What is one aspect of the market you have complete control over? Customer service.

In my book Repeat Business Inc.: The Business of Staying in Business, I write that to grow market share and increase customer loyalty, you must commit to providing unforgettable customer service and resolving any problems that come up to the customer’s satisfaction. You want to be the company that is keeping customers because they believe that you genuinely care about them.

This essential principle is a common thread through five recent articles I am sharing this month.

5 Customer Service Blunders You Want to Avoid

Common customer service mistakes include failing to acknowledge customers when they enter your business and forcing them to go from one employee to the next to find the help they need, writes consultant Micah Solomon (@micahsolomon) for Forbes. He offers solutions to these and other service pitfalls.

Creating A Great Customer Experience Is Every Employee’s Responsibility

Regardless of their position within the company, companies need to train employees to focus on customer’s needs and to be able to answer basic questions when necessary, writes CustomerThink’s Anand Srinivasan (@customerthink). “Your in-house staff should always have the basic knowledge of the functions of your business,” Srinivasan advices.

6 Tips that Improve Customer Loyalty

Before you set out to improve customer loyalty, decide what that means to your business first, writes startup consultant Andrew Deen (@AndrewDeen14) for Equity.com. Showing your company’s gratitude with incentives and attention to customer service will help increase customer loyalty, he suggests. Other useful strategies include a truly unique selling proposition and increased transparency, especially where ethics are concerned.

How to Measure Customer Emotion for Service Improvement

Emotion is key to winning customer loyalty and a measurable component of the customer experience, writes digital marketer Martin Powton (@iamwizu). For his article on CustomerThink. he shares insight on defining metrics, measuring emotion in real time and using the results “help internal stakeholders identify when experiences turn bad and give them a chance to salvage these experiences instantly.”

Address This One Constant in Customer Service

Advances in technology, AI and social media offer an array of tools for improved customer service solutions, but the fundamentals unchanged, writes Shep Hyken (@Hyken). Customers just want to be taken care of. “The customer’s expectations haven’t changed. They just want to be taken care of, regardless of how you go about it.”

What are you reading? Share your must-read customer service articles in the comments below and @RealPaulRutter.

Paul Rutter is a customer loyalty, repeat business and customer service expert, a keynote speaker, corporate trainer and business author. He has had the unique opportunity to live with his customers and co-workers for months at a time traveling the world, and shares his experiences with land based businesses. For more information on More Than Perfect® Service, contact Paul at Paul@PaulRutterSpeaks.com, follow him on Twitter on @RealPaulRutter or visit him on Facebook/PaulRutterSpeaks.

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