Four Keys to Great Customer Service

Nov. 27 (Bloomberg) -- Anyone who has survived a marathonphone session with an Internet service provider knows thefrustration, not to mention the elevated stress level,associated with today’s automated world. In many cases, customerservice has been supplanted by do-it-yourself phone menus andwebsites. In some cases, do-it-yourself beats doing it with areal person.

What got me thinking about the value of good customerservice was a recent experience with bad -- make that awful --phone support. It doesn’t seem as if it should be all that hardto do right. Surely corporate executives weigh the costs andbenefits of having an adequate staff of well-trainedrepresentatives to field customer calls and provide solutions ona timely basis. Market research confirms that a happy customertends to be a customer for life. Bad service, on the other hand,costs the company in lost sales. And customers are much morelikely to tell friends about their negative experiences thantheir positive ones.