• Customer Service Management (CSM)
"Monthly magazine with featured case studies (available online) regarding customer service."

• Customer Service Management Journal (subscription)
"Industry journal, with a professional readership of several thousand, is available by subscription and is also free to anyone joining CSM Focus."

• Customer Service Review
Institute of Management and Administration (IOMA )

• Customer Support Management Magazine
"Customer Support Management is the only enterprise-wide customer relationship management publication, focused on customer service & support, for senior-level and management readership across all vertical industries."

• Customer Service: A Journal of Theory, Research and Practice
International Customer Service Association

• Online Customer Service (subscription)
ZDJournals

• 1to1 Magazine
"... highlights the achievements, case histories and newest developments in CRM. Our mission is simple: provide a trusted source of timely, relevant, useful and stimulating information about the ongoing one-to-one revolution."

• 1to1 Direct / Inside 1to1
"INSIDE 1to1 is a free, email newsletter published weekly. It's written by the partners and staff of Peppers and Rogers Group and is a quick, easy-to-read update on the latest one-to-one strategies, success stories and technologies."

• Sales & Marketing Automation

• Sales & Field Force Automation
The executive's guide to Customer Relationship Management

• Service News
"Service News is devoted to the news of the $73 billion IT Service, Support, and Training market with monthly coverage of Support Center Products, Support Center Services, Hardware Maintenance, and Training & Certification."

• Service Scan
"The Information Service Dedicated to the I.T. Service, Support and Training Industry"

• Customer Support Consortium Reading List

• Customer's Point Of View: Proper handling of client feedback can build loyalty among the contented, win back the disgruntled and increase sales by Jill McCullough
Business First of Columbus, 26 February 2025

• Forget 'One and Done' For E-Commerce? by Art Rosenberg and Paul Anderson
CommWeb.com, 07 February, 2001
"Do new modes of customer contact work within the traditional framework of solving a problem on the first call? Not necessarily."

• Amtrak Introduces No-Questions-Asked Service Guarantee by Sue MacDonald, Planet Feedback, 27 July 2025
Amtrak has issued a no-questions-asked guarantee for its passengers. If for any reason you're not happy with your train trip, bring the problem to the attention of an Amtrak employee. Ideally, your problem will be resolved right there on the train.

• Gallup's Discoveries about Building Brand Loyalty by Dr. Bill McEwen
Gallup, The Brand Management Column, June 19, 2025
"Marketing 101 teaches the four "P's": product, price, place promotion. But… there is a fifth "P" that is so dominant that it overshadows the other four when it comes to building a brand relationship. People -- or customers facing employees -- represent the fifth "P." Gallup recently completed a survey of more than 6,000 consumers to determine the relative role of each of the five "P's" in building brandy loyalty across a number of product and service categories. The conclusion: Both in high-end (automobiles) and low-end (fast food) categories, people are a much more powerful differentiator than other factors. Why aren't marketers paying attention to people? Because they don't think of them as a marketing resource, and they are hard to control so that a consistent customer experience is provided. People are potentially the Holy Grail of relationship marketing - a meaningful brand differentiator that is sustainable in the face of competition."

• Customer Relationship Management
APQC's Hot Topic, June 2000
"Every organization has customers. Unfortunately, not all organizations have the tools, techniques, and know-how to manage the customer relationships vital to business success. APQC's information specialists have gathered links to articles, publications, and Web sites; a list of best-practice institutions; and additional resources about customer relationship management."

• Not all CSR’s are People, People by Tony Craddock
eSummit Journal on Contact Center Strategy, June 2000
"With the shortage of labor generally and management's growing desire to hire staff capable of both written and verbal communications, many CSR's may have the technical skills they need but not the emotional requirements for our customer-centric world."

• Building Customer Loyalty One Forkful at a Time by Mary Lenz
Call Center Magazine, May 1999
"… outlines Hanson's meticulous attention to detail… Hanson makes sure that everything that happens in his restaurants is quantified."

• It's the Customer, Stupid by John P. Desmond
Software Magazine, April/May 2000
"a practical checklist to use in evaluating CRM strategies and the applications that support them"

• E-customers - Are You Dazzling Them or Driving Them Away? by Tracy Wetjen
Help Desk Online, April 25, 2025
"The Customer Support Department plays a pivotal role in customer retention; superior online customer service and real-time access to answers can be the deciding factor in the customer's loyalty to your company."

