This book was developed by Ron Zemke (of the "Knock Your Socks" customer service series of books from AMACOM) and John Woods for HRD Press. It includes 35 articles, 34 of which were written specifically for this book. The contributors are all leading consultants and practitioners in the field of customer service. The book is divided into 8 parts, with each part dealing with an area of concern to those who manage customer service departments or to anyone that wants to know how to make customer service departments operate more efficiently while becoming more responsive to customers at the same time. This book will be published in March, 1998 by HRD Press. A version will be available that includes a disk with files of all articles. CWL Publishing Enterprises managed the production. You can click on each part title to learn more about the articles included in that part as well as about the authors of those articles, their e-mail addresses and links to their Web sites.
Part One. Great Customer Service, Customer Retention, and Growth
First of all, it's important to know why it's vital to be concerned with customer service. Explaining that is the purpose of Part One, which is all about retaining the customer base that will fuel growth and profitability.
- Customer Service, Value, and the Systems View, John Woods
- Traveling the Highway to "Wow!" Service, Jerry Fritz
- Quantifying the Impact of Great Customer Service on Profitability, John Goodman
- Delivering World Class Service, Eberhard Scheuing
- Customer Retention and the Stages of Service After the Sale, Terry Vavra
- Customer Retention and the Stages of Service After the Sale, Terry Vavra
The articles in this part of the book provide you with practical frameworks for planning, organizing, and delivering excellent service.
- How to Create a Plan to Deliver Great Customer Service, Susan Smith
- Building a Picture of Perfect Customer Service, Michael Vandergriff
- Setting Service Standards: From Countability to Accountability, Kristin Anderson
- What Customers Really Want and How That Affects What Service to Deliver, Georgette Zifko-Baliga
- Customers Care When They Share, Chip R. Bell
- Training for Success Through Service: How Delta Airlines Does It, Nora Weaver and Tom Atkinson
While Part Two provides you with some useful management frameworks, Part Four is more tactical, with specific techniques for leading the customer service department.
- Authentic Coaching: Getting the Best from Customer Service Providers, Anne Bruce and Jim Pepitone
- Unleashing the Power of Customer CARE in Your Organization, Joanna Brandi
- How to Let Customer Value Drive Customer Problem Solving, W. Eric Reidenbach, Gordon W. McClung, and Reginald W. Goeke
Here we've provided five articles that provide specific techniques customer service managers and reps can use to do their jobs better.
- Six Tools for Improving How You Deliver Service to Customers, Rebecca Morgan
- Maintaining Superior Customer Service During Periods of Peak Demand, Janelle M. Barlow and Dianna Maul
- Creating the Sounds of Quality: Delivering Great Service on the Telephone, Kathleen Brown
- Problem-Solving Techniques for Phone Reps, Donna Hall
- Customer-Sensitive Automated Response Systems, Marlene Yanovsky
Our goal in this part of the book is to give you an eclectic selection of ideas you can use to improve the quality of service your department delivers.
- The 10 Practices of Exceptional Service, Mark Sanborn
- Beyond Loyalty: Inspiring Customers to Brag, Michael Cafferky
- Customer Service Sort Cards: A Training Exercise, Sharon Wulf
- Why Customer Service is not Enough: Loyalty Strategies, Lisa Ford
- The Care and Handling of the Mature Market, Pat Alea and Rebecca Chekouris
- Customer Surveys that Deliver Actionable Information, Bob Shaver
Do you want some techniques for effectively handling upset customers and recovering when you blow it with your customers? That's the purpose of the two articles in this part.
- Service Recovery: Turning Oops! into Opportunity, Ron Zemke
- Cooling the Customer with HEAT, John Hartley
The Internet is becoming ubiquitous, providing great opportunities as a customer service tool. In this section we provide three articles that will help you become familiar with this customer service tool.
- The World Wide Web was Made for Customer Service, Jim Sterne
- Using the Internet to Measure Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty, John Chisholm
- Internet Self-Service Support: Beyond Search Engines to "Smart Answers on the 'Net", Keith Loris
The customer service department does not operate independently of the rest of the organization. What CS does affects the rest of the organization, and what goes on in the rest of the organization affects the level and nature of assistance the customer service can provide. In Part Eight we explore these relationships from a variety of perspectives.
- Coordinating Service Across Functional Boundaries: The Departure Process at
Southwest Airlines, Jody Hoffer Gittel
- Swing with Your Trapeze Buddy: Working Together Internally to Serve External Customers, Mark Rosenberger
- Customer Service in The Sales-Focused Organization, Gary Connor
- Customer Service: A Key to Innovation Success, Scott Davis
- Great Internal Service Creates Great External Service, Lee Meadow
Includes 20 graphs documenting some of the most useful findings from the 1996 ICSA Benchmarking Study.
Appendix B. Directory of Magazines, Journals, and Newsletters that Deal with Customer Service
Includes publication and subscription information and a brief description of their content.
Appendix C. Customer Service Resources on the Internet
Includes an annotated listing of Web sites, discussion lists, and other information about customer service available online.
To order Customer Service Best Practices, just click on the publisher: HRD Press
A paperback version of this book is available from AMACOM. Click here to order a copy from Amazon.com.
Another book that might interest you:
Our page of quotes about managing and prospering in organizations
3010 Irvington Way
Madison, WI 53713-3414
fax: 608 274-4554
Email us! info@cwlpub.com
Return to CWL Publishing Enterprises Home Page
