The standard level of customer service at most modern companies is reactive. Reactive service isn't the worst thing in the world (it’s a lot better than negative service), but it’s not an effective way to create loyal customers. Reactive customer service leaves your business in that dangerous commodity zone, where you’re interchangeable with the competition in the minds of customers. To use your service level as a competitive weapon, as something that can get on the fast track to customer loyalty, your company needs something better: what I call anticipatory customer service. That is the difference between providing ho-hum service by merely reacting to customer requests and building loyalty through true anticipatory service.

Source: Forbes April 23, 2018 19:46 UTC