If you have worked in any kind of customer service position, chances are you have heard the phrase, "The customer is always right," from those in management positions above you, who hoped to instill some sense of diplomacy within you during your often rushed training sessions. What these managers often fail to explain (but we all very well know) is that the customer is not always right, but in most cases, you should make them feel that you understand their complaints and will take everything they say into consideration in order to make their future customer service experience better. Focusing on customer retention and satisfaction will build a better brand for the company through everyday subtle marketing and results. You want to gain a reputation for excellence and accountability when things go wrong. There are two important ways to do this—diplomacy and accountability, which both go hand in hand, and survey and application, which are two of a kind.

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It's over. You hang up the phone, close the chat window, log out of social media. Finally, after endless waiting and going back and forth, your customer service issue is resolved. Your computer now works again, your money is being refunded, or some kind of resolution has been reached. After a minute, that relief wears off and it registers just how terrible the whole experience was.

It shouldn't be that way. While there is a lot of information available on how businesses can improve their customer service, here is some information about what consumers can do when they have experienced poor customer service.

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Is your company's help desk up to date? Test your business with Giva's recent article 13 Ways to Develop Your Company's Help Desk Best Practices to find out what your company does well and what they can improve on.

A strong help desk is often the cornerstone of good customer service. Your company needs to be sure that its help desk is optimized and that your customers are getting the service they deserve. Giva's article suggests various tools and strategies for developing a help desk that satisfies your customers' needs.

There comes a time in every person's life where they face what can be a dreaded situation—a lack of knowledge on a subject. Whether you missed the memo or just genuinely have a lack of knowledge of the subject at hand, this can be a very embarrassing situation. This is especially true when you are in a business or professional setting, and people depend on you to have all of the answers.

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When it comes to the help desk of any business, customer service is key. However, with the constant evolution of business and methods of doing things comes advancements that are cost effective, businesses must make sure they are also customer service friendly. Many businesses have taken to implementing "smart technology" as a first response system for customer service and distress. If you have ever called a business with a question only to get a computer system that takes you around and around before you even get the option to speak to an actual customer service representative. It can be quite frustrating. With all of the cost saving technology that is coming into existence and being implemented into customer service programs, it is important to remember that serving the customer is the actual goal.

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In business, companies are always looking for new techniques to ensure customer loyalty and capture new customers into a relationship of lifelong loyalty to their brand. Believe it or not, there is a very simple, even old school technique for garnering this kind of loyalty from your customers. It's simply aligning your business brand, whatever that may be, with customer service. You may not think something as simple as this can actually generate new business, but It would be a mistake to discount it because of its simplicity.

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For years now, many businesses have been moving to create a customer-focused culture. Putting together teams to work on projects that are too large for one individual is not a new concept either. When a team works together, it should be with the same customer-focused mentality that the business always strives to promote.

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"Your call is important to us. Please hold for the next available representative." The previous two sentences are likely among the most hated in the English language. At one time or another, everyone has had to give up the Google search and call the company help desk. Cue the elevator music and wait, and wait, and wait… or not. It is time for companies to stop putting their customers on hold and start solving their problems.

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The help desk is the face of the IT organization—it must be efficient and credible, or else it will bring negative consequences. However, the traditional help desk is antiquated and completely unprepared to keep pace with exponentially evolving business demands.

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