Tricia’s Customer Service Success Blog

Are You Born for Customer Service?

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    Is the delivery of exceptional customer service a skill that can be learned, or are those who excel in customer service simply born for the job? I posed the question recently to a LinkedIn group of customer service professionals, and overwhelmingly they said they were born for customer service…

    Said Lizzie Taylor, a CSR for a UK pharmaceutical group, “It certainly has come natural to me.  I’ve always felt as though this was my only real skill. I’ve never needed training on how to deal with difficult customers, how to feel and come across as empathetic, friendly and yet professional.

    “However, we’ve all come across those, that sometimes despite feeling like they want to be in customer services, are unsympathetic and unable to place themselves in the customer’s position, and end up several weeks or months later, copying and parroting those who have this natural sense of service.” Read More

    Video is Worth a Thousand Words in Customer Service

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      As the average human attention span and level of patience grows shorter, video has become an attractive alternative to wading through the written word. Spend a day or two reading 100+ pages of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s luxurious writing in The Great Gatsby? Most people today would say no way. Watch the whole story in a little over two hours? A $51 million opening weekend doesn’t lie….

      In long or short form, video presents a viable alternative to reading, writing and searching through manuals, instructions and lengthy online content. There’s a magic to the medium that makes even the most mundane subjects bearable – and sometimes, even interesting, helpful and entertaining. Read More

      Parature Named 2013 CRM Excellence Award Winner by TMC and CUSTOMER Magazine

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        Parature is pleased to announce that the company is a recipient of a 2013 CRM Excellence Award™, presented by TMC and CUSTOMER magazine. CUSTOMER has been the premier publication in the CRM, contact center and teleservices industries since 1982.

        Parature is being recognized by CUSTOMER magazine for its industry-leading multi-channel customer engagement solution being used by more than 3,000 customers across the globe. Parature’s cloud-based platform enables customer support teams from mid-market and enterprise organizations to engage simply and effectively with customers and prospects through the Web, email, chat, mobile and social networks to provide the best possible customer experience and support. Read More

        The Genius Behind Apple Customer Service

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          Setting the bar for customer service excellence has never been more challenging, but a few brands continue to rise above the rest, including Apple, which recently topped the ClickFox Brand Loyalty Survey for the second year in a row as the brand consumers can’t live without and was ranked Best PC Tech Support by Consumer Reports. While the development of Apple’s technology may be complex and secretive, the development of its customer service delivery is anything but. It all comes down to human emotions and basic psychology.

          E for Empathy, Emotions and Empowerment

          Just like with its product and packaging design and development, nothing is taken for granted when it comes to the Apple customer experience. Every touchpoint is meticulously engineered based on tried and true customer service traits, including empathy. Read More

          9 Ways to Measure Social Customer Service

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            What stands between businesses deciding that social customer service is just another can of worms they’d prefer not to open and the flourish of an enterprise social butterfly? Often, it’s the lack of available metrics for this emerging channel, or simply, the proper means to measure it.

            Many organizations either aren’t measuring social customer service yet, are manually recording interactions and outcomes in spreadsheets, or are siloing social customer service and data because they haven’t yet incorporated social support with the same workflow and analytics used for other channels.

            The organizations that have begun using and measuring social media as a customer service channel are garnering impressive results, however. For instance, as highlighted at the recent Gartner Customer 360 Summit, McAfee has witnessed an 85%+ improvement in call deflection though social customer service, while Mint.com enjoyed a 70% reduction in support tickets in a period of just 90 days. Read More

            Parature Best Practices Lunch and Learn Features CRM Analyst Paul Greenberg

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              Companies perceived to be out of touch with their customers in this hyper-connected, I want it my way, I want it now world, quickly fall out of favor with the public. And though they typically have no choice in their service provider, government constituents are still at heart, customers. They desire good service and are more likely to be engaged and show appreciation when they receive it.

              With social media in place as a mega-phone-like sounding board for complaints and poor service horror stories, there’s an increasing demand by the public for change. Coupled with Executive Order 13571, federal agencies are becoming the leaders to streamline service delivery and improve the multi-channel constituent experience. Read More

              Free eBook: Parature’s Unparalleled Guide to Multi-channel Customer Service

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                In less than the time it takes most people to find a good show on TV, Parature aims to make you a semi subject matter expert in the basics of multi-channel customer service with The Unparalleled Guide to Multi-channel Customer Service: The 9 Most-watched Customer Service Channels and How to Successfully Tune into Them All.

                Parature’s new Unparalleled Guide eBook series is designed to deliver expert advice and insights into the customer service trends and processes that matter most to businesses and organizations serving a large or quickly-growing customer base. Read More

                Boston and the Continued Case for Social Media Monitoring and Response

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                  It’s been a week since the Boston Marathon bombings, and the analysis of the event, its media coverage and emergency response and communications efforts are well underway. Much talk over the weekend centered around major media outlets and their rush to be the first to get information and push it out, whether or not the facts had been confirmed.

                  One early matter of confusion the day of the event resulted from initial reports and tweets, including by Reuters, that there had been a related third explosion at the JFK Library. The Reuters tweet of a third explosion was retweeted more than 8,000 times, while different information was being reported by both the Boston Police Department and the JFK Library (click here to read more):

                  Read More

                  INFOGRAPHIC: Connecting with Mobile Customers

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                    Mobile isn’t just another customer service channel; for the majority of consumers, the use of mobile devices is a part of everyday life. According to Morgan Stanley, 91% of smartphone users continuously keep their mobile phone within arm’s reach.

                    Because of its pervasive use and convenience, customer service on mobile devices including smartphones and tablets has quickly come of age. Customers expect both personalized and self-service options when seeking real-time support, communication or information from businesses and organizations, and doing this via a smaller screen, or across social media on smartphones and tables, is proving to be a new challenge that organizations large and small must quickly adapt to. Read More

                    4 Best Practices for Better Government Customer Service Delivery

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                      Government agencies are adopting customer service best practices that have been tested and honed over the past several years by commercial brands and are utilizing them to quickly level up to even the most demanding customers’ service and support expectations. Improved information delivery and better communication across more and new channels are finally loosening the grip on the public’s perception that they have to fight through red tape to get service. Here are four commercial best practices that are increasingly being used by government agencies to deliver more effective and efficient engagement:

                      1.  Using a knowledgebase to deliver consistent self-serve information across channels. For the second year in a row, American satisfaction with services provided by the federal government has increased, according to the American Customer Satisfaction Index, spurred by more and better information available online. Read More

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