You often have read our articles about how customer support is not a department, it is a culture.

A recent article in the Consumerist tells the story of how Best Buy is instilling customer support as a culture as a way of combating the ever-increasingly troubled economy.

A few of the excerpts from the article:

We must find ways to win with the customers who are coming to us today. Serving our customers better than anyone else is the best way to create value for customers, employees and shareholders alike. We need every employee engaged in serving customers better, and more efficiently.

We could let today’s turmoil distract us from serving customers. Other retailers might do that. But we will not. Instead, we will use these circumstances to redouble our efforts and deepen our commitment to each other, to our company, to our strategy and to the customers we serve. In so doing, we will strengthen and fortify ourselves as a team. A winning team. That’s who we are, and that’s Best Buy.

The spirit of this type of customer care is also very evident in one of our portfolio companies, PBwiki. Their customer support culture, which is spearheaded by customer support manager Rachel Pennig, means that they regularly achieve 90%+ satisfaction levels from their user base.  As Rachel recently said to the PBwiki staff:

(M)oving forward we have a battle to fight against our competitors. But if we focus on keeping our users satisfied in every interaction with PBwiki, we will be able to edge out the competition.

If you are successful, customer service is always your best product.  Is it your best product?

As Mason Cooley said, “Advice is more agreeable in the mouth than in the ear.”  However, as a novice in a field, advice from someone with experience can be the greatest of gifts.

One of our partners shared some of his wisdom and life knowledge in this post from the Entrepreneurial Archives.