The March issue of Inc. Magazine has a special section on companys that have stellar customer service. Jane Berenston says it best in her Editor's Letter:
Our special report in this issue, however is not on company culture; it's on customer service. It seems to be that there is a strong relationship between the two--that surely the company chiefs who care about their employees are the very ones who also care, deep in their bones, about their customers and clients. Find a happy, productive workplace, and no doubt you'll find legions of satisfied customers."
I completely agree! I think customer service is one of the easiest things to become an after-thought especially for an unfocused company. A company with WOW customer service not only is most likely doing everything else right, it also treats it's employees like customers. When you treat the team as if they are customers it gets infectious and a culture is formed where everyone wants to help each other and most importantly do what is best for the customer.
I am proud to say we were named a finalist for Best Practices in Customer Service from the New York Enterprise Report and rated #21 Best Places to Work by Crains in 2010. I see the correlation first hand on a day to day basis and love every minute of it.
Below are some past blog posts on we have written on customer service
http://blog.lawline.com/?s=customer+service