tips From Real Life Examples
All theories are put to test in the real life. So, when someone is recounting tips they have found useful in real life customer service, it just becomes doubly useful.
Tips for Getting Good Customer Support
A typical Signal vs Noise blogpost that looks things from a new perspective. It advises customers how to behave with customer support and is a good read.
Use the Public Channel for Better Customer Service
Fred Wilson is an influential venture capitalist and blogs a lot about entrepreneurship. In this particular article, he discusses the power of public channels like Twitter and Facebook for customer service.
6 Small Business Tips for Tracking Customer Service Issues on the Cheap
The Zappos Effect: 5 Great Customer Service Ideas for Smaller Businesses
The Ten Commandments of Great Customer Service
Ten Top Tips: Keep Your Customer Service Fresh
Seven Steps to Remarkable Customer Service
What Your Startup can Gain by Delivering Great Customer Service
Top Tips for a Customer Service Culture
Best Customer Service Practices
Today, competition is fierce, and customers have more options than ever – a tough combination for smaller companies trying to gain market share. Go through this INC magazine collection for tactics and case studies for improving customer service for profit and gain.
Starting Over with Customer Service
7 Tips for Better Customer Service and to Increase Customer Loyalty
How to Improve Internal Customer Service
Science Reveals Customer Service Secrets
7 Strategies for Getting Word of Mouth Advertising from Customers
How to Give Awesome Customer Service
5 Secret Laws Behind Awesome Customer Support
7 Customer Service Tips for Small Business Owners
10 things to Remember while Replying to your Customers’ Email
Email support is beneficial for both the company and the customer. Hence email etiquette is paramount. These are just a few small and simple things, easy to adopt when you are replying to your customer’s email.
4 Ways You Can Handle Customer Service Better
7 Tips for Excellent Customer Service
5 Phone Etiquette Tips for Superior Customer Service
Sharing The Customer’s Pain
Seven Top Customer Service Tips
5 Effective Strategies To Bring In Repeat Customers
How To Improve Customer Service Skills
How to Make Customer Service Departments Better
Tips for Improving Customer Service
As a business owner, you work hard to attract new customers, so you don’t want to have your efforts wasted or lost because of poor customer service. Take the time to evaluate your customer service procedures to see if there are areas that could stand improvement.
Awesome Customer Service From Threadless
3 Pillars for Awesome Customer Service In Today’s Connected World
Want to Improve Customer Service? Treat Your Employees Better
Pregnant Rock Stars – My Approach to Customer Service
10 Ways to Deliver Great Customer Service
Customer Service Tips And Techniques
6 Ways You Can Get Quality Customer Feedback
Customer Service: 5 Rules for Handling Complaints
How to Support 5,000 Customers with No Support Staff
New Relic is on a roll. Startups and huge corporations alike depend on their software to help make their apps run faster. In their official blog, they talk about how they handled support for 5000 customers. Very Insightful! What do you think of this list? Got a great resource to share with us? Drop it in the comments and we’ll update the list!
