Customer Service News

• High school offers customer support curriculum as elective to students [1to1Media – requires free registration to read]
• New Facebook loyalty program changing the face of customer rewards [AllFacebook]
• Meanwhile, loyalty app Viggle aims to do the same with TV viewers [CRM Daily]
• Will outsourced call center jobs be moving back to the US in greater numbers?  [The Washington Post]
• Forrester reveals the Top 15 Trends for Customer Service in 2012 [Forrester]
• Speaking of which, what are your peers’ customer service priorities for 2012? [MyCustomer]

Will 2012 be the year when Marketing and Customer Service come together to deliver consistent customer experience on social media [Social Customer]

How channel switching is part of Thomas Cook’s multi-channel strategy [Travolution]

Food delivery company Seamless finds Twitter success through a dedicated team and quick responses to customer queries [Business Insider]

Successful customer interactions hinge on both the message and the medium, indicates Convergys 2011 U.S. Customer Scorecard Research [CSM]

Optus launches dedicated online customer support forum to address customer issues and foster discussion amongst customers [Delimiter]

How online retailer Live Out There used Facebook to communicate with customers during Web site downtime [Yahoo News]

Supermarkets use IBM Smarter Commerce to equip customers with high-tech offerings [MarketWatch]

Financial institutions increasingly use social media to resolve customer issues [MarketWatch]

But many Americans still have reservations about mixing personal finances and social media outlets [ZDNet]

Customer personal information hacked on Zappos.com; company toll free line temporarily shut down  [TheStar.com]

Proactive contacts with “shopping cart abandoners” can increase purchases [1to1Media]

Customer Effort Score and Net Promoter Score: the value of customer service metrics [ITWebBusiness]

• The power of positive language: six words you should use to improve customer service [CBS News]
• Feedback fatigue? Why some consumers are tired of being surveyed [USA Today]
• New ‘social currency’ allows customers to pool their credit card rewards [ABC News]
• How customer-centricity is changing the pharmaceutical industry [Business2Community]
• And finally, check out these predictions on how social customer service will evolve in 2012 [eConsultancy]

Amazon takes the lead in online customer service; Netflix flounders [Forbes]

But can customers really tell the difference between online service and overall brand performance? [MSNBC]

New Facebook app lets Citi customers pool points in social media [Washington Post]

Six months after its launch, Google+ is still viewed by some as business-friendly space [1to1Media]

Nightmare customer service interaction makes for viral video [NPR]

Customer Service News

• Check out these predictions for the customer experience in 2012 (and read ours too!) [Customer Think]
• New study tests customer expectations for social media service [All Facebook]
• Speaking of social media, here are the Top Ten Lessons we learned in 2011 [Forbes]
• And finally, new daily deal company Womply takes customer loyalty ‘to the cloud’ [Fast Company]

Customers are increasingly likely to share positive service experiences, according to survey [MarketWatch]

But social media is taking customer conversations behind closed doors [PCWorld]

Credit unions beat big banks in customer service ratings [Fierce Finance]

Stores offer customer free shipping, but is it always good for customer service? [The Street]

Customer Service News

• Customers use supermarket chain Tesco’s free customer Wi-Fi across its 200 Tesco Extra stores to compare product prices and read reviews as they shop (ZDNet UK)
• Customers spend four minutes on average on online security checks before abandoning an online retail transaction or turning to a competitor (MyCustomer.com)
• Seven ways IT can help improve customer service (Global CIO)
• The 6 rules of online customer engagement—it’s about putting your customer first. (Business2Community)
• Salesforce.com’s customer service suite joins Dell’s growing cloud platform for CRM and related functions specifically for small and medium businesses (SMB)
• Verint earns recognition from Frost & Sullivan for driving call monitoring and WFO technology in Asia-Pacific and demonstrating best practices in strategy, processes, planning and execution across various regional and global markets in Latin America (MarketWatch)

CCC’s blog is relatively young…we’re coming up on our second anniversary in early 2012.  What that means is that we are very much still experimenting with different types of posts and different functionalities for the blog itself.  One feature we added in 2011 is the ability to do real-time polling within our blog posts.  As we wrap up the year, we thought you might like to revisit some of our more popular questions to view the final results!

If these polls are any sort of window into the minds of our readers, then here is what we know about you:

1. You were torn on making a choice, but ultimately you think that social media is a viable, long-term option for service.
2. Indeed, you are tech-savvy…and would love to see QR codes become a new channel for service.
3. Forget the major IVR investments though!  You’re keeping it simple with low-cost fixes.
4. Everything to everyone—generalists are your employee of choice.
5. Keep it simple with those folks though…only 1-2 web chats at a time, please!
6. Your adherence policies do not give much leeway when it comes to reps taking a short “time out” after a difficult call. Read More »

• New study finds social media an ineffective tool for boosting customer loyalty [All Business]

• And speaking of loyalty, just how effective is your customer loyalty program? [Forbes]
• No surprises: mobile service, social media top early list of Customer Service Trends for 2012 [TMC Net]
• Companies slow to respond to record customer volume over Black Friday weekend [Destination CRM]
• Mobile payment app Square adds customer loyalty benefits, other new features [Tech Crunch]