• Who's Minding the Online Shop? by Renan Levy and Scott Nilson
Sales & Marketing Automation, March 2000
"While customer service is increasingly recognized as a critical success factor for the digital business, few online retailers deliver… Consumers' biggest complaints about online shopping are the inability to find information and the lack of customer service… Competition on the Internet has intensified, and digital businesses can no longer afford to ignore delivery of customer service or sales support in the online environment."

• CRM: Tying The Knot With Your Customers by Jeffrey Shapiro
CRM Supplement, Call Center Magazine, March 2000
"Two philosophies of customer maintenance and care dominate current business thinking: (1) A company that does not view its customer in terms of a long-term relationship has its days numbered. (2) You need to maintain a 360-degree view of your customer. In other words, any person at any time, anywhere, can pull up and review customer relationship data.

• Almost Half of Enterprise Computing Initiatives Don't Yield Enough Business Value to Justify Effort; Software Alone Doesn't Provide the Solution Corporations Need
BUSINESS WIRE, March 21, 2025

• Study Finds Electronic Business Provides Increased Service but Customer Service Challenges Abound
Business Wire, March 17, 2025
"Only 36% of e-customers are satisfied with their Internet purchasing experiences."

• OPM Study Says Federal HR Staff Lack Important Skills by Kellie Lunney
GovExec.com, February 29, 2025
"The majority of respondents viewed the role of technical human resources expert as the most important of their jobs, while the role of business partner -- which stresses customer service, risk-taking, and creativity on the job -- was rated as being least important by more than 50 percent of the respondents."

• Online Retailers Find Bad Service More Destructive
Synchrony Communications, January 26, 2025
"E-retailers who fail to create a positive customer service experience face double the risk of permanently driving away business when compared with their brick-and-mortar counterparts… 24 percent of Web shoppers stated that they would never again shop sites where they encountered their worst experience. By comparison, only 12 percent of consumers were permanently driven from brick-and-mortar retailers by similar experiences."

• Customer Service Drives the Future of Online Sales
Business Wire, January 4, 2025
"Ninety percent of online shoppers consider good customer service to be critical when choosing a Web merchant."

• Clicks & Calls: Strategies Cross-pollinate between Dot.com's and Traditional Firms by Janice Waugh, Managing Partner MW Productions
e-Summit, November/December 1999
"The Jupiter Communications study concluded that the 'importance of the individual in the online transaction has been greatly unrecognized... it is imperative for companies to integrate live customer service with Web sites as soon as possible... the key to growing e-commerce profits is to maintain customer loyalty by offering live on-line customer service from representatives in call centers'. However, the same report shows that less than 1% of all e-commerce Web sites offer live customer assistance and only "8% of the 69,500 call centers in the US are currently Web-enabled."

• Avoid the $6 Billion Customer Experience Gap
December 16, 2024
"39 percent of test shoppers at 10 leading online retailers were unable to complete transactions due to poor site design and inadequate customer relationship management resources. This rate of failure translates into a $6 billion loss of potential revenues this holiday season." Holiday '99 E-Commerce study is available at http://www.creativegood.com/holiday99/ indexv.html

• Federal Customer Survey Results Released by Brian Friel
Critics Call Federal Customer Survey a PR Gimmick by Brian Friel
Agencies Pledge to Act on Results of Customer Survey by Katy Saldarini
GovExec.com, December 1999
"Americans are almost as satisfied with the service they receive from government agencies as they are with service from private sector companies, according to results of the first-ever government-wide customer satisfaction survey."

• At Amazon.com, Service Workers Without a Smile by Mark Leibovich
Washington Post
November 22, 2025
"While technology has helped eliminate the tedium in many fields, most of the jobs created in the New Economy are low paying, low skilled and monotonous."

• U.S. Consumers Like Mail Better Than The Telephone When It Comes To Buying Products And Services
BUSINESS WIRE, November 11, 2025

• META Group Predicts "Serious Risk of Failure" for Leading Companies Implementing Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Initiatives
BUSINESS WIRE, October 25, 2025
"Most Global 2000 companies' current customer relationship management (CRM) initiatives are in serious risk of failure... While leading practitioners cheer their short-term successes in CRM technology, the immaturity of their long-term programs poses a serious risk of business failure."

