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

The American Will Spend 43 Days of His Life Waiting on Hold by Catey Hill

Let’s come right out and say it—waiting on hold sucks. You have other things to do and places to be, all of which you can’t do because you’re stuck waiting to talk to an agent or getting frustrated with endless options. It’s not a fun prospect, something mobile advertising analytics firm Marchex knows all too well. In her recent article for MarketWatch, Catey Hill outlines key Marchex findings, which include the fact that Americans will spend almost one billion minutes waiting on hold this year. In addition, waiting on hold is one of consumers’ top three pet peeves with their phone experience.

The Most Offensive Customer Service Phrases by Micah Solomon

Words carry a lot of weight in casual conversations, but perhaps nowhere are they more important than in customer service interactions. The words you use and the tone you take with customers can end up impacting the experience for better or worse. That’s why customer service expert and writer Micah Solomon consulted other experts to see what they considered an egregious word choice. One of the worst offenders? Calling anyone “young lady” or using terms of endearment like “Honey,” which can come across as patronizing to the customer.

What Drives Successful Customer Satisfaction?  by Justin R. Brown

There are multiple ways to track customer satisfaction (CSAT, NPS, CES, etc.), but how do you actually go about making sure customers are satisfied? What steps can you take to make sure that customers are happy with your brand and will turn into repeat, loyal customers? In his Business.com article, Justin R. Brown explains several different tactics you can take, one of which is to be proactive. By anticipating customer needs before they even start (Brown uses the examples of airlines sending flight delay notifications), you can provide a great experience that will leave customers feeling satisfied with your service.

5 Ways to Show Contact Center Agents Love by Jim Rembach

A lot of thought is given to how to improve the customer experience, but how often do we ever focus on the employee experience? It should definitely be more often. In fact, our customer service influencers report last year found that the number one way to improve customer service was to focus on the employee experience. Contact center expert Jim Rembach agrees, and points out that there are a few ways to motivate your employees. One way is to hire for love by finding candidates who really care about the rest of the team as well as the customers.

To learn from the experts on the best way to improve customer service, download our new whitepaper here.