I brought coffee and doughnuts. Help yourself. Coffee is completely decaf/nonfat/no cal and the doughnuts calorie and fat free. The perfect virtual coffee break.

It's Friday. Time to let some others do the heavy lifting.

Here are the links to some recent blog posts that I think will be of interest to those of you in customer service and support: CSRs, Managers, Supervisors, and those just plain interested in Customer Service and Customer Support.

Empathy in Customer Care - Lose Your Fear!

This is an excellent post by Kate Nasser of Intersperience that tries to figure out why empathizing with difficult customers can be so....well, difficult. It has an additional link with more advice at the bottom.

The Whole IS Greater Than the Sum of of It's Call Center Parts

This post from the Customer Relationship Metrics blog reminds us not to lose sight of the forest for the trees. Just because each part of a customer call was handled well doesn't mean the customer experience as a whole was positive or successful, especially from the point of view of the customer. Post written by Carmit DiAndrea on Customer Intelligence Services and Insights blog.

Are Your Service Recovery Actions Memorable or "Meh?"

Glenn Ross writes on the AllBusiness blog about a service recovery experience he recently had that rated a "Meh." He goes on to tell why that is and what the consequences are to the company he was dealing with.

Well, I think by the time you read through these your head will be stuffed with thoughts, so I will quit now and save some for next Friday.

Have a good one!