Your Source for Providing a Better Customer Service and Customer Support Experience

Listening to customers is the most important action a business can take to gain their trust, according to the recently released 2012 Edelman Trust Barometer.

The Barometer, which surveyed more than 30,000 respondents across 25 countries, shows that while 67% believe that listening to customers is important for building trust, only 36% believe that businesses are doing that.

The actions that round out the top five trust builders for consumers are:

1. Listening to customers (67% believe it’s important, 36% believe businesses are doing it)
2. Providing high quality products or services (67% believe it’s important, 48% believe businesses are doing it) Read more »

Forrester Research Senior Analyst, Kate Leggett, recently revealed Forrester’s Top 15 Trends for Customer Service in 2012. Trend topics focused on agent empowerment, how customer-centricity will drive continued service improvements, and the increased adoption of enabling solutions to effectively respond to growing customer expectations.

In Trend #8, Leggett highlights a burgeoning buzzword in customer service: agile channeling. Via agile channeling, a customer’s service experience and customer service information transfer seamlessly across multiple channels, both on the CSR and customer side. So when a customer Read more »

Stop by Parature’s Facebook page this week and vote on which customer service channel you have used recently to get quick answers to questions – or which customer service channel you think would provide the fastest response. Is it live chat, social media, a self-serve knowledgebase with FAQs or another customer service channel?

We look forward to seeing what everyone thinks!

Click here to visit our Facebook page.

What can Superbowl ads teach us about wowing our customers? Here are three time-honored takeaways – with a sneak-peek of Volkswagen’s 2012 Superbowl commercial, “The Bark Side.”

It’s all about the presentation. You may have the best product in the world, but if you don’t present it in a way that interests or appeals to your customers, you’re missing out. Engagement enhances everything. Notice how the Volkswagen brand name is only mentioned in the last few seconds of the ad. Volkswagen engages consumers prior to the sell or any promotion of their product. Consumers will share and promote the brand not only because they have a positive view of Volkswagen, but because Read more »

It’s our goal to share compelling quotes and interesting tweets that we feel can help our followers, customers and potential customers learn best practices and discover new information and trends to improve customer service delivery and ensure a great customer experience.

To keep up to date with weekly customer service tips, articles and information, follow us @Parature.

@hyken Customer service is not just on the front line. It starts inside an organization, and it starts at the top.

@KateNasser Customer service is a brand’s 24 hour global billboard.

@Econsultancy Profiling the social gamer: infographic bit.ly/zsH37b
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If you are interested in sharing links to valuable customer service or customer experience articles recently featured on Twitter,  post a comment here. We’d love to hear from you!

It’s said that when you’re interacting with someone and smiling, that person can perceive you’re smiling, even if they can’t see you. So what do your customers perceive with they interact with your customer service representatives?

Within many organizations, CSRs don a perpetual frown as the low-paid, low man on the corporate totem pole. But that perception is changing as more businesses and organizations recognize their customer service representatives’ direct impact on Read more »

Parature provides a common-sense guide to delivering extraordinary customer self-service in the January 2012 issue of CRM Magazine. The article titled, “Customer Self Service: Give Your Customers What They Need Without Them Having to Ask,” features three key tips for providing customer self-service across any industry. It  is part of  CRM Magazine’s Best Practices Series: A GUIDE TO CUSTOMER SELF-SERVICE SOLUTIONS – Helping Customers Help Themselves.

Click here to read the article in the digital issue of CRM Magazine or access the entire best practices guide here.

This year, the number of people using Facebook is set to top one billion. That’s one-seventh of the world’s population. Creating a customer service strategy for Facebook that can easily apply to all major social media venues should be at the top of your organization’s to-do list.

As the social audience exponentially expands (Google+ is expected to reach 400 million users this year; Twitter: 250 million active users; LinkedIn: 300 million users), use the eight key actions below as a guide to better prepare your organization to use social media as a customer service channel.

1. Assemble your social media team. As social media continues its move from a marketing tool to a method of customer communication and support, organizations should consider bringing their social media account management in-house, if they haven’t already. For those companies that choose to retain PR firms to manage their social media efforts, representing agencies must Read more »

Last year, we learned from some of the world’s biggest and best businesses what to, and what not to do, when it comes to customer service and communication. Let’s take a look back at five constructive lessons for moving forward with exceptional customer service in 2012.

One:

Looking Back: Bank of America announces a $5 monthly debit card usage fee. Verizon introduces a $2 “convenience fee” for paying bills by phone or online. Netflix ups its prices 60%, divides its services and suffers a renaming meltdown. Netflix CEO posts on Facebook two days after suggesting the new Qwikster brand name: “In Wyoming with 10 investors at a ranch/retreat. I think I might need Read more »

Leading CRM thought leader Paul Greenberg has announced his 2012 CRM Watchlist on ZDNet.com, and Parature is pleased to be among this year’s winners in the technology category. Click here to read Greenberg’s 2012 CRM Watchlist announcement.

The list, according to Greenberg, “plays a very specific role in the pantheon of technology companies and service providers. It’s comprised of those companies that I think that we all should be paying serious attention to, regardless of size or revenue, because one way or the other they are going to make a difference in a customer-centric world – at least from the standpoint of technology and innovation in that area.  And most importantly, to the customers that actually use them to enable their customer strategies and programs.”

Criteria for Watchlist selection included management; state of technology products; partnerships/alliances; mission/vision; market presence/impact; thought leadership and corporate culture. Parature is honored to be part Read more »