Although there is no specific date as to when businesses began practicing customer service, there were many contributing inventions that helped naturally develop the process overtime. In 1876, the first telephone was invented by Alexander Graham Bell. Soon after, the telephone switchboard was invented in 1878 by Almon Strowger. In 1955, Artificial Intelligence was invented by John McCarthy. Following the ground-break of Artificial Intelligence, electronic mail was invented in 1971 by Ray Tomlinson, and a few years later the first form of video calling was invented in 1978 by Gregorio Y. Zara. All of these aspects contributed to customer service in some capacity, and we still use many of these inventions today to ensure customer satisfaction. 

3767 years ago, a merchant named Ea-Nasir sold the wrong grade of copper to a customer named Nanni in the Babylon empire of Iraq. The evidence implies that the customer and merchant have been on bad terms for some time, however Nanni continued to purchase from Ea-Nasir. Nanni recorded his concerns by carving the earliest complaint in history onto a clay tablet; the entire transcript is documented on the Guinness World Records website.

Customer Service Week, first held in 1987, marked a significant year for customer service progressions. It was not until 1992 that Customer Service Week received national recognition by the U.S. Congress; George Bush praised the event during his time as United States president. Customer Service gives recognition to those who work in the customer relations industry and solves the many potential problems customers face during a transaction. Each year has a theme, like celebrating service. Customer Service Week generally happens during the first week of October, and encourages the boost of company ethics and teamwork.