By: Amy @IWantItNowBlog Clark

In this year’s best of Customer Support we took a look at how to say no to a customer without losing them, how customer service has to be effective, that customer service in not customer experience, who comes first your customers or staff and the challenges of always improving your customer support.

1. How to Say No Without Losing The Customer

Small businesses that have no room to expand are sometimes forced to refuse taking new orders or business that they cannot handle. Here are some tips by Minda Zetlin on how to do this without harming your reputation and credibility.

2. Surprise! Customer Service Doesn’t Need to be Delightful – Just Effective

Kate Leggett’s article provides exceptional insight into customer service challenges and into customer’s tolerance for them (hint: they have precious little patience for difficult service interactions at all.

3. Customer Experience Isn’t Customer Service

If you’re still struggling to explain to others the difference between customer experience and customer service, this article by Michel Falcon is one you’ll find informative and important.

4. Customer Service – Which Comes First – The Customer or Your Staff?

In this article by Kristina Evey she takes a strong look at the importance of hiring the right people to represent you in customer service, but also in creating engaged and interested employees. She argues that you can’t have quality customer service without employee engagement.

5. Never Stop Improving Your Customer Support

Scott Hargroves article challenges us to keep changing, and keep focusing on customer support as a priority in our business. He draws on a number of examples in order to keep us all thinking about the next steps and next set of extraordinary customer support ideals.