quality customer service

Customer Service Communication Quote – Henry Ford

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Customer Service Communication Quote – Henry Ford

“If there is any one secret of success it lies in the ability

to get the other person’s point of view

and see things from that person’s angle

as well as from your own.” – Henry Ford

Customer Service Communication Quote - Henry Ford

Here are a few more amazing quotes by Henry Ford…

  • There is no man living that can not do more than he thinks he can.
  • You can’t build a reputation on what you are going to do.
  • I cannot discover anyone knows enough to say definitely what is and what is not possible.
  • An idealist is a person who helps other people to be prosperous.
  • Whatever you have, you must either use or lose. – Henry Ford
  • If money is your hope for independence you will never have it. The only real security that a man will have in this world is a reserve of knowledge, experience, and ability.
  • There is joy in work. There is no happiness except in the realization that we have accomplished something.
  • As we advance in life we learn the limits of our abilities.
  • You can’t learn in school what the world is going to do next year. – Henry Ford
  • Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young.
  • If you think you can do a thing or think you can’t do a thing, you’re right.
  • Competition is the keen cutting edge of business, always shaving away at costs.
  • I do not believe a man can ever leave his business. He ought to think of it by day and dream of it by night. – Henry Ford
  • Quality means doing it right when no one is looking. – Henry Ford Quote
  • Speculation is only a word covering the making of money out of the manipulation of prices, instead of supplying goods and services.
  • A market is never saturated with a good product, but it is very quickly saturated with a bad one.
  • A business that makes nothing but money is a poor business.
  • A business absolutely devoted to service will have only one worry about profits. They will be embarrassingly large.
  • Nothing is particularly hard if you divide it into small jobs.
  • I am looking for a lot of men who have an infinite capacity to not know what can’t be done.
  • There are no big problems, there are just a lot of little ones. – Henry Ford 
  • Most people spend more time and energy going around problems than in trying to solve them.
  • Time and money spent in helping men to do more for themselves are far better than mere giving.
  • Before everything else, getting ready is the secret of success.
  • Don’t find fault, find a remedy. – Henry Ford
  • Even a mistake may turn out to be the one thing necessary to a worthwhile achievement.
  • Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal.
  • Failure is simply the opportunity you see to begin again, this time more intelligently.

Learn All About Robert C. ‘Bob’ Lucas Now a

Understand Why He is an Authority in the Customer Service Skills Industry

Robert C. ‘Bob’ Lucas has been a trainer, presenter, customer service expert, and adult educator for over four decades. He has written hundreds of articles on training, writing, self-publishing, and workplace learning skills and issues. He is also an award-winning author who has written thirty-seven books on topics such as, writing, relationships, customer service, brain-based learning, and creative training strategies, interpersonal communication, diversity, and supervisory skills. Additionally, he has contributed articles, chapters, and activities to eighteen compilation books. Bob retired from the U.S. Marine Corps in 1991 after twenty-two years of active and reserve service.

Make Money Writing Books: Proven Profit Making Strategies for Authors by Robert W. Lucas at Amazon.com.

The key to successfully making money as an author and/or self-publisher is to brand yourself and your company and to make yourself and your book(s) a household name. Part of this is face-to-face interaction with people at trade shows, library events, book readings, book store signings, blogging or guest blogging on a topic related to their book(s). Another strategy involves writing articles and other materials that show up online and are found when people search for a given topic related to a topic about which the author has written.

If you need help building an author platform, branding yourself and your book(s) or generating recognition for what you do, Make Money Writing Books will help. Bob’s popular book addresses a multitude of ideas and strategies that you can use to help sell more books and create residual and passive income streams. The tips outlined in the book are focused to help authors but apply to virtually any professional trying to increase personal and product recognition and visibility.

In my book Customer Service Skills for Success, I define customer service as “the ability of knowledgeable, capable, and enthusiastic employees to deliver products and services to their internal and external customers in a manner that satisfies identified and unidentified needs and ultimately results in positive word-of-mouth publicity and return business.”

The Role of Mission and Vision Statements in Customer Service

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The Role of Mission and Vision Statements in Customer Service

Most successful organizations have written mission and vision statements that answer the questions of “What do the organization do?” and “Why does the organization exist?” Mission statements should always tie back to the vision statement and should be incorporated into the infrastructure (e.g. HR policies and procedures) and the service culture of an organization. Both mission and vision statements succinctly define the service culture and how the organization will act related to satisfying customer needs, wants and expectations.

