CUSTOMER SERVICE ZONE
Developing Customer Service Skills For 25 Years

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    • By Robert Bacal
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  • Technology and Customer Service
    • Technology's Failure To Improve Customer Service And The Customer Experience
    • Why Machines Can't Improve Customer Experience
  • Fallacies of Customer Engagement
    • Think Twice Before Trying To Improve Customer Engagement
    • When Customer Engagement Costs You Money
    • Examples of Negative ROI For Customer Engagement
    • Guidelines For Assessing Whether Customer Service Is "Good" For Your Company
    • Customer Engagement Case Study - Pulling Things Together
  • RADICAL Customer Service - Uncommon Wisdom
    • • Radical Service Article Index
      • Eleven Pillars of Radical Customer Service
      • The Dumbing Down Of Our Understanding of Customer Behavior
      • Myth: Customers Pay More For Better Service
  • Dealing With Angry, Difficult Customers
    • Understanding Angry Customers: What They Want
    • The Most Common Error Made With Angry Customers
    • Techniques To Defuse Difficult and Angry Customers
  • Other Service Topics
    • Just For Small Business: Beating The  Guys By Winning Customer Experiences
    • How To Develop A DEEP Understanding Of Your Customers
    • Removing Functionality: The Case of The Missing Marriott Desks
    • NEW! The Defusing Angry Customer Crossword Puzzle
    • Shotgun Analysis of Customers Via Big Data As Likely To Mislead As Help
    • The Modern Role For Customer Contact Staff: Trusted Advisors
    • Understanding Customer Psychology/Behavior
    • Encourage Customer Complaints And You May Increase Customer Retention (Research)

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Don't let difficult, angry customers control you. Learn to take control, stay cool, and remain professional in the toughest situations.
 

Reviewer Praise From Amazon Readers

Oh my goodness! I can't even remember how I came across this book. I was looking on the internet for something or other. I found it on the website of the author I believe. This book is EXCELLENT! Everyone needs this whether you are working directly in customer service or not, you need to get this book! It is well worth the $14 I spent on it! This is a book of great value for anyone who deals with other humans... Apply the knowledge in the book and find more success with your interpersonal interactions! (C. Taylor, 2013

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Top : Research Articles For Customer Service:

Research On Customer Service - Studies On Consumer Behavior

If you want to make effective decisions about the levels of customer service your customers require to help your company be successful, you have two choices: You can read second, third, fourth, and fifth hand interpretations of consumer research, and be at the mercy of people who probably know even less than you, or you can search out the source material -- the original research, and draw your own conclusions.

In this section we'll try to pass on actual customer service research, but be aware that a lot of the studies that are reliable, and well done are no longer available free of charge.

Also beware of studies that are sponsored by, or published by companies that sell services and consulting in the customer service niche, since they have strong vested interests in having their research come out the right way. This is particularly the case with research linking social media and customer satisfaction.

Important: : To make informed decisions from research you need to be able to make sense of it, and that requires basic research skills. You might want to check out our Kindle mini-guide that talks about research in the social media/customer service fields.

20 Companies That Know How To Pamper Their Customers by na

Yesterday we showed you the companies with the worst customer service, according to STELLAService."Find out which companies made the "elite" list with outstanding customer service."STELLAService, a company that rates retailers based on the helpfulness of their websites and customer service, has designed a ranking system to make it easier for customers to know what kind of service they are likely to receive."Here's how they rate the companies, and the stores that received the highest scores. All of the following 20 businesses were rated as "customer-obsessed." (Views So Far 1347 )

55 Percent of Customers Can't Remember Having a Successful Experience by Kimberlee Morrison

Research about what customers do when they are disappointed in customer service. Shocking numbers as follows: "In the event of customer experience failures, 66 percent of customers will stop recommending the brand. 30 percent will start looking at competitors, and 12 percent will begin posting negative messages about the brand on social media." Poor service only pushes customers to competitors in 30 percent of people answering the survey. (Views So Far 851 )

Can Customer Adoption of Self-Service Increase Service Cost? - Arie Goldshlager's posterous by Arie Goldshlager

This 2009 Study by Harvard's Dennis Campbell and Frances Frei reached a surprising conclusion on the impact of customer adoption of self-service on service cost: (Views So Far 678 )

CBC MarketPlace Report on Customer Service In Canada by CBC

Great pdf report on the MarketPlace report on customer service in Canada. Gives great insight into customer behavior in Canada, what counts, what doesn't, and best and worst companies (Views So Far 614 )

Customer Service - Return on Investment Report (pdf) by TARP

Eleven page research report presents findings on the value of customer service across industries, charts, and methods for calculating ROI for customer service strategies. pop (Views So Far 2727 )

Customer service in the lead up to Christmas | smile survey by Courtney Trenwith

Cost-cutting businesses are increasingly scrimping on customer service, according to a national survey that found Australian consumers are now less satisfied with all retailers and service providers than they were 12 months ago."While the survey named a WA based company as the best provider in the country, the head of retail in the state-claimed businesses blatantly failed to comprehend the value of customer service. (Views So Far 871 )

