How can you not love the viral power of the Internet? Besides all the silly memes, troll faces, LOL Cats and weird videos, said power is also responsible for creating ripple effects throughout whatever industry is being targeted. Just ask …

The outsourcing of customer service is a topic of much consternation, silly sitcoms be damned. The horror stories of customer service call centers are to numerous to detail here, so much so in fact, it seems people have learned to …

We’ve all been on the phone frustrated with the customer service rep who we need to dictate all of our information to even though we just typed it in via our telephone key pad. We’ve all had problems with internet service providers or cable operators who can’t seem to fix our problems.

Have you noticed members of your community posting customer service related questions on your Facebook Page? Or perhaps you have now revised your customer service and customer relationship management processes to integrate Twitter as part of your programme.

Co-authored by Jay Baer and Amber Naslund

“Once upon a time, customer contact was centralized around the switchboard, and the phone was the preferred method for communication between companies and customers. When it rang, you answered, because it was likely a customer or a potential customer on the other end of the line. Now, the calls are coming through online, via the social phone.”

Listening. It’s a mantra we’ve heard PR, marketing and social media consultants preach to brands for the last two years. But, how many brands are really listening to their customers online?

I’m not talking about responding to comments on Facebook or Twitter. That’s fine, but at this point, it’s table stakes, don’t you think?

Earlier this month comScore released its Q2 retail e-commerce sales estimates, which indicated that US online retail spending dropped from the same period from last year. This is only the second time that has happened.

A while back, I wrote a piece on a company called IMShopping, which was using Twitter for a fresh approach to eCommerce. Essentially what the company was doing was using a Twitter account to answer questions consumers have about products they are seeking, aiming to bring a human element often lacking in the online retail world.

WebProNews looked at some interesting research from Forrester and Shop.org this week, which indicated that while online retail sales have been increasing, those for the majority of web-only businesses have actually remained flat or on the decline.

One startup launching this week thinks injecting a little human touch into eCommerce can be a way to combat this. Naturally, Twitter is the medium the company’s using to do this.

The problem with being a dominant company comes when one treats customer service as another expense.

As this past year at Yahoo! has been my first year working for what I’d consider to be a large company, I’ve become more interested in strategies around running and operating companies efficiently. My past experiences have been with startups or small companies where a lot of the challenges that larger companies face don’t exist.

The term "social media" might conjure up images of tossed sheep or sparkly profile pages, but a new study proves businesses need to take it seriously.  Consumers are quite willing to both share bad experiences and learn about what’s happened to others.

Do you use the web to complain about poor customer service? (Maybe I should say "thanks," because you keep me busy with reputation management clients).

Well, if you do, you’re not alone. According to a new study by Society for New Communications Research 59% of respondents said they regularly use social media to "vent" about a poor customer service experience.

When it comes to taking care of customers, there are no mysteries; only the desire to invest in and support an effective customer service presence stands between companies like Google, and the joy they can deliver to people.

Around 87 percent of consumers conducting transactions online have experienced problems according to a survey commissioned by Tealeaf and conducted by Harris Interactive.

Uber customer service snafus like Jet Blue aside, a business is bound to catch a customer on a bad day – or vice versa. This can spawn a fiery blog post which, in plain view of Google, can morph into an issue with “negative fiscal ramifications” for the business in question.

I’ve had two customer service encounters today that have me pondering—again—the link between PR and customer service. If public relations is the management and maintenance of relationships between organizations and their core audiences, customer service should be considered a linchpin. Customers have to be considered a vital audience, and in today’s world, word-of-mouth from customers is worth more than dozens of expensive, traditional PR, advertising, or marketing campaigns. Yet many companies continue to blow it on this most fundamental of activities.