I'm attending the Ingram Micro SMB Alliance conference in Chicago this week. The organizers asked me to do a presentation on customer service for my peers in the computer consulting business. I talked about the importance of customer service in delivering business computer support. You would have thought I had discovered a new element from the response I received. I'm always amazed at how little we do to make our customers feel good about having decided to use us for their network support.

It's not that we don't want to provide good customer service. It's that most of us have never been taught how to do it. We know what it looks like when we receive it, but it's harder to know how to give it. We've been doing more training in customer service so that we can support our Indianapolis small business customers better. From the training, I've found that most people actually want to give good customer service. They just need to be told how, and it needs to be important in the overall structure and culture of the business.

Today, we'll hear from people who study the evolution of the computer support industry. They'll tell us what we should be doing next to keep our businesses on the front edge of computer support. I don't imagine a single one of them will suggest that we try to be nicer to our customers.