Good experiences must last from beginning to end

Laurie Brown at the Examiner recently wrote an article about a recent expreince she had as a traveller. She and her husband had hired a tour guide to show them around a city, and had a wonderful experience until the very end of the trip. The abrupt end to their tour as well as unkind parting with the tour guide left them with a negative feeling about the experience.

Are you making sure your customers receive quality customer service from the beginning to the end of the interaction with your company? I think it is especially important in these tight economic times that the customer receives a great experience, from beginning to end, as they can easily find alternatives to your service. What steps are you taking to ensure that this takes place?

Twelpforce: Best Buy's new customer service

In an article at the Examiner, they look at Best Buy's new effort to reach a tech-savvy crowd with customer service. They've launched a new Twitter, Twelpforce, to combine both online customer service and online marketing and sales. Customers ask questions either @Twelpforce or add the hashtag #twelpforce to their entry, and someone within Best Buy will respond to your question. Employees from throughout the company will be chipping in to answer questions from customers. This launched on July 19, and has since accumulated 2,531 customers.