I know that everyone has had a poor customer service experience at some point; I have had my share – my cell phone provider, an online clothier, & my ‘favorite’ airline.

Outside of the huge amount of hold time, my greatest complaint had to do with lack of integration. In each instance, the “send an email” feature never connected with my profile, I never got a response and my email (the first contact) couldn’t be accessed by the CSR when I called to follow up.

By contrast, I was pleasantly surprised when I made a call at lunch to enroll in a special incentive program. I initially tried to enroll online, but kept getting an error. So I naturally waited two days, and reluctantly called into the customer service department expecting a hassle. I was completely wrong, the CSR addressed me by name (I had entered my SSN) and knew that I had tried to enroll online Tuesday evening. He helped with my selections and even provided information that wasn’t given in my original notice.

So what makes this experience so different? CONNECTIVITY – knowing that your customers/ prospects have logged in, attempted to access your product or service and then helping them correct the issue.

So I ask, at what point in the bell curve does the cost/ time of updating/ integrating your multiple channels offset the attrition of customer dissatisfaction?

Do think about customer service as a key component of your engagement strategy. Also, by allowing your business to access important information about your consumers - you will look smarter in serving them well.