Exceptional service, exceptional profit: the secrets of building a five-star customer service organization

Special features

Acknowledgments

Foreword / Horst Schulze

Introduction: Only shop in the marketplace

1: Engineer On The Ladder: Reaching For The Highest Level Of Service

Function versus purpose

First steps first

2: Four Elements Of Customer Satisfaction: Perfect Product, Caring Delivery, Timeliness, And An Effective Problem Resolution Process

Perfect product

Delivered by caring people

In a timely fashion

With the support of an effective problem resolution process

3: Language Engineering: Every-Word-Counts

Establish a consistent style of speech

Create a Lexicon of preferred language and phrasing

Choose language to put customers at ease, not to dominate them

Concentrate your language efforts on key customer moments: hellos, good-byes, and the times when things fall apart

Shut up sometimes: the Artie Bucco Principle

Words have their limits

Show, don't tell (and don't ever just point)

Phone and Internet language and communication pointers

4: Recovery! Turning Service Failures Around

Italian mama method

Four steps to great service recoveries

Elements of follow-up

Use your own experience to prepare you

Who should handle customer complaints?

Subtle is beautiful: service recovery below the radar

Write-offs lead to write-offs

5: Keeping Track To Bring Them Back: Tracking Customer Roles, Goals, And Preferences

Principles of noting and sharing

Principle 1: Keep your systems simple

Principle 2: If it's important to your customer, it belongs in your system

Principle 3: Information you gather needs to be available in real time

Principle 4: Preferences change; assumptions are tricky

Principle 5: Moods change: track them

Principle 6: Don't blow it with a wooden delivery

Principle 7: Using technology to ask for information? It's a fine line between clever and creepy

Surprises are hazardous-online and off

Fear not: Don't be deterred from collecting information-thoughtfully.

6: Building Anticipation Into Your Products And Services: Putting Processes To Work For You

Get your company to think like a customer

Mr BIV and the art of eliminating defects

Don't kill Mr BIV's messengers

Systematically reducing waste to add value-for you and your customers

Why efficient processes can transform service

Stamping out waste? Don't crush value by accident

Process-based anticipation on the Internet

Using tools to gather information about your customers' experience

Process-based solutions become people solutions

7: Your People: Selection, Orientation, Training, And Reinforcement

We are already our true selves: select for traits

Keep the hiring bar high

Develop selection discipline

Create a powerful orientation process

Use orientation to instill new values, attitudes, and beliefs

Defining an employee's underlying purpose

Orientation process begins sooner than you think

On day one, nothing is tangential

Build a brand ambassador

Training employees to anticipate-carefully

Reinforcement: the daily check-in

8: Leadership: Guiding The Customer-Centered Organization

Service leaders matter because people power service

Five characteristics of great service leaders

Moral leadership

9: What's Worth It, And What's Not? Pointers On Value, Costs, And Pricing

What does loyalty-enhancing service really cost?

Gilding the lily

Compared to what?: value is relative

Pricing is part of your value proposition

Don't charge a customer for performing the Heimlich

Money isn't everything, but money issues matter-especially how you present them

10: Building Customer Loyalty Online: Using The Internet's Power To Serve Your Customers And Your Goals

Internet's double edge

Opinions: everybody has one; Evangelists: every company needs them

Internet can promote commoditization; avoid this through individualization

Long copy/short copy

Online, the window in which to show you're extraordinary can be small

Amazon_com: a brilliant company, but not the most realistic model to emulate

First time online: a nuts-and bolts case study

11: Hello/Good-Bye: Two Crucial Moments With A Customer

Timelessly time-sensitive

Don't rush your hellos and good-byes on the telephone

Serving disabled customers is a responsibility and an opportunity, from the moment you welcome them at your door

Turn your receptionist into a predator (who kills with kindness)

It's Google-not you-who decides where visitors enter your site-be sure they're greeted properly anyway

Taking control of good-byes

Hazards of subcontracting your hellos and good-byes

Good-bye for now from the authors-with resources and assistance for your journey

Appendixes

Appendix A: Oasis disc manufacturing: customer and phone interaction guidelines and Lexicon excerpts

Appendix B: Carquest standards of service excellence

Appendix C: Capella Hotels and Resorts "Canon Card": service standards and operating philosophy

Notes

Index.