Great customer service should be a no-brainer for any company — field service companies in particular. After all, a great experience can mean the difference between a customer for life — and your competition’s customer. Here’s what customer service experts have been saying about providing great customer experiences each and every day:

First-Class Service with a (Wearable) Wink

From firefighters to plumbers, there’s a lot of buzz around Google Glass’ prospects in the field. Add the airline industry to the mix. Virgin Atlantic is looking to equip its airport customer service reps with Google’s digital glasses to assist first-class passengers with check-in, weather updates, destination advice, etc., according to TheNextWeb. If a six-week pilot program at London’s Heathrow airport is successful, it may not be long before we see wearable tech in the field at 35,000 feet.

Read more at TheNextWeb

Customer Service Quotables

Fonolo, the call center solutions provider, culled 50 of its favorite customer service quotes from experts such as Shep Hyken and Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh. A few highlights:

  • Thank your customer for complaining and mean it. Most will never bother to complain. They’ll just walk away.”Marilyn Suttle
  • “Being on par in terms of price and quality only gets you into the game. Service wins the game.” Tony Allesandra
  • Businesses often forget about the culture, and ultimately, they suffer for it because you can’t deliver good service from unhappy employees. — Tony Hsieh
  • A customer service apology is stronger with a personal touch.” — Shep Hyken
  • Well done is better than well said.” — Benjamin Franklin

Read the full list at Fonolo

Proactive — not Reactive — Service Wins the Day

Michael Lytle, director of global technology service and operations at Extreme Networks, has some sage advice for field service pros everywhere: Proactive service = happier customers who need less support. For example:

  • Provide supporting materials – “Release notes, technical articles, how-to video links, and white papers can be valuable resources.
  • Make recommendations – “Being a trusted advisor means you have the knowledge and courage to recommend software/firmware revisions and features that they should consider utilizing. Or equally important, software/firmware revisions and features they should avoid using and explain why.”
  • Offer best practice suggestions – “Customers appreciate it when subject matter experts offer advice based on their own experience & knowledge.

Read more on the Extreme Networks blog

What Great FSEs All Have in Common

“What top 5 qualities are necessary for a FSE to have in the changing landscape of field service?” Gary Jewett, field service engineer at Kodak Alaris, posed that question to the members of the “Field Service Engineer” LinkedIn Group . And not surprisingly, customer service and communication are among the most desired (and necessary) skills these days as techs are asked to do much more than turn a wrench. A tech can’t sell or represent the company well without top-notch service and communication skills.

Read more at LinkedIn

Want Happy Customers? Start with Happy Employees

Shep Hyken has some simple advice: show employees the love, and they’ll spread it to your customers. “Romance the employee, and they romance the customer,” quips Hyken, who offers five tips for sharing the Valentine’s Day love with your customers:

  • “Pick up the phone and just say hello!  No strings attached, no hidden agenda, just a friendly ‘thinking of you on Valentine’s Day’ call.”
  • “Publicly thank your customers and your employees via social media. Tweet out your appreciation. Post something on Facebook. Create a Valentine’s Day video on YouTube.”
  • “And most important, say thank you! Show appreciation. This goes for both customers and employees. It can be a note, a card, or even a box of candy.”

Read more on Shep Hyken’s blog