The brave die never, though they sleep in dust:
Their courage nerves a thousand living men.

– Minot J. Savage

Here in the U.S. it is Memorial Day, a holiday honoring the men and women who served our country in the armed forces.  When you risk your life for what you believe in - to me that is the ultimate service.  I'm a lover, not a fighter, however, I do respect those who go to battle all in the name of justice and freedom.  My father served in the Navy for 20 years, so I understand and can sympathize with military families. 

You'd be hard-pressed to find anybody in business willing to risk their life for the company they work for.  If you know of anybody, let me know!

Photo Credit:  Jackie

Welcome to the "How To" edition of the Customer Service Carnivale. This edition is full of advice and tips from creating loyal customers to being a resource for customers to saving money on customer service. So take a break, sit back, relax, and enjoy all the good reads!

We all love satisfied customers, but wouldn't it be better to have loyal customers? Kathy C. of The Thriving Small Business provides great tips on how to turn customer satisfaction into customer loyalty.

I believe that people who offer great service have great leaders who inspire and motivate them. Here are some tips on how to motivate a team.

Are you a resource for the community of people who support your business? If not, you may want to follow these tips on how to be a consumer tool provided by the FindItLocall411 Blog.

If you have an e-commerce business, you may want to consider these tips on how to hire staff to help customers.

Paul Hopkins offers a tip on how to drive down costs and improve service.


That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of customer service carnivale using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

Browsing through Twitter, I came across a great customer service tip from Caroline Cooper of Zeal Coaching:

Not providing consistent customer service is one of my pet peeves!  

By the way, Caroline specializes in hospitality training and coaching, so if you work in this industry, I recommend checking out her blog and her twitter stream (@carojcooper) for more tips!

Welcome to the Spring Fever edition of the Customer Service Carnivale!  I call it "Spring Fever" because I didn't get very many submissions due to my mistake of not announcing or scheduling a carnivale at my Blog Carnival page.  I ran into a bit of spring fever and it slipped my mind.  I apologize for that!   Perhaps it's good that we have less submissions because now you can read all of them ;)

(Internal) Customer Service Tips

• Deb Bixler presents Sales Consultant Training Recruiting. This article could be applied to those of you who are in charge of hiring and/or recruiting customer service associates.

• When you're done hiring new employees, you should then follow these steps to welcome your new employees.  After all, employees who feel welcome and comfortable in their new workplace are more likely to be welcoming towards customers!

• After you've hired and welcomed your new employee, you'll now need to know: How to Retain Employees – Ways for Retaining Good Employee

Customer Service News

Tom Cole presents New FCC Regulations to Protect Buyers in the Phone Card and Calling Card Industry

Thanks to all who contributed to this edition! Submit your blog article to the next edition of customer service carnivale using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

It's been awhile since I've been in a Home Depot (HD) store, but Alan Gregerman's post, "Dear Home Depot", reminded me of past issues that the company had with customer service. 

Right before firing Bob Nardelli (now former CEO) a few years ago, Home Depot had announced that they would invest $350 million to improve its stores and service.  I think I've been in Home Depot only once since that announcement (I started shopping at Lowe's), but I do recall the friendliness of all the associates I walked by during that one visit.

I did notice that a Home Depot Customer Care representative left a comment on Alan's post with links to the company's Twitter and Facebook profiles.  I checked out Home Depot's Twitter stream and was pleasantly surprised by how engaging and helpful their Tweeters are.

Have a Home Depot customer service story to share?  Leave a comment!

Photo Credit: jclarson

I'm currently working on putting together a seminar about using social media to enhance the customer experience.  So I've spent the past week doing research and discovering all kinds of neat ideas and tools that businesses can use to create a better experience for their customers. 

So today I read this article about a company called Parature who has just launched this Parature for Facebook application.  The application will show up as a "Support" tab on your company's Facebook page where customers can post questions and your customer service department can reply back.  There is also a chat feature where customers can chat with one of your reps right from the Facebook page.

Click here to find out more features about Parature for Facebook.

What are your thoughts about this new social networking tool to communicate with customers?  Would you consider using it?