The Role of Mission and Vision Statements in Customer Service

Leadership, real and perceived, is crucial to service success. In successful organizations, members of upper management make themselves clearly visible to frontline employees and are in tune with customer needs and expectations. They also “walk the talk” and continually drive and communicate the mission and vision of the organization through their words, actions, and decisions. Ultimately, these measures set the tone for a more ethical, productive, and customer conscious organization.

If all employees are aware of what their organization stands for, how it accomplishes its mission, and where it is headed in the future, they can play a crucial role in creating a service culture that strives to identify and meet customer needs, wants, and expectations.

Part of ensuring that everyone in the organization is working toward the same goals is to ensure that all policies, infrastructure, and actions support the mission and vision statements. For example, performance appraisals should have language that addresses how supervisors, managers, and employees are doing at addressing established goals and objectives and actions taken to uphold ethical standards. Additionally, all individual and department goals should be tied to the organizational mission and goals.

Although it is wonderful when organizations go to the trouble of developing and hanging a nicely framed formal mission or vision statement on the wall, if they are not a functional way of life for employees, they serve little purpose.

For additional ideas and strategies on ways to enhance customer service in your organization, get a copy of Customer Service Skills for Success.

About Robert C. Lucas

Bob Lucas has been a trainer, presenter, customer service expert, and adult educator for over four decades. He has written hundreds of articles on training, writing, self-publishing, and workplace learning skills and issues. He is also an award-winning author who has written thirty-seven books on topics such as, writing, relationships, customer service, brain-based learning, and creative training strategies, interpersonal communication, diversity, and supervisory skills. Additionally, he has contributed articles, chapters, and activities to eighteen compilation books. Bob retired from the U.S. Marine Corps in 1991 after twenty-two years of active and reserve service.

Make Money Writing Books: Proven Profit Making Strategies for Authors by Robert W. Lucas at Amazon.com.

The key to successfully making money as an author and/or self-publisher is to brand yourself and your company and to make yourself and your book(s) a household name. Part of this is face-to-face interaction with people at trade shows, library events, book readings, book store signings, blogging or guest blogging on a topic related to their book(s). Another strategy involves writing articles and other materials that show up online and are found when people search for a given topic related to a topic about which the author has written.

If you need help building an author platform, branding yourself and your book(s) or generating recognition for what you do, Make Money Writing Books will help. Bob’s popular book addresses a multitude of ideas and strategies that you can use to help sell more books and create residual and passive income streams. The tips outlined in the book are focused to help authors but apply to virtually any professional trying to increase personal and product recognition and visibility.

Elements of a Service Culture

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Elements of a Service Culture

A positive service culture is crucial for organizations that want to remain competitive and build brand and customer loyalty.

Many elements define a successful service organization. Some of the more common are:

Service philosophy or mission: The direction or vision of an organization that supports day-to-day interactions with the customer.

Employee roles and expectations: The specific communications or measures that indicate what is expected of employees in customer interactions and that define how employee service performance will be evaluated.

Delivery systems: The way an organization delivers its products and services.

Policies and procedures: The guidelines that establish how various situations or transactions will be handled.

Products and services: The materials, products, and services that are state of the art, are competitively priced, and meet the needs of customers.

Management support: The availability of management to answer questions and assist frontline employees in customer interactions when necessary. Also, the level of management involvement and enthusiasm in coaching and mentoring professional development of employees is crucial in creating a positive service culture.Elements of a Service Culture

Motivators and rewards: Monetary rewards, material items, or feedback that prompts employees to continue to deliver service and perform at a high level of effectiveness and efficiency.

Training: Instruction or information provided through a variety of techniques that teach knowledge or skills, or attempt to influence employee attitude toward excellent service delivery.

Source: Customer Service Skills for Success by Robert W. Lucas

About Robert C. Lucas

Bob Lucas has been a trainer, presenter, customer service expert, and adult educator for over four decades. He has written hundreds of articles on training, writing, self-publishing, and workplace learning skills and issues. He is also an award-winning author who has written thirty-seven books on topics such as, writing, relationships, customer service, brain-based learning, and creative training strategies, interpersonal communication, diversity, and supervisory skills. Additionally, he has contributed articles, chapters, and activities to eighteen compilation books. Bob retired from the U.S. Marine Corps in 1991 after twenty-two years of active and reserve service.

