We all know that good customer service is paramount to growing a business and increasing profitability. What many managers are failing to realize, however, is that rapid changes in technology have lead to equally rapid changes in the delivery of quality customer service.

In addition to the basics we all have heard time and again, there are five new areas of customer service that should be addressed to keep customers happy.

What do customers say?

1) Preserve me from auto-attendant hell! Customers are becoming increasingly annoyed and frustrated with having to sift through a multitude of options and press numerous buttons &ndash only to be told that the desired service is only available through the company’s website. Worse is when the auto-attendant uses voice recognition &ndash but doesn’t ‘recognize’ your voice.

It’s understandable that companies want to reduce costs by using attendants and, there’s no question that these are valuable tools. Yet, people want to connect with human beings; they don’t want to listen to a long list of prompts &ndash especially not if they are having a problem (and let’s face it, that’s what usually triggers the call in the first place). To keep customers happy, here are few simple tips:

• Always make it easy for customers to reach a human being.

• Give people the option of voice prompt or touch prompt.

• If you do use an auto-attendant, limit the number of menus to two rounds of choices before the customer reaches a human being.

• If you have asked the customer to key in account information, transfer the profile along with the call.

• If the call has been answered by a company rep, and needs to transfer the call to another department, do not put the customer back into a long queue. Instead, let your customer service rep be able to jump the front of the line, and get them to stay on the call with the client until the next person has picked up. Once this happens, the first rep should introduce the caller and give rep #2 a pr