Customer service is becoming more and more important to a business.  They have started to realise that customer service acts as a marketing tool, and is somewhat THE marketing tool for many businesses.

Here is an overview of the weeks news, that I have tailored to you!

First up, we have a piece on the Salesforce Blog.  The Author discusses the idea that price isn’t a concern for customers if it means that they are guaranteed a great service!  This is an interesting idea, and probably very true.  The blog discusses one myth and one fact! Myth: “Service is nice, but price wins customers–look at Wal-Mart!” – Fact: Some customers may buy on price, but most customers will pay a premium for great service.  what do you think?

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small biz trends talks about 5 Customer Service Lessons that we can learn from Yahoo’s Missteps.  Many Yahoo users have recently been reporting that their accounts have been hacked into – even famous people such as Sarah Palin have had issues with their Yahoo accounts. Yahoo have yet to address the issue, even though it has been reported now for several months!

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1to1media, a great source for news has been exploring the customer experience.  Lets see how you can make yourself the captain of the  customer experience ship! what it comes down to is the fact that any employee that engages with a customer is connected to giving them a customer experience. In really good companies, a focus on the customer is something that everyone takes to heart, whether it’s a cleaner, a receptionist, a call center agent, or the head of the company.

Read more to see what the ideas are

Hootsuite, the leaders in customer engagement tools for your social media, have a great blog.  This week they discuss the ideas that I believe are important.   Is Social Customer Service a Priority Where You Work?  Well is it? Many companies are on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and maybe even Instagram. Odds are you’re publishing content on each of these channels, and working to improve your brand awareness while marketing your products and services. But are you considering customer service as a purpose for these feeds.

Read more for the guys at Hootsuite

So, lets look to the future of customer service.  In the past two to three years many have started using social channels for customer service (Twitter, Facebook, Communities and more) only to find out the answer was not there (at least not as you expected). Many have also worked to build a multi-channel contact center that can handle and deliver answers to the callers’ needs. Now the question is: re you reaching your goals by using social media for customer service.

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Hope you have a great weekend and have enjoyed reading and learning from these great articles and blogs.

Use WalkMe to encourage self-service.  www.WalkMe.com