Readers Weigh in on Customer Service

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To get there, J.C. Penney has retrained all 150,000 employees to promote greater employee autonomy and a stronger focus on customers. Managers no longer need to approve every unusual transaction, and staff is no longer divided into helpers and stockers. Previously, employees who were stocking goods were told to focus on that job. These days, they're expected to drop everything should a customer require help. Now, store manager evaluation scores take into account how customers rate service. "There's recognition of how important service is to loyalty," says Bruce Tempkin, an analyst at Forrester Research (FORR). The retailer's internal surveys show that highly satisfied customers, on average, make 20% more trips to the store and 11% more purchases.

Hold: New and Improved?

In a lot of cases, improving customer service depends on the personal touch. But there's new technology available that might help eradicate the No. 1 complaint of our readers: being put on hold. Services known as Click to Call and Click to Chat let customers get only the information they care about—and quickly. There's even the option of having a customer service agent call you, flipping who has the upper hand.

Companies such as BMW (BMWG), Best Buy (BBY), Continental Airlines (CAL), Expedia (EXPE), and Louis Vuitton (LVMH) use Click to Call and Click to Chat (C2C) from Art Technology Group (ARTG) to let their customers contact call-center agents via instant messaging or over the phone. Through IM, agents are able to split time between multiple customers, cutting down hold times. In both cases, agents can view their customers' Web page and recent history. The service transmits a screen view from the users' computer to the call center so they can see what the customer wants. This "360-degree view" offers the advantages of physical retail and allows agents to handle more callers more helpfully.

Waiting on hold may never go away, but Audio Messaging Solutions aims to put your wait time to use. The service fills hold times with short music scores, voice-overs and "talking newsletters." Businesses can provide useful information while their customers are on hold, and callers stay on the line up to 25% longer vs. dead air or background music, according to President Mitch Keller. And if what you're hearing is truly useful, you might even be glad you're on hold.

Spielberg is an intern at BusinessWeek.