The new old differentiator: customer service
We've been doing some research here lately on various eCommerce experiences, and we've been appalled by what passes for customer service today. Well, IBM's Irving Wladawsky-Berger put many of our complaints into words with his posting, The Critical Importance of Customer Service.
My analysis: companies that have terrible customer service look at it the wrong way. They view it as a cost and try to make that cost as low as possible. It isn't. Done right, customer service is marketing and sales with a quantifiable return. The more you spend on it (assuming you spend it wisely), the more money you make.
Dell is currently seeing the destructive results of trying to do customer service on the cheap. You'd think more high tech companies would figure this out.
My analysis: companies that have terrible customer service look at it the wrong way. They view it as a cost and try to make that cost as low as possible. It isn't. Done right, customer service is marketing and sales with a quantifiable return. The more you spend on it (assuming you spend it wisely), the more money you make.
Dell is currently seeing the destructive results of trying to do customer service on the cheap. You'd think more high tech companies would figure this out.
Technorati Tags: Differentiation, IBM, Marketing, Customer service
posted by Carl Howe at
4:25 PM
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