Make Money Writing Books: Proven Profit Making Strategies for Authors by Robert W. Lucas at Amazon.com.

The key to successfully making money as an author and/or self-publisher is to brand yourself and your company and to make yourself and your book(s) a household name. Part of this is face-to-face interaction with people at trade shows, library events, book readings, book store signings, blogging or guest blogging on a topic related to their book(s). Another strategy involves writing articles and other materials that show up online and are found when people search for a given topic related to a topic about which the author has written.

If you need help building an author platform, branding yourself and your book(s) or generating recognition for what you do, Make Money Writing Books will help. Bob’s popular book addresses a multitude of ideas and strategies that you can use to help sell more books and create residual and passive income streams. The tips outlined in the book are focused to help authors but apply to virtually any professional trying to increase personal and product recognition and visibility.

Characteristics of Organizations with Strong Customer Service Cultures

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Characteristics of Organizations with Strong Customer Service Cultures

Many organizations struggle to gain and maintain strong customer and brand loyalty. However, what they often fail to do right is to create a service culture that nurtures and supports customers.Characteristics of Organizations with Strong Customer Service Cultures

The following are some common characteristics for leading-edge customer-focused organizations that you might use to help create a positive customer service culture in your own organization.

  • They have and support internal customers (for example, peers, co-workers, bosses, subordinates, people from other areas of their organization) and/or external customers (for example, vendors, suppliers, various telephone callers, walk-in customers, other organizations, others not from within the organization).
  • Their focus is on determining and meeting the needs, wants and expectations of customers while treating everyone with respect and as if he or she is special.
  • Information, products, and services are easily accessible by customers.
  • Policies are in place to allow employees to make decisions in order to better serve customers.
  • Management and systems support and appropriately reward employee efforts to serve customers.
  • Reevaluation and quantitative measurement of the way business is conducted is ongoing and results in necessary changes and upgrades to deliver timely quality service to the customer.
  • Continual benchmarking or comparison with competitors and related organizations helps maintain an acute awareness and implementation of best service practices by the organization.
  • The latest technology is used to connect with and provide service to customers, vendors, or suppliers and to support business operations.
  • They build relationships through customer relationship management (CRM) programs.

For additional ideas and strategies for building a strong service culture, get a copy of Customer Service Skills for Success.

About Robert C. Lucas

Bob Lucas has been a trainer, presenter, customer service expert, and adult educator for over four decades. He has written hundreds of articles on training, writing, self-publishing, and workplace learning skills and issues. He is also an award-winning author who has written thirty-seven books on topics such as, writing, relationships, customer service, brain-based learning, and creative training strategies, interpersonal communication, diversity, and supervisory skills. Additionally, he has contributed articles, chapters, and activities to eighteen compilation books. Bob retired from the U.S. Marine Corps in 1991 after twenty-two years of active and reserve service.

Make Money Writing Books: Proven Profit Making Strategies for Authors by Robert W. Lucas at Amazon.com.

The key to successfully making money as an author and/or self-publisher is to brand yourself and your company and to make yourself and your book(s) a household name. Part of this is face-to-face interaction with people at trade shows, library events, book readings, book store signings, blogging or guest blogging on a topic related to their book(s). Another strategy involves writing articles and other materials that show up online and are found when people search for a given topic related to a topic about which the author has written.

If you need help building an author platform, branding yourself and your book(s) or generating recognition for what you do, Make Money Writing Books will help. Bob’s popular book addresses a multitude of ideas and strategies that you can use to help sell more books and create residual and passive income streams. The tips outlined in the book are focused to help authors but apply to virtually any professional trying to increase personal and product recognition and visibility.

Customer Service Culture Quote – Jerry Fritz

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Customer Service Culture Quote – Jerry Fritz

Effective customer service cultures are driven from the top down in organizations where everyone takes ownership of interacting positively with customers and giving 110 percent in an effort to stand out from the competition.

Customer service cultures are made up of numerous elements (e.g. employees, quality products and services, effective service training, policies that address customer needs, wants and expectations, and physical service environment).

