I’ve recently put together a white paper titled, “The Top Five Customer Service Mistakes Companies Make, and How Your Organization Can Avoid Them.” The mistakes addressed in the white paper come from working with and observing hundreds of organizations, large and small, and noting the issues that seem to come up again and again.

My purpose in writing the paper, however, was not to simply point out the mistakes. For each of the five issues addressed, I’ve offered approaches for avoiding the mistake or for making course corrections if things have gotten off track.

Recently we reported on the president of Brazil’s decree that companies operating in his country will meet certain standards in how they deal with customers. While I’m not a fan of increasing government regulation I like the idea of making customer service standards a big deal.

That’s what Tata Indicom has done. Even better, they’re telling their customers about it.

They have made five specific promises to their customers in these areas of service:

Suppose you were to walk into a dry-cleaner and the clerk is on the phone with another customer.  You put your clothes on the counter and all visual cues about your stance and demeanor indicate that you are in a hurry.  What would you want the clerk to do if you were the customer physically in the dry cleaner location?  What would you want the clerk to do if you were the customer on the phone?

A while ago I was engaged to do a customer service seminar for a city. One of the things they wanted to talk about was establishing customer service standards. So I began a search for other cities that had already established customer service standards to see what their experience had been.

My first search in Google was: “customer service standards”. The results surprised me.

One of the foundations of Amazing Service is to create and publish customer service standards (or promises). When you do this we call it your Customer Experience Promise. It tells people what to expect when they do business with you. It tells them how you’ll be treated, among other things.

This list of promises should be based on two things:

1. What your customers want from you.

2. What you are good at doing.

Here is your Daily Dose of Amazing Service:

Do what your marketing says you will

And here are some additional thoughts on this topic…

A few weeks ago I traded in my old iPod for the new Touch 3G.  To keep it clean and like new, I bought a case for it from a company called Riot Outfitters. When I had a question about the case I decided to contact them using Twitter. After I found them on Twitter, I was pleasantly surprised by their Twitter profile which says:

“Made to protect and serve electronic devices. Each RIOT product is loaded with goodness and style. Backed by super responsive customer service”. (emphasis added).

Very cool. Here’s a company

Here is your Daily Dose of Amazing Service:

Plant your flag

And here are some additional thoughts on this topic…

Planting your flag means to take a position and defend it. In the world of Amazing Customer Service it means you create your vision of customer service and make it happen.

Do this by making a list of what your customers get when they do business with you. Think of these as your

Last week Bruce Buschel wrote an amusingly useful piece in the New York Times on what restaurant employees should and should not do. It has been popular. A search on Google now shows 124,000 links for the title of this article.

This thrills me because the Buschel made some fine points. He offers excellent advice for anyone who manages or works in a restaurant. As a frequent restaurant customer, I applaud his list. If I found a restaurant that met every one of these standards I’d probably be speechless. But I’d also be a loyal customer because these tips make sense. They fit what I want in a fine dining experience.

“If you make customers unhappy in the real world, they might each tell six friends. If you make customers unhappy on the Internet, they can each tell 6,000 friends.”

-Jeff Bezos, Founder of Amazon.com

The days of ducking down and hoping nobody will notice when things go awry are over. These days, if customers get a bad experience, they are likely to share their story with the whole world. Internet review websites are here to stay. So, rather than ignore them or hope they’ll go away, it’s better to deal with them in a positive and proactive way.

Here are three ways you can improve online customer reviews:

1. Get in front of it

Bad online reviews from customers come from bad customer experiences. This happens when

You might call it a brand promise. You might call it your Customer Service Standards. Some companies call it a brand message or promise. I call it your Customer Experience Promise.

What you call it is not as important as what you do with it. Use it to tell your story. It tells people why they should do business with you. And it helps them know what to expect when they do business with you.

Your Customer Experience Promise comes from your customers based on what they want. It also comes from management and employees based on what the company does best. All three groups should play a role in developing your Customer Experience Promise because

Customer Service Week

Very soon (46  days to be exact) we will begin Customer Service Week. This is an opportune time for you to show your customers and employees how important customer service is to you and your organization. And to make the most of it, you should get started now.

My first suggestion is to go to this website for Customer Service Week: CSWeek.com. They have

We hear a lot about customer experience and going the extra mile for our customers. And these are good things. Every employee in every business should pay attention to these. But it’s not just the employees who are responsible for this. Management has to lead the charge.

If you want more loyal customers, the kind who come back again and again, the wonderful people who tell their friends, neighbors and everyone else about you, then you need to make service a priority across your organization. Front line employees can’t make this happen alone.

And when you make this commitment, you need to tell the world about it. Do this by telling people what it’s like doing business with you. Tell them and show them what they can expect when they become your customer.