In any business, your customer is always your top priority. Providing quality customer service means catering to their needs as best you can. But before you can cater to those needs, first you have to understand them. What do your customers want? What matters most to them? These may seem like simple questions, but more often than not, companies get it wrong.

What experience do your customers have when they engage with your brand? On the surface, it may seem like a trick question. After all, every customer experience is different, right? Well, yes, to some extent. But even so, the experiences need to be consistent. They’re a reflection of your brand and what you stand for. Therefore, you need to do everything in your power to make sure every customer experience represents your brand in the best way possible. How can you do that? Use customer experience architecture to design exceptional customer experiences. Here are some tips:

“The customer is always right.” This old maxim is more than a little clichéd, but there’s still a fair amount of truth to it. If you want your company to succeed, you need to put the customer first. It has to be not just a maxim, but a way of life, throughout your organization. So how can you do it? What steps can you take and policies can you implement? Here are six traits your organization needs to excel at customer service. 

SpiceCSM believes in exceptional experiences and customer satisfaction in all interactions. Our platform was created with one goal in mind; to create an experience that will wow customers, and excite agents. By providing a flexible, interactive, and intuitive platform, companies can transform their customers’ interactions into winning experiences. Great customer engagements empower growth through customer and employee satisfaction, and SpiceCSM was created with the passion and power to do just that.

I recently read an article for Searchcrm.com titled “Self-service success rates plummeting, but why?” The article showed how the rates have fallen over the past years. (See graph below) The fact is that it can be more painful then helpful. Self service is meant to help you solve your own issue.

On the topic of outsourcing, ComputerWorld UK (March 2010) states: "Companies expressed frustration with the quality of work being provided, according to a survey, but most businesses still said they chose the cheapest outsourcing option instead of the best quality. Nearly all businesses - ninety-four percent - admitted that the focus on cost was increasing the likelihood of their projects failing." It is our belief that when companies search for an outsourced help desk, they are willing to sacrifice quality of support for low pricing, resulting in serious negative impact on customer satisfaction and retention. With that said, we are also firm believers in the power of an outsourced help desk solution. The key, as with many other functions of a fine-tuned organization, is to do your homework first. Here are three important topics (not directly related to cost) for you to think about when selecting an outsourced customer service or support help desk provider: