By Rieva Lesonsky

When you think of “women” and “customer service,” is the first image that comes to mind a smiling, headset-wearing woman in a low-level customer service job meekly taking guff from a grumpy caller? Think again. With women now making up the majority of the U.S. workforce, enrolling in and graduating from college at higher rates than men, and owning 8.3 million businesses that employ 7.7 million people (according to American Express OPEN’s study The State of Women-Owned Businesses), they are also leading the way in developing new approaches to customer service.