• Avoiding Customer Service Armageddon by John Ragsdale, Clarify Inc.
Call Center Solutions, October 1999
"All companies will need to embrace this evolution of online customer service if they want to ensure loyalty in the Internet economy. Even the dot.com companies will need to integrate both the traditional channels and the Internet if they hope to deliver a worthwhile experience for their customers over time."

• Day Of Reckoning Looms For High Tech Support by Jeffrey Shapiro
Call Center Magazine, September 1999
"[High tech firms] that don’t deliver support that is as much on the cutting edge as their products may find their market share slipping…. With business models for high tech businesses changing more rapidly than ever, quality service and support are emerging as the true selling points of these firms…. And since the products and services can be found everywhere, consumers are going to expect huge levels of support and a quality of service many companies might not have."

• When It Comes To Web- Based Customer Service,
A Number Is Worth A Thousand Pictures by Marc Robins
Call Center Solutions, September 1999
"The lack of attention to the new reality of online customer service permeates the entire e-commerce landscape."

• Customer Relationship Management by Judy Democker
TechWeb InternetWeek, 23 August, 1999
"Customer service is the name of the game for e-commerce sites. And it's even more important for Web-based businesses....Forrester Research reports that less than 2 percent of companies today have a unified view of their customers across sales, marketing and customer-service channels."

• Know Your Customer by Louise Fickel
CIO Magazine, August 15, 2025

• A Seller's Market is No Excuse by Beth Zacharias
Washington Business Journal, August 2, 2025

• What's In a Name: CSO is Not a Catchy Acronym by Jim Dickie
Sales & Field Force Automation, August, 1999
" We are realizing that it is no longer just what we sell, but how well we sell to and service customers that will make the difference... but making this shift is going to cause major problems for many companies. Why? Because in most companies no single person "owns" the customer."

• Leadership And Employee Service Are Best Path to Customer Service
An Interview with Elaine Berke by Mike Johnson
The Supervisor’s Guide to Improved Customer Service and Retention, July 26, 2025
"But when asked how confident they were in their employees' ability to execute the strategic plan, CEOs answered a revealingly low 4.4."

• Take A Stand For Customers, Not For More Money by Jeffrey Gitomer
Washington Business Journal, June 28, 2025
If you want the customer to be loyal, you'd better take loyal actions -- not selfish actions.

• Customer Disservice by Jeff Sweat and Justin Hibbard
InformationWeek, June 21, 2025
"Businesses are spending heavily on customer service, but many aren't getting the job done."

• Quality and Quantity: The Balancing Act by Elaine Berke
Customer Service Newsletter, June 15, 2025

• Somebody Freakin' Talk to Me! by Craig Bicknell
Wired News, 01 June, 1999
"If you walk into a store, and there's no person there to help you, the experience is pretty bad," he said. "The same thing is true online… In fact, online shoppers abandon more than two-thirds of their would-be purchases at the checkout line, often because they can't get a quick answer to an important question, according to a new survey…"

• Make the World a Safer Place: Demand Perfection by John Dickinson
Home Office Computing, June 1999

• The End Of The 80/20 Game by John Jainschigg (excerpt)
Computer Telephony, June 1999
"Customers are sick of dis-service... Lavishing attention on the 20 percent of clients who produce 80 percent of revenue."

• Harte-Hanks Releases Results Of Customer Loyalty Study
Call Center Solutions, June 1999
"over 70 percent of study respondents do not see a clear benefit in being loyal, despite the increase of loyalty programs being introduced"

• Poor Service Puts E-Profits at Risk by Tim Guleri
Call Center Solutions, June 1999

• Survey Shows U.S. Consumers Still Value Personal Touch in Banking
PRNewswire, May 17, 2025
"the teller transactions are still the most popular way to bank"

• Hell Hath No Fury Like Angry End Users. Here's how the help desk survives by Kathleen Melymuka
Computer World, April 1999

• Customer Care Management: Why Technology is Only Part of the Solution by Elaine Berke
Thursday, April 8, 2025

! Can Service Survive Without SLAs? by Peter McGarahan
Customer Support Management, March/April 1999
"... service level agreements have been around for years, but adoption has never been more critical."
excellent and indepth article on service level agreements

article archives

• Help Desk Institute Online Bookstore

• Customer Service Bookstore
Society of Consumer Affairs Professionals
(extensive and thorough)

• Customer Support Management Book Library

• Service Bookstore, Audio, Video
National Association of Service Managers