The following quote by Jerry Fritz helps define the importance of customer service cultures.

Customer Service Culture Quote - Jerry Fritz

“You’ll never have a product or price advantage again. They can be easily duplicated, but a strong customer service culture can’t be copied.” Jerry Fritz

For ideas and strategies on how to create and maintain a positive customer service culture in your organization, get a copy of Customer Service Skills for Success.

Learn All About Robert C. ‘Bob’ Lucas Now…

Understand Why He is an Authority in the Customer Service Skills Industry

Robert C. ‘Bob’ Lucas has been a trainer, presenter, customer service expert, and adult educator for over four decades. He has written hundreds of articles on training, writing, self-publishing, and workplace learning skills and issues. He is also an award-winning author who has written thirty-seven books on topics such as, writing, relationships, customer service, brain-based learning, and creative training strategies, interpersonal communication, diversity, and supervisory skills. Additionally, he has contributed articles, chapters, and activities to eighteen compilation books. Bob retired from the U.S. Marine Corps in 1991 after twenty-two years of active and reserve service.

Make Money Writing Books: Proven Profit Making Strategies for Authors by Robert W. Lucas at Amazon.com.

The key to successfully making money as an author and/or self-publisher is to brand yourself and your company and to make yourself and your book(s) a household name. Part of this is face-to-face interaction with people at trade shows, library events, book readings, book store signings, blogging or guest blogging on a topic related to their book(s). Another strategy involves writing articles and other materials that show up online and are found when people search for a given topic related to a topic about which the author has written.

If you need help building an author platform, branding yourself and your book(s) or generating recognition for what you do, Make Money Writing Books will help. Bob’s popular book addresses a multitude of ideas and strategies that you can use to help sell more books and create residual and passive income streams. The tips outlined in the book are focused to help authors but apply to virtually any professional trying to increase personal and product recognition and visibility.

In my book Customer Service Skills for Success, I define customer service as “the ability of knowledgeable, capable, and enthusiastic employees to deliver products and services to their internal and external customers in a manner that satisfies identified and unidentified needs and ultimately results in positive word-of-mouth publicity and return business.”

Employee Training and Quality Customer Service Go Hand-In-Hand

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Employee Training and Quality Customer Service Go Hand-In-Hand

Training is a vehicle for preparing employees to better serve their customers and is an essential component of any organizational culture that supports customer service. That is why the importance of effective training for customer service representatives cannot be overstated. Managers of customer-focused organizations and many customer service representatives realize this and pursue opportunities to continually hone the skills needed for quality service delivery.

To perform your job successfully and create a positive impression in the minds of customers, you and other frontline employees must be given the necessary tools to do your job. Unfortunately, during the recession, many organizations and individuals cut back on the amount of training that was received. That is unfortunate because typically when things slow down, that is a good time to ramp up your knowledge and skill levels to better compete and be prepared when things revive.

Depending on your position and your organization’s focus, training might address interpersonal skills, technical skills, diversity, organizational awareness, product and service knowledge, or job-specific skills. Most importantly, your training should help you know what is expected of you and how to fulfill those expectations.

To ensure that you are ready for the daily challenges and opportunities involved in serving a diverse customer base, take advantage of training programs offered by your organization. Check with your supervisor and/or training department, if there is one. If you work in a small company or nonprofit organization, have your own company, have a limited budget for training, or do not have access to training, look for other resources. Many communities have lists of seminars available through the public library, college business programs, high schools, chambers of commerce, professional organizations, and a variety of other organizations.

The Internet also offers a wealth of articles and information in the form of free podcasts to YouTube training videos on a variety of topics. Go to http://www.YouTube.com and search for “customer service training” and see what comes up. Tap into these resources to gain the knowledge and skills you will need to move ahead.

For additional information on developing knowledge and skills needed to serve your customers, check out Customer Service Skills for Success, How to Be a Great Call Center Representative and Please Every Customer: Delivering Stellar Customer Service Across Cultures.

Robert C. Lucas

About Robert C. Lucas

Bob Lucas has been a trainer, presenter, customer service expert, and adult educator for over four decades. He has written hundreds of articles on training, writing, self-publishing, and workplace learning skills and issues. He is also an award-winning author who has written thirty-seven books on topics such as, writing, relationships, customer service, brain-based learning, and creative training strategies, interpersonal communication, diversity, and supervisory skills. Additionally, he has contributed articles, chapters, and activities to eighteen compilation books. Bob retired from the U.S. Marine Corps in 1991 after twenty-two years of active and reserve service.

