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8 min read

The role accents play in customer service

If you haven’t yet seen Sorry to Bother You, it artistically and absurdly illustrates the very…

Article
9 min read

From geniuses to ninjas—why companies are branding their support teams

It’s Saturday. I walk up to the bar feeling cool and confident, but also anxious. Not…

Article
7 min read

If you want customers to trust you, trust your agents to make them happy

Maybe I just caught him on a bad day, but John Tschohl, an expert on customer…

Article
9 min read

Customer service in the sharing economy: a delicate balance

The sharing economy is a whole new beast. This is the economy by which people use…

Article
17 min read

Tackling difficult topics head on: A conversation with Amy Gallo

The author of the HBR Guide to Dealing with Conflict and a contributing editor at Harvard…

Article
7 min read

Jenny Dempsey teaches that your health is a unique ecosystem all your own

How many health and wellness listicles have you favorited? You know, those stories like: “5 foods…

Article
7 min read

The Empathy Economy: Care, so your customers will too

I probably don’t need to tell you this, but trust is in short supply these days.…

Article
6 min read

Take it from Zappos—holiday hiring is everything

Though it’s only September, many companies are already deep into preparation for the upcoming holiday season.…

Article
13 min read

Founders are leaning in to service when launching customer-focused startups

How startups can leverage customer feedback to build better relationships

Article
14 min read

Take care of yourself, your team, and your customer—in that order

The four components of customer anger I outlined last week—the situation, its ramifications, baseline stress, and…

Article
9 min read

Customer entitlement: the high price we all pay

Every year, with the help of technology and data-driven insights, companies get better and better at…

Article
6 min read

Improving the customer experience: why UX writers and customer service should team up

I was terrified the first time I filled out my taxes. Combine dense government jargon with…

Article
8 min read

What women leaders bring to contact centers

Sarah Stealey Reed remembers a pivotal moment in her career as a contact center leader. She…

Article
4 min read

Machine translation—is it good enough for customer support?

In 1954, at the first public demonstration of a machine translation (MT) system, researchers from IBM…

Article
5 min read

Would you like a boxed water with that? Retailers reenvision the customer experience

Shopping used to mean spending hours in a crowded galleria that smelled faintly of churros and…

Article
6 min read

Unexpected and exceptional customer experiences, moment by moment

Back in 2007, FreshBooks CEO Mike McDerment wrote a post on his company’s blog musing about…

Article
8 min read

Smooth returns; return customers

Nothing simmers more comfortably on our back burner than stuff we need to return to the…

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