Customer Service Satisfaction, by Channel 2015 by Northbridge group

Brief summary of research on preferred customer service channels shocking results. Only 2 percent of people prefer social media, while phone and email, followed by chat still win. (Views So Far 746 )

Customers less tolerant of employee rudeness than incompetence by na

Rude behavior among employees can negatively affect consumer perceptions -- even when the incivility isn't directed at the customer, reveals new research from the University of Southern California Marshall School of Business. (Views So Far 713 )

Do you know what your customers think about you? by Rajkumar Venkatesan

Article ignores the fact that there is a huge gap between what customers say their attitudes are, and how they behave. Read the comment. (Views So Far 551 )

Does Offshoring Impact Customer Satisfaction? b by Jonathan Whitaker

Anecdotal reports suggest that offshoring may have negative implications for North American consumers. Despite the anecdotal reports, North American firms are increasingly offshoring front office functions such as customer service and back office functions such as IT. This leads to two primary research questions. Does front office offshoring actually have negative implications for consumers? If so, why would firms increasingly offshore in the face of evidence that offshoring has negative implications for consumers? This research addresses these questions by considering the relationship between offshoring and customer satisfaction. Customer satisfaction, expressed through the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), is an important indicator of firm performance. Higher ACSI scores have been linked to higher firm profitability, shareholder value and risk-adjusted stock returns. (Views So Far 795 )

Don't criticize your employees in front of consumers: It's bad for business by na

When employees are rude to one another, it creates a negative impression that affects consumer judgments of the company, according to new study in the Journal of Consumer Research. (Views So Far 661 )

Gartner Reveals Five Social Software Predictions for 2010 and Beyond by Gartner

Through 2012, over 70 percent of IT-dominated social media initiatives will fail.""When it comes to collaboration, IT organizations are accustomed to providing a technology platform (such as, e-mail, IM, Web conferencing) rather than delivering a social solution that targets specific business value. Through 2013, IT organizations will struggle with shifting from providing a platform to delivering a solution. This will result in over a 70 percent failure rate in IT-driven social media initiatives. Fifty percent of business-led social media initiatives will succeed, versus 20 percent of IT-driven initiatives. (Views So Far 1141 )

Global Trends in Customer Service by Marisa Peacock

A new report from Zendesk takes a closer look at some of the many factors that contribute to overall customer satisfaction. What it found is that good customer service is universal. No matter what country you're in, when you shopping or how you engage with a company, there are a few universal factors that are bound to influence your experience. The Zendesk Benchmark report examined first reply time, support channels and customer tenure to measure the health of customer service, as well as identify how companies provide support and how consumers receive it across a variety of countries. The report also highlights customer service trends across industries. (Views So Far 771 )

Linking Organizational Characteristics to Employee Attitudes and Behavior - A Look at the Downstream Effects on Market Response an Financ by Northwestern University

A set of organizational surveys was designed to focus on linking "internal performance strategies to market and financial outcomes. "In particular, our goal is to understand the organizational "characteristics that best engender the necessary employee attitudes "and behaviors to drive an organization's market and financial "success. "Focusing on non-customer contact employees, the study sought to "understand the organizational drivers of employee satisfaction and "employee engagement (the degree of employee motivation and "sense of inspiration, personal involvement, and supportiveness), and "the downstream effects of these employee attitudes on customers "and financial performance. Data was obtained from a stratified "random sample of 100 organizations in the U.S. media industry, "specifically investigating the following organizational characteristics: "Organizational Culture "Organizational Climate "Human Resource Systems "Market Characteristics (Views So Far 674 )

Predicting Customer Lifetime Value in Multi-Service Industries b by Baas Donkers

Customer lifetime value (CLV) is a key-metric within CRM. Although, a large number of marketing scientists and practitioners argue in favor of this metric, there are only a few studies that consider the predictive modeling of CLV. In this study we focus on the prediction of CLV in multi-service industries. In these industries customer behavior is rather complex, because customers can purchase more than one service, and these purchases are often not independent from each other. We compare the predictive performance of different models, which vary in complexity and realism. Our results show that for our application simple models assuming constant profits over time have the best predictive performance at the individual customer level. At the customer base level more complicated models have the best performance. At the aggregate level, forecasting errors are rather small, which emphasizes the usability of CLV predictions for customer base valuation purposes. This might especially be interesting for accountants and financial analysts. (Views So Far 782 )

Research: Corporate responsibility eases customer reactions to bad service by Journal of Public Policy and Marketing

Companies that are seen as good community members and donate to causes of interest to their customers may be better able to weather storms when customer service problems occur. In other words charitable companies are more immune to the effects of angry customers. (Views So Far 580 )

Salesclerks on Santa's naughty list, some say by Joyce Smith

More American Express Research about Christmas shopping and perceptions of poor customer service. Note that AE bases its research on survey methods, and its findings are usually overstated, and do not reflect actual customer behavior. (Views So Far 812 )

