A survey by Genesys revealed that the cost of poor customer service in 16 key economies on our planet is around $338.5 Billion!

As a reaction to this astonishing number GetApp has prepared an infographic to educate small business owners about the dangers of poor customer service and ways to improve it.

Let´s face it,  most small businesses struggle to provide professional customer service.

What channel to use to connect with clients? What are the don´ts when talking to clients? Are there any tools that can help?

The infographic below is packed with facts and information that will bring your customer service to the next level.

It is interactive, feel free to click on the software solutions provided at the end or click on “Customer Service Applications” to see more solutions.

The power of Facebook has impressed many of its users, giving them the ability to speak to family and friends and share their lives virtually together no matter the distance. It has also become a fantastic hub for businesses to express personality, share promotions and gain customer loyalty and trust.

However, Facebook has done much more, it has made a customer service comeback for businesses. Allowing Facebook users to speak with companies directly and quickly; expressing their concerns and exciting their praises.

In fact 1/3 of consumers are using social media to engage with their vendor of choice. Facebook has become the most valued tool as a social media lead generator, its platform for Business to Consumers (B2C) with 77% stating that they have received a customer from their Facebook page interactions.

Engaging with customers through social media can help your business gain advocates for your brand, advocates voice their joy of how you have treated them, sharing this information with their family and friends and therefore amplifying your reach on Facebook. You also need to keep in mind that the average B2C advocate has roughly 200-400 people within their Facebook community alone. Let’s not forget the power of peer-to-peer influence since studies show that 61% of consumers will buy from a brand that is recommended by another customer or more so from a family or friend.

Facebook is where your company’s customers are with 1 in 4 users checking the site up to 5 times daily; therefore your presence is a necessity if you want to earn your brand’s credibility online.  More importantly making connections with people based on an emotional distinction with your brand can increase a new customer and providing availability to consumers through social media is direct customer service that can keep a current customer happy.

Learn more about the statistics of Facebook for B2C and How Businesses Are Making Friends on Facebook in the following infographic created by Ambassador http://www.soldlab.com/news/2012/11/21/the-customer-service-comeback-on-facebook-infographic

With the recent success of Korean artist PSY with his "Gangnam Style" video being streamed on YouTube to half a billion viewers and Felix Bumgardner's RedBull Stratos Jump breaking online viewing records by streaming the jump to over 8 million simultaneous live viewers, there is absolutely no doubt YouTube is the path to building an audience. This infographic by OpenSlate profiles the Top 1,000 YouTube Channels.

The world of Big Data has grown tremendously in the last 12 months, so fast in fact that most people don't know what to make of it or even really understand it. Whether you understand it or not, a whole new industry of applications has emerged to make sense of all this data, and since most data is already in the cloud, accessing and presenting it. This infographic by Netuitive goes into more detail.

This year the average enterprise software company will produce 10 videos or about 60 minutes of content. Marketers from these companies will upload content to YouTube and Vimeo with little information on what ROI looks like. But this doesn't have to be the case, thanks to the latest techniques in VSEO or Video Search Engine Optimization. This infographic from PCG Digital Marketing goes into the specifics of the VSEO game.

Most of us have spent a good portion of our lives working and playing on the Internet without really understanding how it works or how it got here. What powers the web? How does it all tie together to make the ultimate communication technology? This infographic from OpenSite goes into further detail.

If you are like me, you have embraced social media so whole-heartily that you constantly update your status, whether it be Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram. In the last few months employers have focused on hiring candidates that understand the social web, but are not too comfortable with it. It is okay to post updates work related and non work related, but letting the drama of your personal life play out in party pics is probably a bad idea. This infographic from Jobvite shows you how to make the right first social media impression while courting a new job.

There is no doubt that every business needs accounting software. With so many options on the market how do you go through the process of evaluating what features serve your business best? This infographic created by FinancialForce goes into further detail, breaking down the evaluation process into stages.

This new infographic from MastersDegreeOnline.org shows that some of America's most profitable companies, especially in the tech industry, are paying less in taxes than everyone else.  Would paying more taxes hinder these companies' profitability?  Is it fair what they are doing?  With many of these companies based in California and the states well known budget issues, what is the cause and effect of this?  Check out the Masters of Tax Evasion infographic for some insight.