This is the most wonderful time of the year, as sung by many, and customers are holding hope that in some small way your business can add to the magic of the season. Service, all year around, should be at its best, but during the holidays when people are distracted, frazzled, and looking for something merry and bright, make it your goal to meet and greet them with the "more" they are looking for. You have a special opportunity during this time of year to give your customers the gift of enhancing their experiences.
One of the great ways for you to overcome procrastination is by working as though you had only one day to get all your most important jobs done before you left for a month or went on a vacation. By putting the pressure on yourself, you accomplish more and better tasks, faster than ever before. You become a high-performance, high-achieving personality. You feel terrific about yourself, and bit by bit, you build up the habit of rapid task completion that then goes on to serve you all the days of your life.
appreciate them? I am not talking about a generic closing in your emails or invoices that says, "Thank you for your business!" What I do mean is, are you thanking your customers in such a substantial way that it is memorable and so that they feel the value of their business oozing out of your message? It's well worth the little effort it takes to embrace this last skill in our "Top 10 Customer Service Skills List" series by showing your customers that you appreciate them. 
This week's customer service lesson is about reacting quickly. It is something that I am very passionate about, and all service providers should share the same passion. Customer service doesn't just happen to someone else; it's a very personal and intentional action that happens to each one of us daily. We have a personal connection to the service we are providing as well as receiving. Quick reaction and timely responses should be a part of every company's core standards because these two actions help support a positive customer experience.
Investigate the [customer's] situation. When the investigation will take longer, make a specific commitment to get back to the customer. When making commitments to call back it is important to give a specific time frame rather than telling the customer you will call back "as soon as possible" or "right away." Terms like these mean different things to different people. "Right away" might mean sometime today to you - it could mean within fifteen minutes to your customer.