We’re often told of the value of ‘going the extra mile’ in the course of our interaction with customers. But what does the phrase actually mean? It’s surely about going above and beyond the call of duty.

As we have discussed in previous blogs, e-learning as a format is extremely easy to update and re-think should you find newer, more relevant material for your employees. If you’ve already got a course in place, you are given a perfect platform to expand, streamline or revamp wherever you see fit.

In order to stay ahead in customer service, innovation and adaptability must be at the forefront of any coherent business plan. The companies with the most successful, effective customer service teams are those that are constantly seeking perfection through new technologies, consumer behaviour and the practices of their competitors.

Some are born with excellent customer service skills and some need to have customer skills thrust upon them. Either way, if you want a successful business with a profitable client base, you cannot live without them.

We’ve established that customer service is a vital component to any successful business and previous blogs have offered all manner of suggestions with regards to good practice, tailoring it according to the needs of clients, dealing with complaints effectively and pitfalls to avoid.

Being on the receiving end of poor customer service is an experience very few of us forget, but implementing a streamlined customer service policy is not as straight forward as we may think. Below, we list the key contributing factors towards ‘worst practice’ customer relations and how to avoid them.

The world we live in today does not reflect kindly on automated responses. The hyper-immediacy with which we can register complaints and display them in public forums, there is no longer any room for complacency when it comes to our customer base.

It doesn’t matter what line of business you’re in, interaction with customers in one form or another is guaranteed. Ensuring that the highest possible standards in customer services are not only reached but maintained is something that all companies worth their salt aspire to, but too few actually achieve.

Customer service should be the easiest thing to master from a business point of view, but it is often the aspect that gets paid the least attention. If it’s done well, then the reputation of your company will increase dramatically.

Gradually, more and more businesses are finding e-learning solutions to be a successful and cost-effective way of solving their training needs. That being said, a large number of them are running into problems when it comes to developing and implementing their e-learning projects.