Ad Nederlof, Chairman of Genesys and author of Customer Obsession: Your Roadmap to Profitable CRM kicked off this morning talking about customer service. He spent considerable time on the results of a survey they did. The bottom line: good customer service is the surest step to customer loyalty and the surest way to differentiate yourself.

he talks about what customers want:

• No waiting. Why don't more companies let you enter your phone number and then call you back?
• First call resolution -- no transfers. Know who's calling and know their history with the product.
• Personalized service. Refer to past experience. Let customers know you know them. Only possible if you have all the relevant information.
• Finally, customers want to be satisfied.

There is very little middleware that links the ERP systems that customer service depends on (such as CRM systems) and the relatively unstructured world of faxes, telephone calls, and emails. The goal ought to be optimizing the communication with customers. VOiP is a significant enabler in this regard. Lots of companies are working on this but proprietary routing (of all communications) is a significant hurdle.

One of the thoughts I had while listening to Ad is what recent innovations in the social software space inform or affect customer service. That, of course segues right into some interesting Cluetrain links.