Make Money Writing Books: Proven Profit Making Strategies for Authors by Robert W. Lucas at Amazon.com.

The key to successfully making money as an author and/or self-publisher is to brand yourself and your company and to make yourself and your book(s) a household name. Part of this is face-to-face interaction with people at trade shows, library events, book readings, book store signings, blogging or guest blogging on a topic related to their book(s). Another strategy involves writing articles and other materials that show up online and are found when people search for a given topic related to a topic about which the author has written.

If you need help building an author platform, branding yourself and your book(s) or generating recognition for what you do, Make Money Writing Books will help. Bob’s popular book addresses a multitude of ideas and strategies that you can use to help sell more books and create residual and passive income streams. The tips outlined in the book are focused to help authors but apply to virtually any professional trying to increase personal and product recognition and visibility.

The Customer Service Representative’s Role in Organizational Culture

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The Customer Service Representative’s Role in Organizational Culture

Put simply, organizational culture is what your customer experiences. This culture is made up of a collection of subcomponents, each of which contributes to the overall service environment.

The Customer Service Representative's Role in Organizational Culture

Organizational cultures are developed to some degree by everyone within the organization and are driven from the top down in most organizations. Without the mechanisms and atmosphere to support frontline service, the other components of the business environment cannot succeed. When leaders fail to recognize this point and do not lead by example from a service perspective, the organization is doomed to experience poor quality of service and lose customers.

Typically, culture portrays the dynamic nature of the organization and encompasses the values and beliefs that are important to the organization and its employees and managers. The experiences, attitudes, and norms cherished and upheld by employees and teams within the organization set the tone for the manner in which service is delivered and how service providers interact with both internal and external customers.

The type and quality of products and services also contribute to your organizational culture. If customers perceive that you offer reputable products and services in a professional manner and at a competitive price, your organization will likely reap the rewards of customer loyalty and positive “press.” On the other hand, if products and services do not live up to expectations or promises, or if your ability to correct problems in products and services is deficient, you and the organization could suffer adversely.

As a service provider, you play a crucial role in making sure that your culture is positive and projected to each person with whom you have contact. Customers do not care about your policy, your physical or mental condition, whether you are having issues with co-workers or managers, or any other element that might potentially inhibit your delivering quality customer service. What they do care about is receiving quality, timely and professional services and products. Anything else will likely have them headed for the door or to the next Internet site to have their needs, wants and expectations met.

Make it your goal that each day you come to work, that you will strive to make it the best possible day for you and for your customers. For more information about customer service and organizational cultures get a copy of Customer Service Skills for Success.

About Robert C. Lucas

Bob Lucas has been a trainer, presenter, customer service expert, and adult educator for over four decades. He has written hundreds of articles on training, writing, self-publishing, and workplace learning skills and issues. He is also an award-winning author who has written thirty-seven books on topics such as, writing, relationships, customer service, brain-based learning, and creative training strategies, interpersonal communication, diversity, and supervisory skills. Additionally, he has contributed articles, chapters, and activities to eighteen compilation books. Bob retired from the U.S. Marine Corps in 1991 after twenty-two years of active and reserve service.

Make Money Writing Books: Proven Profit Making Strategies for Authors by Robert W. Lucas at Amazon.com.

The key to successfully making money as an author and/or self-publisher is to brand yourself and your company and to make yourself and your book(s) a household name. Part of this is face-to-face interaction with people at trade shows, library events, book readings, book store signings, blogging or guest blogging on a topic related to their book(s). Another strategy involves writing articles and other materials that show up online and are found when people search for a given topic related to a topic about which the author has written.

If you need help building an author platform, branding yourself and your book(s) or generating recognition for what you do, Make Money Writing Books will help. Bob’s popular book addresses a multitude of ideas and strategies that you can use to help sell more books and create residual and passive income streams. The tips outlined in the book are focused to help authors but apply to virtually any professional trying to increase personal and product recognition and visibility.

