Terrific essay about good customer service.

Terrific story about going the extra mile in customer service.

Or, how not to provide customer service and why monopolies are bad.

John O’Nolan writes about how to approach cus tomer ser vice. Some ter rific advice and details on how to com mu ni cate and cul ti vate happy users.

Spencer Fry writes about the various ways you can market your startup.

"It’s about redefining passion. Instead of working with a thing you love, think about how to work in a way you love."

"Customers — not your company's products and service innovations — should be at the center of customer events. Make their engagement — not your messaging — the core of your event planning."

"It brings me no pleasure to write this post. I understand as badly I think the team run Tumblr, I do not wish any harm or upset on them. I do think that their complete lack of care for their product should be known, so others do not make the same mistake I have. Frustrated with them and their service, I have finally succumbed to moving my blog to WordPress."

"I understand that customer support is difficult and companies need to make money, but this goes way over some important line. Honestly, this makes me despair for the human race."

"Too often, we blame bad service on the people who actually deliver the service. Sometimes (often) it’s not their fault."

An argument for keeping tech support in house. It allows you to give your users the best possible experience.

Pretty cool story about how a support experience can be tremendous even if you don’t get your ideal choice.

Kelly Conway's ideas for revamping what call centers are capable of.

How selling glassware for $9.99 actually makes you a better designer as well. The easier it is for everyone to jump in and interact with users the better your product will be.

37signals gives some insight into how Smiley is working and what the data look like.

37signals has made the results from their smiley app public. Pretty cool piece of software.

"Humans have a fundamental need to be consulted, engaged, to exercise their knowledge (and thus power), and no other medium that came before has been able to tap into that as effectively."

"If you are a service organization or have to deal with customers, there’s something here for you to learn: a customer with a problem is an opportunity. Empathize with them. Take responsibility. Do your best to resolve the issue. If you do that, you’ll tie the customer closer to you than others who never have a problem."

Some interesting ideas relating to customer service and fees. Specific to the airline industry but relates to many fields.