The authors say it very clearly, and I’ve said it in the past as well, “Customer service is generally so bad that even a slight improvement can be a huge competitive advantage.” Customer service is critical for client retention as well.

Here are 9 important reminders + revelations from B-A-M!:

1. Tie customer service to revenue & profits. Barry Moltz and Mary Jane Grinstead (authors of the book) make it very clear that the nice, fluffy, altruistic reasons for providing great customer service aren’t enough. You have to tie the support you offer to revenue and profits. That starts by understanding the economic value of each customer, and then understanding how customer service is implicated in generating that revenue (and future revenue). This is all about cold hard cash.

2. Proactive support is key. In many cases, responding after a problem has emerged is too late. In that circumstance you tend to be dealing with angry people. But proactive support is all about reaching customers before the shit hits the fan, alerting them to problems, or reacting to what you see in terms of product usage. So look at what metrics you track on usage, and use those metrics to trigger proactive interactions with customers. For example, you might find a customer isn’t using your product a lot. Having that as a metric versus baseline usage (or expected usage) is a great way for customer support to reach out and ask, “Why? And, how can we help?

3. Think of customer service as a feature. The more you think of customer service as an intrinsic feature of your product and not some ancillary thing you “have to do”, the better you’ll be.

4. Think of customer service as part of your brand. You don’t get to define and control your brand like you used to. Your customers, prospects and users have taken it over. And that means how you service people has become a huge part of your brand awareness and value.

5. Tie customer service to surprise. I’m still obsessing over Surprise and its uses and implications for Web businesses. Surprise should be incorporated into your customer service initiatives. This shouldn’t be done by “under promising and over delivering” (I agree with the authors of the book – this is bogus). But it can be done in a much more subtle (and proactive) way. Matt Brezina, founder at Xobni, calls at least one customer per week to stay close to his customers and make sure things are going well. That’s smart for customer service, word-of-mouth marketing, brand building and PR.

6. Consistency is key. You want every interaction a customer has with your company to be very similar. You don’t want customers having a great experience one day only to be hugely disappointed the next. That inconsistency will make any great customer service you provide a moot point. This means investing significantly in training your staff and having well thought out policies in place.

7. Empower your people. Customer service people are treated like shit. The jobs are often low paying and the work isn’t easy. You need to empower these people to make decisions on-the-fly and respond effectively to customers. If every “tough situation” results in escalation to managers, you’re going to eat into profits and have more frustrated customers.

8. Loyalty programs work. The book has a section on using loyalty programs. They do work. But just to remind us that Barry and Mary Jane aren’t hippie socialists trying to kill companies by forcing them to spend all their money on customer service, I had to include this quote:

“Let’s be clear. We appreciate loyalty. Companies that treat customers with dignity and respect want to reward that loyalty–but the primary purpose of loyalty programs is to create velvet handcuffs to lock our customers in and have them come back even when they have a choice.”

9. You should sweat the small stuff. The authors point out that even “…tiny slivers of a customer’s total experience has the potential to affect the big feeling the customer has for the company.” This speaks to the issue of consistency, and the importance of each and every customer interaction for the overall success of your customer service initiatives, and ultimately your business.

B-A-M!: Delivering Customer Service in a Self-Service World is a fairly quick read with some very good reference material / checklists at the back. In my mind we still have a lot of work to do in terms of elevating the importance of customer service inside the hierarchy of organizations. Too often, customer service is an afterthought, something scrambled together piecemeal to deal with customer complaints. That’s simply not good enough.

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“As an empirically-based economist, I would like to know whether there are studies that show the impact of twitter, Facebook and other social networking sites on business growth. I have a client (I do a small bit of consulting) that is pushing hard to get “into” social networking to grow the business. I am a bit reluctant, because there is no way to “control” the message. If there’s even one former customer that is unhappy with my client, the negative effects can be explosive. I also wonderwhether paying Google for per-click exclusive use of specific words can really grow a business. Your thoughts would be most welcome!”

I’m so intrigued by this question and its implications that I thought I’d offer up my answer here and also ask you, dear readers, for your two cents too.

First though, are there non-empirical economists? What would that mean? That they follow economic theories even when actual real-life data proves them wrong? Hmmm…

More seriously, the first comment I have about this question is that the writer is already out of step with modern reality. As merchant after merchant has demonstrated, there is no controlling “the message” any more and the sooner marketing and PR people accept that, the sooner they can start helping their clients in this brave new world. Control always was an illusion anyway.

Given that fact, it also means that your customers, your competitors and your marketplace are already having discussions about your products, services and employees, and they’re having it in online forums, whether it’s a protest group on Facebook (“United Airlines Sucks!”), a persistent hashtag on Twitter (#attfail) or just a meme that travels from blogger to blogger.

The question then isn’t whether it makes sense to delve into social networks even though you can’t control the message, the question is whether you’re paying attention to a medium where the message has long since escaped and has a life of its own. This means that your customer defines your brand. It’s not about expensive TV spots, it’s not about the right Pantone color in the logo when printed, it’s not about the company at all.

This is both terrifying and exhilarating because it means that good companies with good products — like Apple with its insanely popular iPod line — can benefit even without any branding or marketing efforts, and bad companies — like United Airlines — are going to suffer from a bad reputation even as they spend money advertising and trying to position themselves as a market leader.