Customer Service Inspirational Quote – Sam Walton

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Customer Service Inspirational Quote – Sam Walton

“High Expectations are the key to everything.” – Sam Walton

Customer Service Inspirational Quote - Sam Walton

A key to being a successful customer service representative is gaining the knowledge and skills necessary to deal with a changing global business environment. In today’s world, it is not enough for service providers to simply be knowledgeable about their organization’s products and services. They must also have effective interpersonal skills (e.g. verbal, nonverbal and listening), knowledge of the needs, wants and expectations of different demographic groups (e.g. gender, cultural, ethnic, age and abilities), and solid customer service skills. These crucial skills can provide the tools to effectively communicate and handle the types of interactions that can occur daily in any customer-provider interaction (e.g. negotiation, conflict resolution, sales, and service recovery).

For additional information and ideas on how to deliver effective customer service in a diverse world, get copies of Please Every Customer: Delivering Stellar Customer Service Across Cultures and Customer Service Skills for Success.

Learn All About Robert C. ‘Bob’ Lucas Now

Understand Why He is an Authority in the Customer Service Skills Industry

Robert C. ‘Bob’ Lucas has been a trainer, presenter, customer service expert, and adult educator for over four decades. He has written hundreds of articles on training, writing, self-publishing, and workplace learning skills and issues. He is also an award-winning author who has written thirty-seven books on topics such as, writing, relationships, customer service, brain-based learning, and creative training strategies, interpersonal communication, diversity, and supervisory skills. Additionally, he has contributed articles, chapters, and activities to eighteen compilation books. Bob retired from the U.S. Marine Corps in 1991 after twenty-two years of active and reserve service.

Make Money Writing Books: Proven Profit Making Strategies for Authors by Robert W. Lucas at Amazon.com.

The key to successfully making money as an author and/or self-publisher is to brand yourself and your company and to make yourself and your book(s) a household name. Part of this is face-to-face interaction with people at trade shows, library events, book readings, book store signings, blogging or guest blogging on a topic related to their book(s). Another strategy involves writing articles and other materials that show up online and are found when people search for a given topic related to a topic about which the author has written.

If you need help building an author platform, branding yourself and your book(s) or generating recognition for what you do, Make Money Writing Books will help. Bob’s popular book addresses a multitude of ideas and strategies that you can use to help sell more books and create residual and passive income streams. The tips outlined in the book are focused to help authors but apply to virtually any professional trying to increase personal and product recognition and visibility.

In my book Customer Service Skills for Success, I define customer service as “the ability of knowledgeable, capable, and enthusiastic employees to deliver products and services to their internal and external customers in a manner that satisfies identified and unidentified needs and ultimately results in positive word-of-mouth publicity and return business.”

Customer Service Quote – Nelson Boswell

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Customer Service Quote – Nelson Boswell

“Here’s a simple, but powerful rule –

always give people more than what they expect to get.” Nelson Boswell

 

Customer Service Quote - Nelson Boswell

Learn All About Robert C. ‘Bob’ Lucas  

Understand Why He is an Authority in the Customer Service Skills Industry

Robert C. ‘Bob’ Lucas has been a trainer, presenter, customer service expert, and adult educator for over four decades. He has written hundreds of articles on training, writing, self-publishing, and workplace learning skills and issues. He is also an award-winning author who has written thirty-seven books on topics such as, writing, relationships, customer service, brain-based learning, and creative training strategies, interpersonal communication, diversity, and supervisory skills. Additionally, he has contributed articles, chapters, and activities to eighteen compilation books. Bob retired from the U.S. Marine Corps in 1991 after twenty-two years of active and reserve service.

Make Money Writing Books: Proven Profit Making Strategies for Authors by Robert W. Lucas at Amazon.com.

The key to successfully making money as an author and/or self-publisher is to brand yourself and your company and to make yourself and your book(s) a household name. Part of this is face-to-face interaction with people at trade shows, library events, book readings, book store signings, blogging or guest blogging on a topic related to their book(s). Another strategy involves writing articles and other materials that show up online and are found when people search for a given topic related to a topic about which the author has written.

If you need help building an author platform, branding yourself and your book(s) or generating recognition for what you do, Make Money Writing Books will help. Bob’s popular book addresses a multitude of ideas and strategies that you can use to help sell more books and create residual and passive income streams. The tips outlined in the book are focused to help authors but apply to virtually any professional trying to increase personal and product recognition and visibility.