Stop Trying to Delight Your Customers - Harvard Business Review by HBR

The idea that companies must "delight" their customers has become so entrenched that managers rarely examine it. But ask yourself this: How often does someone patronize a company specifically because of its over-the-top service? You can probably think of a few examples, such as the traveler who makes a point of returning to a hotel that has a particularly attentive staff. But you probably can't come up with many.""Now ask yourself: How often do consumers cut companies loose because of terrible service? All the time. They exact revenge on airlines that lose their bags, cable providers whose technicians keep them waiting, cellular companies whose reps put them on perma (Views So Far 1345 )

The Cost of Poor Customer Service by Mila D'Antonio

It would be good research if it wasn't set up as propaganda. Of course some vendors win and some lose, so the numbers are not that useful."But according to a new a new international consumer survey from Genesys Labs in conjunction with Datamonitor/Ovum called "The Cost of Poor Customer Service: The Economic Impact of the Customer Experience and Engagement," the cost of customer service in 16 major industrialized economies causes businesses to lose a total of $338.5 billion per year when customers defect and abandon their purchases as a direct result of poor customer experiences. A total of 8,880 consumers, at least 500 from each country, were selected from all ages and income groups and surveyed for the report. pop (Views So Far 2715 )

The Digitization of Word-of-Mouth: Promise and Challenges of Online Feedback Mechanisms by Chrysanthos Dellarocas

Online feedback mechanisms harness the bi-directional communication capabilities of the Internet in order to engineer large-scale word-of-mouth networks. Best known so far as a technology for building trust and fostering cooperation in online marketplaces, such as eBay, these mechanisms are poised to have a much wider impact on organizations. Their growing popularity has potentially important implications for a wide range of management activities, such as brand building, customer acquisition and retention, product development, and quality assurance. This paper surveys our progress in understanding the new possibilities and challenges that these mechanisms represent. It discusses some important dimensions in which Internet-based feedback mechanisms differ from traditional word-of-mouth networks and surveys the most important issues related to their design, evaluation, and use. It provides an overview of relevant work in game theory and economics on the topic of reputation. It discusses how this body of work is being extended and combined with insights from computer science, management science, sociology, and psychology... (Views So Far 808 )

The Effects of Service Quality and Word of Mouth on Customer Acquisition, Retention and Usage by Sungjoon Nam

This paper documents the existence of the direct and indirect (via word-of-mouth) effects of service quality on new customer acquisition, usage and retention using behavioral data from the launch of a new video on demand type service. For this technology, service quality - the quality of the signal determining the number of movies available for viewing - is exogenously determined and objectively measured. This information, coupled with location and neighborhood information for each subscriber allows us to measure both the direct and indirect effects of service quality. Our identification strategy for these effects arises from both the main effect of neighbors who have previously adopted and the interaction between the number of neighbors and their realized service quality, while controlling for other geographic and demographic covariates. (Views So Far 1040 )

The Impact of Customer Community Participation on Customer Behaviors: An Empirical Investigation by RenAlgesheimer, Sharad Borle, Utpal Dholakia, Siddharth Singh

In the current research, we employ data from a field experiment to help answer this question. The data comes from a year-long study, conducted by eBay Germany, and reveals that a simple email invitation significantly increased customer participation in the firm's community. Results also showed that community participation had mixed effects on customers' likelihoods of participating in buying and selling behaviors. Community participation did not translate into increased behaviors as would be commonly expected. While there is no impact of participation on the number of bids placed or the revenue earned, there is a negative impact of participation on the number of listings and the amount spent. Together, these results suggest that the community participants become more selective and efficient sellers and also become more conservative in their spending on the items they bid for. The results also show that customer community marketing programs may be targeted to a broader set of the firm's customers than just the fans. (Views So Far 870 )

The internal service encounter by Dwayne D. Gremler, Mary Jo Bitner and Kenneth R. Evans

Do the same events and behaviours associated with service satisfaction or dissatisfaction for external"customers apply also to internal customers? (Views So Far 2034 )

What is the True Value of a Lost Customer? by John Hogan

Customer profitability models have evolved into an important strategic tool for marketers in recent years. The authors show that conventional models may be inappropriate for markets involving new products or services because they fail to account for the social effects (e.g., word-of-mouth and imitation) that can influence future customer acquisitions. Incorporating these social effects, they show how the value of a lost customer depends on (a) whether the customer defects to a competing firm or disadopts the technology altogether and (b) when the customer disadopts the technology - distinctions often overlooked in customer profitability models. Using Monte-Carlo simulations and empirical data from the online banking industry, it is shown that the financial impact of disadoptions can be substantial. The results demonstrate that firms suffer financial losses not only when their own customers disadopt a new service or product, but also when their competitors' customers disadopt. By incorporating the effect of competitors' disadopters into the customer profitability model, the authors identify a heretofore unrecognized link between a firm's ... (Views So Far 686 )

About Company

Bacal & Associates was founded in 1992. Since then Robert has trained thousands of employees to deal with angry, hostile, abusive and potentially violent customers. He has authored over 20 books on various subjects, many published by McGraw-Hill.

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