The Art of Excellent Customer Service 101

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The Art of Excellent Customer Service 101

Hey there, I’m Bill T, the new Guru of Customer Happiness at Olark.  I just came onboard a few weeks ago and wanted to reach out and say howdy and introduce myself.

I’ve been involved in customer service, customer support and online community since the halcyon days of the first Internet bubble. I manned the CS helm for Winamp/SHOUTcast and Spinner.com prior to and during their tenure serving their alien overlords at AOL.  I built their user branding and technical support communities from the ground up as well as similar spaces for Grouper.com (now Crackle), Webot, Double Twist and most recently Topspin Media, where I was Director of Operations running worldwide Artist Support and Fan Support for record labels and musical artists.

I joined the Olark team because I share their passion for rocking your customer’s world* by setting the expectations bar high and then exceeding it first time and every time.  If I know anything at all, I know this one strong truth from long experience in customer service:  Every person who shows up at your Website with a problem or issue is an opportunity for your company.  An opportunity to turn their frown upside down  (sorry my kid made me write that) and turn them into an absolute evangelist for your company simply by providing fast, efficient, friendly, real time solutions to their difficulties.

* I also joined it for the barbecues, the blissful back porch in Palo Alto, an endless free supply of 5-hour energy drinks, and Redwood tree climbing.

This is the first of a series of blog posts about creating customer happiness, surprising and delighting your customers while simultaneously bonding them to your company like baby ducks to their mother. We’ll be covering topics like setting and exceeding expectations, how to find the right people to do your customer service, avoiding the cost minimization trap, Live chat or FAQ/KB, models of customer support including real life scenarios of massive success and the agony of defeat.

Like I said, I’m Bill T, new guy on the block at Olark and If you have any questions, concerns, ideas or free things you want to give me, hit me up as I’m always around waiting for your call.   bill@olark.com

More thoughts on the Art of Customer Service coming soon

Bill
Customer Happiness Guru
  • eigenstates

    Beware of this man. He actually gives a damn. I worked for him and I must say it was delightful as well as enlightening.

  • http://twitter.com/jesstherese Jessie

    It’s true!

  • http://www.dcmventuresinc.com/dcm-calgary-it-services/ Felciano Guarracino

    This blog will be a great help for people who want to establish better communication with their customers. I look forward to his succeeding blogs on how to keep customers happy.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=625775811 Bill Thompson

    Thanks Ferlciano.  i’ll have a new post of weekly or even more often. Follow  Olark on twitter or subscribe to our Facebook page to make sure you don’t miss anything. 

    and thanks David and Jessie. You guys rock, of course.