Richard Stern

Guest Post By: Karnail Jita

Without doubt, the media is overflowing with real life stories of customer's bad experiences with call centres so let's put aside for a moment the natural desire to redress the balance for those instances where we've suffered at the hands of a customer service agent or indeed have wanted them or someone to do likewise. Think instead about those cases where a phone call or email conversation with the call centre leaves us feeling good, and realising that apart from just a few, they're not all bad. It could be the result of getting a query resolved on the first call, getting through to an agent with just a couple of key presses on the IVR, or getting a sensible explanation for that unusually high bill. 

Dig deep, we all know what makes good customer service. But what makes exceptional customer service? Perhaps it's that one time when the agent credits your account in a gesture of goodwill. Or when the agent quickly resolves your broadband...

By Michelle Norris - EMEA Marketing Manager, Jacada Inc.

We all recognize that the explosive growth of social media represents both challenges and opportunities for today's customer-facing organizations. Enlightened companies have started to recognize that the opportunities are wider and more significant than merely keeping tabs on (and trying to control) what customers are saying about them on blogs and other web sites that feature user-generated content; instead, these organizations are recognizing the value of gathering this precious feedback and using it to drive real improvements within the organization.

With this proactive approach to social media, businesses can address key customer service issues before they become PR disasters.  In fact, rather than turning a blind eye to this new way of communicating, savvy companies are now providing an assortment of social media touch points for consumers to provide...

Toyota began the year as a brand in crisis. The company that revolutionized the automotive industry with "The Toyota Way" was under siege.  Braking system failures and uncontrolled acceleration allegations plagued the company. It was forced to initiate the largest recall in its storied history. Poor crisis communications, illusions to the Audi scandal of the 1980s, inconsistent explanations and culture all fanned the flames of public outrage and undermined Toyota's response. For a fleeting moment, it looked as though the unthinkable would happen – the Japanese titan might collapse. 

And then it didn't. 

Conventional wisdom might tell you that Toyota should have lost loads of money last quarter in the wake of the company's largest-ever global recall and safety scandal. And if that's what conventional wisdom would say, conventional wisdom would be wrong. In reality, Toyota finished Q1 with a 1.2B profit. And all this was after spending a little over 1...