My take is that it’s “step zero” to monitor what’s going on in the social media space. Even if you don’t want to participate, which is a mistake, you should at the very minimum be paying attention to what people are talking about. You can use individual services like search.twitter.com, but far smarter is to use a more sophisticated monitoring tool like Filtrbox or Radian 6.

There are many studies, some apocryphal, others actual more rigorous scientific research, on the topic of social media on business growth, and a quick search of Google will reveal quite a collection of data on the topic. Intuitively, though, if your customers are already talking about your product, service or competitor, how can that discussion not have an impact on your business, for better or worse?

My take away is this: if you are truly going to help your clients succeed in the brave new world of 21st Century business, you need to enthusiastically embrace social media, jumping in and learning best practices from such books as Trust Agents, The New Community Rules, The Tipping Point and Groundswell, along with by participating in the communities. The key is to remember to engage with your customer base, not just join these social media sites to create new bully pulpits for your marketing and sales messages.

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First, you will want to check that people can find your order form easily and hassle-free. You can write a clear, concise paragraph to direct your prospects to your order form so that you can minimize the chances of them getting lost. You can also reduce the chances of losing prospects by putting a prominent link to your order page from every other page on your site.

Also, do you offer multiple payment options?

Some people may feel comfortable paying via Paypal, some may only want to pay with their credit card and others might want to send a cheque. The more options you offer, the better your chances of covering your prospects’ desired payment method. After all, it wouldn’t make any sense to sell hard to a prospect only to find that they won’t be able to pay you when they want to.

On the other hand, you will want to prove that you are a credible merchant. Is your order form secured using encryption technology? You would want to look into SSL for this. You can also offer a money back guarantee so that people will feel confident about buying from you. How about after sales support? Who do they contact when they have problems after purchasing?

Alternatively, you can add customer testimonials, your contact information, address, and so on to boost your prospects’ confidence. Make them feel safe about buying something from you, a total stranger to them on the other end of the Internet.

As a conclusion, it would be very pitiful if you sold hard and sold well to a prospect and something goes wrong when he or she is ready to pay. Eliminate any chances of that to maximize your profits!

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In the past, there is actually no need to put logos in stores or in the products. This is because there is little competition and oftentimes, towns only have one clothing store, restaurant or general store. But today, things have changed. From everyday necessities such as toothpastes and soaps to expensive jewelries and clothes, there are literally hundreds of different suppliers and retailers. Competition is stiff, that is why most of these vendors are looking for the best way to make their products stand out among the rest.

Picture you are in a grocery store. You need some soaps and shampoos. So you went to the section where these products are displayed. You will be surprised to know that there are quite a number of brands to choose from. If you are the kind of customer who doesn’t stick to one brand you will have a hard time choosing which brand of soap or shampoo is best for you. But most customers today look for consistency and familiarity when it comes to products they need on a daily basis. Hence, a good logo will create a differentiating characteristic of a brand that will eventually become familiar to customers.

Simply put, business owners use logo because they are good stimulants that once a customer sees a particular logo they will immediately remember what brand it is. With the seemingly complex way of modern life today, people just don’t have a lot of time to research all the benefits and features of each brand. They simply take note of the logo and know immediately what these products are all about. In addition, with the advent of the Internet, shopping has never been easier. Just like when people shop in stores, they also look for familiar brands when browsing through the Internet. Hence, when you have a good logo people will not have a hard time recognizing your brand. Logos are in a way the simplest, most direct way of promoting your business. It is like an overall statement of what you are about, minus the lengthy statements. Since logos are distinct graphic images, they can easily create name recognition and easily entice your target customers.

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When individuals are considering a purchase, they pass through various stages in order to make a buying decision. These steps include: problem recognition, information search, alternative evaluation, purchase decision, and post-purchase behavior. regardless of the product you’re selling, consumers move through each of these stages and they do so at varying rates.

Although you have the opportunity to differentiate yourself and your offering at any stage of the decision making process, the biggest barriers often occur when evaluating alternatives. Consumers put different weight on different elements associated with the purchase.

For example, someone may be considering two different automobiles and each has features not offered by the other. However, some of those features will be more important. Perhaps one car offers a bumper to bumper warranty and the other offers none. If this is one of the most important decision criteria, other criteria that are not met are often overlooked.

To help consumers overcome obstacles and make a buying decision, differentiate your offering and remove risk. These are some of the most powerful tools you can use from a marketing perspective to improve purchase behavior. Testimonials are a powerful way to give the impression of risk reduction. When consumers see the value others have received, they begin to lower their guard. Add a no-hassle guarantee and much of the risk is removed.

Testimonials are powerful when users can find others in similar situations (had the same need or problem) that were helped by your solution. We buy based on references. So create references that support your business. Ask customers for testimonials and publish them to your web site(s), emails, and brochures.

Remove risk with a guarantee that’s clear and meaningful. I recommend testing your offers with a guarantee versus no guarantee. No-hassle guarantees are similar to rebates in that they are rarely abused but do a lot to lower purchase barriers.

Reassure your prospects that they are going to make the right decision. Testimonials and guarantees are essential for giving them buying confidence and security. Cultivate testimonials and add a guarantee to your offering to grow revenue and improve conversions.

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