Happy Friday! Here’s our five picks for the best customer service, customer experience and mobile articles of the week, in no particular order.

How the Cloud Is Revolutionizing Small Business Customer Service by Flavio Martins

In the past, small businesses were often edged out of getting great customer service technology because the price was too high. However, the cloud-based (and often subscription-based) model of customer service technology means that companies of any size have access to the latest and greatest products and services. There are a lot of benefits to cloud-based services, but one of the primary ones is easier communication between employees or departments. But, as Flavio Martins points out in his latest article, cloud-based services are even helping customers solve their own problems.

A great cloud service can help you identify common user problems and communicate with users automatically to fix problems before they start. You save time and money, and your customers never even have to pick up the phone.

At OneReach, we’re big fans of how cloud technology can be used to provide better customer service. It doesn’t just help customers, but companies as well.

Read the full article on winthecustomer.com.

Why Employee Relationships Are Important for an Organization’s Success by Bruce Jones

As we found in our recent customer service report, the top way to improve customer service in an organization is to focus on the employee experience. But what does that entail? Do you need to offer more incentives? Do you need to provide more extensive training? Do you need to make sure you take time to sit down and mentor employee? Perhaps it’s all of those. In a recent article, Bruce Jones of the Disney Institute explains that one key aspect of the employee experience is an employee’s relationships.

A “caring community” feels much like a family environment—where the bonds of trust are strong. Plenty of research has shown that workplaces where co-workers trust one another reap the benefits of higher productivity and higher retention.

A company that cares for its employees will often see those employees pass that care onto customers. In summary, a great employee experience + care = a great customer experience.

Read the full article on disneyinstitute.com.

5 Reasons Your Customer Feels Like a Commodity by Karin Hurt

As touched upon above, every customer deserves to be treated with care and respect, but unfortunately, this doesn’t always happen. As a result, companies that aren’t ensuring customers are receiving good service will pay a price—a big price. Poor customer service costs U.S. companies $41 billion every year, and 89% of customers will defect to a competitor after poor service. One of the reasons customers might feel underwhelemd, keynote speaker Karin Hurt says, is because an agent they’re dealing with isn’t very knowledgeable.

By the time a customer picks up the phone, they’re looking for an expert. Be sure the person they reach is both confident and competent. Customers feel under-valued when they have to train your employees.

One of the top customer frustrations is dealing with agents who don’t have a lot of knowledge. Companies can address this by providing agents with more thorough training and, as touched on above, focusing on employee relationships.

Read the full article on icmi.com.

You’re Probably Underestimating How Much Your Articles Are Being Shared via Text Message by Joshua Benton

At OneReach, we’re unabashed lovers of all things SMS. Texting has a lot of diverse and wide-ranging use cases (ordering, checking account status, making reservations, asking questions, etc.) but one of the ones you might not have considered is sharing an article over text message. In today’s online world, it’s common to copy and paste a link and share it with a friend via email, but as Joshua Benton points out in a recent article, texting is actually outpacing email as the number one way to share articles on Buzzfeed.

We’ve written a number of times about the rise of chat apps…as distribution platforms, and that’s very true. But don’t forget about humble old SMS. If you make it easier for your readers to share via text on mobile, they just might take you up on the offer.

Texting is the most common activity on a mobile phone, so it makes sense that Buzzfeed wants to offer it as a sharing option. In fact, why don’t you share this article over SMS? 😉

Read the full article on niemanlab.com.

Was Back to the Future Right About Customer Service in 2015? by Scott Kolman

Back to the Future Day has come and gone (if only we had a time machine!), along with our hopes of hitting all the fantastical technology we saw in the movie by year’s end. While it would be nice to think that flying cars and hoverboards were close on the horizon, the technological advancements of film 2015 far exceed that of today’s world. Still, is there anything the movies did get right about the future (including the improbable Cubs playoff run?) According to Scott Kolman, Back to the Future was right on the money about one thing in 2015: customer service.

In the movie…a 2015 customer experience [is] facilitated by A.I. technology, approximating the actual level of customer service one expects these days, here in the real world, from the likes of Apple’s Siri, Microsoft’s Cortana, and Google Now. These tools are increasingly clever and can answer basic queries, but it’s hard to forget you’re dealing with a piece of software.

A.I., perhaps the most futuristic technology of all, is already in the here and now, facilitating customer service interactions. What will its future in customer service look like? We’ll need a time machine to find out.

Read the full article on mycustomer.com.

Agree with our picks? Sound off in the comments on any articles we might have missed, and don’t forget to download our ebook on providing a great omnichannel experience.