It appears that there are quite a few Yahoo! users who are unable to send mail from their Yahoo! Mail accounts. They are also unable to get a response from a real person over at Yahoo! While this probably does not come as a surprise to many people out there, it does come as a surprise to me. Yahoo! used to control the vast majority of search traffic on the web. But, ever since they decided that becoming a web portal was more important than providing great search results, their customer service has gone down hill. It surprises me that they are not providing their mail customers with their best level of customer service, as this is probably their biggest client base and where they derive a good deal of their revenue each year. If anyone from Yahoo! is reading this, take a look at the Yahoo! Mail problems people are having.

The hardest phone number in the world? Not any more. Thanks to Jason L. in Boston, MA we now have a customer service phone number for the fine people over at Yahoo! So, check out this post for Yahoo’s customer service phone number.

For those of you who don’t already know, we sell customer service software. But, many of you don’t know, that in addition to building and maintaining our WebSupport software, we also operate a number of ecommerce websites. We did get into this for a reason, and that reason was simple, we needed good customer service software to operate our online businesses. So, as you might imagine, we learned a thing or two about dealing with our customers over the years. Oh, I forgot to mention that we have been involved in ecommerce on the web since 1997. So, we decided to put up a few tips on good customer service that you may find helpful. We try to update them as often as we can, but time is a little short around here these days.

Why do you need help desk software? Do you run and operate a business on the internet? Are you inundated by the same questions day in and day out. Do you receive ungodly amounts of SPAM emails? Our WebSupport PRO help desk software can take care of all of those problems and a whole lot more.

Solve Repeat Questions Automatically

Use out build in knowledgebase builder to create an manage an online system for people to answer their own questions. And, since we know that people don’t like to do anything themselves, we made it so that WebSupport will automatically email the person with answers from the Knowledgebase that it thinks may answer their question. It is done automatically, without you even knowing about it. If it answers their question, they can click a link and the inquiry will be marked solved and taken out of the queue.

Block Spam and Reclaim Lost Email Addresses

Spam is out of control these days. If you used to publish addresses like info@ and sales@ on your website, but don’t anymore due to the spam they recieve, we can help. Using out “double opt-in” and CAPTCHA technology, you can reclaim those email addresses and put them back on your websites. Now, when an email is sent to one of those addresses, you can configure our system to require a confirmation code is entered on a web page before you will see the email. It is little to no hassle for your users, and it will keep your inbox 99% spam free.

WebSupport and WebSupport PRO has been built by experience ecommerce website owners for website owners. We know your needs, because they are our needs as well. So, try out our WebSupport help desk software free for 30 days, we know you will love it.

We recently posted an article entitled, “What is Good Customer Service.” I would like to hear what people think “good customer service” means to them. In providing customer service software for the past 3 years, I have come to find that what is good to one person is terrible to another. So, I would love to hear what you think. Plus, if you would like to check out the article, you can view it on our customer service articles page.

Some people are reporting that they cannot send email with Yahoo Mail over the past week. I am not sure if it has anything to do with the recent Internet Explorer patch that was released. That “patch” apparently blocks Google’s Adsense ads from being displayed by default. So, it would not surprise me one bit if this same patch was somehow responsible for people not being able to send mail with their Yahoo Mail accounts. You know how Microsoft likes to play. If you are having the same problem, let us know if you have updated your Internet Explorer recently here.

Google recently announced they are working on a new project called, Google Suggest. As you type in your search query, Google will show you the most popular searches in a drop down box (very similar to the way IE or FireFox will complete your web address) and show you the number of results for each query as well. So, when you are having one of those days and you can’t seem to remember anything, Google Suggest may help you remember exactly what you were looking for.

We just updated the Support Sentry Forums to vBulletin Version 3.0.4. The critical update came of the heels of a rash of phpBB attacks from worms in the past few weeks. Many a phpBB administrator were devastated by these worm attacks during the holiday season. There had been an update released, but many people either did not know about it, or ignored it. I want to thank the great people behind vBulletin for staying on top of security updates and making the notification (via email and upon admin login) so easy and great. If you are looking to build an online community, vBulletin is my choice.

Is the customer number one anymore? I think those days have come and gone, and it is the customer’s fault. I am not sure when it happened or exactly why it happened but at some point in the 1980’s, the customer realized they could exploit the fact that they were number one. Once companies became wise to this, the demise of the customer’s number one status began. Today, companies are wise to the schemes people use to get something for nothing. It seems that human nature has taken over and the consumers of America feel they are entitled to something for nothing. The real challenge today is refuting a customer’s attempt to get something for nothing and keep them as a customer. Most retail operations on the web operate on such small margins that the days of being able to discount something or even give it away for free have come and gone. This is why the right customer service training for you and your customer service staff is more important than ever.

Is the customer number one anymore? I think those days have come and gone, and it is the customer’s fault. I am not sure when it happened or exactly why it happened but at some point in the 1980’s, the customer realized they could exploit the fact that they were number one. Once companies became wise to this, the demise of the customer’s number one status began. Today, companies are wise to the schemes people use to get something for nothing. It seems that human nature has taken over and the consumers of America feel they are entitled to something for nothing. The real challenge today is refuting a customer’s attempt to get something for nothing and keep them as a customer. Most retail operations on the web operate on such small margins that the days of being able to discount something or even give it away for free have come and gone. This is why the right customer service training for you and your customer service staff is more important than ever.