It’s hard to put a dollar value on good customer service. But bad customer service will send a once-loyal customer to the competition, undermine a company’s reputation, and generally irritate and alienate people.

But for those companies willing to take on the challenge, good support carries its own set of rewards: Apple’s AppleCare warranties are a perfect example of how customers are willing to pay for premium levels of support, and a happier customer is one more likely to recommend a product or service to their friends and colleagues.

Service providers are increasingly stepping in to help businesses meet the challenge. Just this week, for example, HP launched outsourced social media engagement services for customer engagement, while Salesforce.com makes a lot of hullaballo about its commitment to enhancing contact center efficiency.

An infographic by call center visual dialing cloud solution provider Fonolo puts a dollar value on the potential opportunity: