Customer Service in a Challenging Economy
Today’s customers want an experience that engages them and gives them a reason to remain connected to you. Their mindset is one that is fickle, demanding, vocal and not very loyal. You must differentiate your organization with customer service by providing memorable experiences that will separate you from your competition and improve your customer loyalty. Read this white paper to discover Customer Service Expert, Lisa Ford’s strategies for improving the customer experience.

Lessons in Loyalty: How Southwest Airlines Does It - An Insider's Point of View
Southwest Airlines recognized long ago that they were in the Customer service industry, they just happened to fly airplanes. Subsequently, they built and maintain one of the most faithful Customer bases in existence today. Read this white paper to discover the principles and practices that, when implemented correctly, will boost the level of Customer loyalty in your organization, ultimately positioning your company as a leader in your industry and giving you a tremendous competitive advantage.

Five Big Mistakes Customer Service Teams Make - And How to Avoid Them
Your customers have never been more important than they are today; happy customers are loyal customers and customer retention is the key to any organization’s success. Customers expect and demand a positive customer experience and organizations that provide it are creating a powerful differentiator between themselves and their competition. Read this white paper to discover: The 5 big mistakes customer service teams make; surefire ways to avoid these mistakes; lessons from organizations that adhere to best practices in service delivery to provide a superior experience each and every time they interact with their customers.

2010 Technical Support Salary Survey
All indications are that the customer experience has never been more important than it is in today's service environment and the ASP Salary Survey supports this notion. Despite the national unemployment rate hovering around 10%, this year's survey shows that support jobs haven't experienced the same casualties that have occurred in other people-intensive occupations; overall the support industry remained relatively stable and might be labeled an 'almost' recession-proof industry.

Multi-Channel Service: Enhancing the Customer Experience
Enhancing the customer experience has never been more important than it is in today’s economic environment. Customer satisfaction and retention are critical to any organization’s success and initiating a customer-centric culture and focus on the customer experience is essential to that end. This white paper explores the importance of providing customers with choices for their preferred method of support. Multi-channel service options, such as self-service via knowledgebases and downloads, live chat sessions, mobile applications, social networks, and easy issue escalation paths via the Web to improve the customer experience and increase customer satisfaction.

The Cult of the Customer
The customer experience has never been more important than it is in today’s service environment. Customer service is driven by the customer experience and the people inside a company provide that experience – whatever employees experience on the ‘inside’ is similar to what customers will experience ‘on the outside.’ This white paper explores concepts, lessons and strategies that will show you how to build a customer service culture that will make your customers and employees ‘amazing.’

How to Improve Customer Retention by Building Emotionally Engaging Customer Experiences
In this recession-driven environment, companies are clamoring to increase revenue and save costs; customer retention is even more vital than usual. Read this white paper to discover how to not only retain customers, but have your customers become advocates for you, recommend you and stay loyal to you.

The Impact of Social Media on Customer Service and the Customer Experience
Discover the importance of incorporating social media into your multi-channel customer service and support strategies.

How to Tell Anyone Anything: Coaching Your Service Team to Success
Those who manage people know that it is often challenging to provide ‘constructive criticism’ or feedback without causing their employees to become defensive. All too often human nature and an instinctive need to defend ourselves takes over, resulting in resentment or resistance to suggestions for change. This white paper explores a fresh new approach to coaching service professionals. An approach based on recent developments in the psychology of how we communicate with each other focusing on strength-based coaching versus deficit-based coaching.

Delivering Exceptional Customer Service to Gaming Communities
Discover the importance of ensuring that this Web-savvy community, that expects the best online gaming experience from their providers, receives a dynamic support experience that closely parallels their in-game experience.

Using Web-based Support Tools to Improve Customer Service (version 2009)
Organizations must strive to remain the leading service destination so they can hold the most influence over their own brand, impressing existing and potential customers with options to self-serve via knowledgebases and downloads, live chat sessions, and easy escalation paths.

2009 Service & Support Metrics Survey
This annual survey, conducted by SupportIndustry.com and sponsored by Parature, is designed to explore the state of enterprise service and support - technology adoption rates and deployment plans, financial challenges, workforce issues, performance metrics and other industry trends. Respondents were comprised of a cross-section of executives - senior-level managers responsible for a range of enterprise help desks and customer-facing service desks and contact centers, representing the spectrum of vertical sectors. Of these executives, 45% manage customer-facing support operations, 16% oversee internal help-desk functions, and 39% manage both.

What to Say to a Porcupine: Strategies for Dealing with Difficult Customers
As a customer service and support professional, it is imperative that in today's challenging service environment you learn how to deal with difficult customers to deliver on your goal of making them happy and increasing retention. Explore some of the latest techniques in communications skills and behavioral psychology to break down the mechanics of difficult customer transactions, learning the skills that will help both you and your customers feel at ease in any situation.