I really liked this piece on the lessons learned on customer service during a recession.
Lesson #1 Putting in an interactive phone response is not likely to help your customer service nor breed loyalty.
Lesson #2 Embrace the multiple channels- they are not going anywhere, but find the best way to get them into your current structure of tracking.
Lesson #3 Point of contact needs to be improved constantly. It can never be personalized too much or treated too little like an opportunity. Too often it's forgotten that a representative is probably the best chances for maintaining customer loyalty. People trust people, not gadgets or websites.
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