A smart customer service employee knows there is a fine line between a pleasant, efficient discussion of the customer's needs leading to the discovery that she would be better served with the company's upgraded service ...

Imagine a software strategy that allows an organization to combine the disparate data threads it collects about customers, then, using the Web and other technologies as well as non-technical methods, put the data to work to develop closer ties with customers.

For major marketers, competing and winning in the sports arena means more than simply affiliating a product with the team that posts the most points or the athlete who stands out in the draft picks.

Seventy percent of American consumers report having a bad customer-service experience that left them "upset" or "extremely upset" in the last 12 months, according to a new national survey.

A marketing professor at the W. P. Carey School of Business examines the client-supplier relationship in a recent research survey.

Plenty of consumers sip Maxwell House coffee because it's "good to the last drop," and would proudly answer "yes" if asked, "Doesn't your dog deserve Alpo?" The brand-building punch of such slogans helps companies turn shoppers into customers.

A company is unlikely to gain satisfied and loyal customers when they feel they've been duped. Companies that employ stealth marketing — otherwise known as undercover or guerilla marketing — hire shills to pitch products or services to potential but unsuspecting consumers.

Michael Vick's apparent involvement in the brutal "sport" of dog fighting is the latest incident to focus attention on celebrity endorsements.

Companies typically try to acquire the kind of customers that are immediately profitable, or show the most potential for long term value.

Telecom giant Sprint-Nextel recently decided about a thousand of its customers were just a little bit too demanding, so it went ahead and fired them. The remarkable move made headlines nationwide and since has left business analysts to ponder two questions. First, was Sprint justified?