ABSTRACT
The service provided by the hotel staff on our holiday is part of the “customer service product” people should have enjoyed. Customer service segmenting differs from traditional market segmenting. Traditional market segmentation is based on “purchase/no purchase” data or some other binary decision made by a potential customer. A customer who is having difficulty does not want to be shunted to the customer service department (which really means the complaint department) where there is not the expertise to deal with the problem. A customer service strategy requires the organization to develop relationships with each and every customer. A culture that fosters customer service depends on customer input into efforts toward continual improvement in service. Despite the fact that customer service organizations by definition rely on personal relationships, this does not mean that technological advances should not be exploited to the fullest.
