This past week, Apple released its most recent addition to its repertoire of electronic gizmos and gadgets.  Selling nearly 300,000 on its release day, the iPad is what you would call “the mother-load.”  It takes every electronic item you own and compresses them all into a 9.7 inch screen that is only half an inch thick.  I'm waiting for them to add a kitchen sink app.

Apple has pretty much given their customers everything they access on a daily basis on a silver platter (well, a white pad) and made it easy to access, which is the epitome of customer service—providing easy access to what customers need when they need it.

With that in mind, let’s consider what we are (or are not) offering to our customers.  Customers don’t come to us unless they need something and when they realize they need it, they need it right now.  Not tomorrow, or next week, but right now!

So how do we accommodate them?  First of all, have information readily available all day, every day.  Knowledgebases, online forums, and online self-help centers are pivotal to keep information easily accessible to our customers on their schedules. 

We also need to provide communication options for customers.  If they want to talk to a real person, they should be able to do that.  If they would rather have an online conversation, they should be able to do that. 

All avenues of communication should be open to our customers, which also means providing a place for them to give feedback on how well they think we did in our service to them. Surveys, online comment boxes, and forums - all great tools for feedback.

Above all, our service should be done gladly.  The customer is why we are here. We should want to provide the best products and service possible. 

We should want to be their iPad.