In my book Customer Service Skills for Success, I define customer service as “the ability of knowledgeable, capable, and enthusiastic employees to deliver products and services to their internal and external customers in a manner that satisfies identified and unidentified needs and ultimately results in positive word-of-mouth publicity and return business.”

Technology Is Rapidly Changing the Face of Customer Service

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Technology Is Rapidly Changing the Face of Customer Service

Customer service is changing rapidly as technology encroaches on the traditional world of retail marketing and sales.  Customer and brand loyalty are quickly becoming a thing of the past as many customers search for the finest quality at the cheapest price through technology.  As all this occurs, new knowledge and skills related to the capabilities and operation of various forms of computer, Internet, cloud and mobile technology are being required of customer service representatives and others in their organizations.

Technology Is Rapidly Changing the Face of Customer ServiceTo give an insight into this phenomenon, think about the fact that virtually every aspect of our lives is now impacted by some form of technology. People around the world are now part of a 24/7/365 society, meaning that many have to technology 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, and can communicate at any time and in virtually from any place.

Ecommerce now dominates the retail industry. According to the website Internet World Stats, there are over 7 billion people worldwide in 233 countries and regions in 2012. Of that number almost two and one-half billion now use the Internet.  Further, the International Telecommunication Union reported that in February 2013 there were 6.8 billion mobile phone subscribers around the globe (over 96% of the worldwide population).  Mobithinking (www.mobithinking.com) reports that at the end of 2012, there were over 321 million mobile subscribers in the United States alone.

Through all this technology, consumers spend billions of dollars each year. For example, eMarketer reported in January 2013 that consumers spent nearly 25 billion dollars on orders placed through mobile technology (e.g. phones and tablets) alone. This does not include travel services and tickets purchased.  Technology sales are catching up with retail sales.

According to Adobe Digital Marketing Blog, the digital sales on Black Friday in 2012 reached approximately 1.3 billion dollars.  Some sources estimate that $1 in every $4 dollars spent on merchandise is now through technology. These numbers do not take into consideration the sales of online retailers from other countries.

To find out about products and services, many people turn to the Internet to do their research. In many cases, they are now using bookstores and other retail sources to browse potential products, and then order via technology. And why wouldn’t they when giants like Amazon and Wal-Mart are deeply discounting and in many instances offering free shipping.

Entire industries are changing as a result of this worldwide trend. An example is the publishing industry, which has virtually reinvented itself to stay competitive and meet the rapidly changing needs, wants and expectations of a global customer base. One of the biggest factors causing this change is the evolution of eBooks and electronic readers. Book prices are spiraling downwards as more people read on a technology-based device. Amazon now sells more eBooks than they do print versions.

As a service provider, if you are not staying abreast of these changes, gearing up with training and education to develop and maintain knowledge and skills, you may soon find yourself outsourced.

About Robert C. Lucas

Bob Lucas has been a trainer, presenter, customer service expert, and adult educator for over four decades. He has written hundreds of articles on training, writing, self-publishing, and workplace learning skills and issues. He is also an award-winning author who has written thirty-seven books on topics such as, writing, relationships, customer service, brain-based learning, and creative training strategies, interpersonal communication, diversity, and supervisory skills. Additionally, he has contributed articles, chapters, and activities to eighteen compilation books. Bob retired from the U.S. Marine Corps in 1991 after twenty-two years of active and reserve service.

Make Money Writing Books: Proven Profit Making Strategies for Authors by Robert W. Lucas at Amazon.com.

The key to successfully making money as an author and/or self-publisher is to brand yourself and your company and to make yourself and your book(s) a household name. Part of this is face-to-face interaction with people at trade shows, library events, book readings, book store signings, blogging or guest blogging on a topic related to their book(s). Another strategy involves writing articles and other materials that show up online and are found when people search for a given topic related to a topic about which the author has written.

If you need help building an author platform, branding yourself and your book(s) or generating recognition for what you do, Make Money Writing Books will help. Bob’s popular book addresses a multitude of ideas and strategies that you can use to help sell more books and create residual and passive income streams. The tips outlined in the book are focused to help authors but apply to virtually any professional trying to increase personal and product recognition and visibility.

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