How did a former bank executive and a kid from a car wash cross paths to discover a shared passion for crafting memorable customer experiences? From Mindless to Mindful answers this question while weaving together their lessons learned over two vastly different careers. Their stories are real and compelling--they transcend boundaries between industries, the nature of businesses, and generational gaps.In today's global marketplace, products and pricing are becoming less distinguishable. Organizations are discovering that great customer service is no longer enough--it takes more. The world's most admired organizations have progressed beyond customer service and now focus on the end-to-end experience of their customers and their employees. This book will show you how to get there.From Mindless to Mindful is for everyone. From CEO to manager to front-line employee, this book will sharpen your focus on what really matters to the people who grow your business. You will gain fresh insights on building a culture where delivering memorable customer experiences is in the heart and mind of every employee.

Modern consumers are being bombarded with information from every angle. They can't absorb it all and, consequently, tune-out large portions of the information. Therefore, in order to gain their full attention, firms must find ways to surprise them during transactions. They must spawn mental script deviations for them. Research indicates that these script deviations can cement their loyalty. Therefore, Surprise! The Secret to Customer Loyalty in the Service Sector details how to create a surprise culture in a service firm. Any owner or manager competing in one of the many service sectors would benefit from implementing the information contained within these pages.

How do you hire the best support team? What's the best use of social media for support and service? Should we apologize for the inconvenience? The web's leading experts are ready to share our answers and experience with everyone, plus share stories and radical advice for building your own exceptional customer experience. In The Customer Support Handbook, leaders in customer support bring their stories of brand failures, triumphs and best practices for support on the web. Finally, all you need to create your own amazing support team in one handy-dandy manual.
If you're a CEO Or Founder: This book is your primer on the future of customer support - not just offering transactional service but intentionally striving to make your company's customer service the new gold standard. Learn about the importance of engaging your customer support team with your product development, how to really measure customer happiness, and why you should be investing in your support staff as your top rung employees.
If you're a customer support professional: This book is your validation, your reminder that what you do for a living is an important part of product development and the future of the web. Learn tips and tricks for offering the best customer support possible, including example replies for tough questions, recommendations on better language and tone to use in social media, and advice on handling difficult customers.
"Customer service is no longer just a job but a bonafide career path, and this book is your undergraduate degree." - Richard White, Founder and CEO of UserVoice

While the economy takes a nose dive, business owners everywhere suddenly have to deal with setting up payment arrangements to help them get paid. When a customer cannot pay in full, payment arrangements must be made if you want to salvage any type of payment. The payment amount must be reasonable in comparison to the debt. Just some of the things you will learn with this valuable book: How payment arrangements affect your business When to set up payment arrangements How to set up effective payment arrangements Why you should offer payment plans Skills & resources you will need to set up payment plans How to deal with missed payments

The Long Term Care Customer Service Improvement Program is designed to accelerate your staff's skills and your resident's satisfaction. Your facility's benefits include: A systematic and simple method for improving customer service skills Learning sessions as short as 15 minutes Practical skills your front line can apply immediately to improve how staff work with each other and with your residents Reduced risk of lawsuit Improved referrals to your facility Increased QIS and Standard Survey scores It's been proven that effective and consistent customer service training increases staff satisfaction, reduces turnover, and improves your resident's quality of care. This course is a time- and cost-effective means to raise your facility's customer service standards. The Customer Service Improvement Program provides consistent reinforcement of what's learned through dozens of role plays and other learning exercises, testing, repetition of the basic principles and immediate application. The evidence-based curriculum is designed to meet the objectives of key national long term care initiatives including the Advancing Excellence in America's Nursing Homes Campaign, Quality Assurance and Performance Improvement (QAPI), and the AHCA Quality Initiative. While studying the seventeen 15-minute learning modules your staff will learn the importance of: 1.Skillfully Resolving Intercultural Conflict 2.Employing Strategies for Handling Conflict 3.Asserting Themselves Respectfully 4.Identifying Their Conflict "Style" 5.Using Active Listening Skills Effectively 6.Overcoming Barriers to Listening and Understanding 7.Learning Why They Aren't Listening to Others 8.Developing Rapport with Different Personality Types 9.Managing Their Attitude 10.Avoiding "Rapport Killer" Words and Phrases 11.Tailoring Communication to Fit a Customer 12.Improving Customer Interactions 13.Managing Stress in a Long Term Care Facility 14.Relaxing with Visualization and Abdominal Breathing 15.Understanding Who the Customers in Your Facility Are 16.Communicating with Authority and Credibility 17.Demonstrating the Power of Friendliness and Approachability 18.Providing Excellent Customer Service at Mealtimes 19.Understanding The Costs of a Dissatisfied Customer 20.Identifying Customer Touch Points 21.Adhering to Your Facility's Dress Code 22.Reducing the Risk of Lawsuit 23.Placing Your Facility Above the Competition 24.Employing the Power of First Impressions 25.Understanding Customer Expectations 26.Building Relationships with Empathy and Compassion 27.Understanding Emotional Triggers 28.Creating Unforgettable Customer "Experiences" 29.Learning to Ask Questions Effectively 30.Employing Strategies to Manage Difficult Customers 31.Taking Effective Steps to Resolve Complaints ...And many other critical skills Human beings are complex and our behavior consistently misunderstood. To enhance how we work together takes time and commitment. The Customer Service Improvement Program is an effective tool your facility can employ to achieve continuous quality improvement.

Customer service and satisfaction is important to many employees and business owners. The success of a business depends on it. Learn the valuable tools and skills you need to deliver what your clients and customers want, and in return, you will reap the benefits. Expect happier clients, more business and more profit.

Water Cooler "Talk," Hydration for a WOW Customer Experience provides easy to use concepts and tools to create WOW and memorable customer experiences, internal and external, and turn water cooler conversations into a source of never ending testimonials As it relates to the customer experience, people are far more inclined to communicate a bad experience, even the most loyal of customers as found in the COLLOQUY survey; "even among consumers who are most loyal to, engaged with and willing to recommend brands they like...31% said they are far more likely to share information about a bad experience with a product or service than a good one." Tweeting, texting, chatting, face book, or emailing a bad experience has allowed customers to be far more open and instant about the encounter - not to mention quick with their word choices. With that said, the bad experiences are far more amplified than ever before These astounding statistics should cause us to wake up and take seriously the "Water Cooler" talk and what it is saying about our organization, business, church and family. This book is packed with tools, ideas and concepts that you can use to enhance your water cooler conversations and create loyal and long lasting client relationships. The book is not written in chronological order, but rather independently by chapter. The purpose of the format is to provide you with eleven different customer service topics and tools that you can reflect and review at any given time. Customer Service is NOT a department, but rather an attitude and culture that all employees are responsible to uphold. Thank you for your readership. Enjoy

Creating A Revolution In How People Treat People In Business... Radio show hosts Angel Tuccy and Eric Reamer, are the best selling authors of Lists That Saved My Business, and business revolutionaries who are committed to changing the paradigm when it comes to customer service. Designed to be an inspiration to business owners, managers and salespeople, Leading The Revolution will spark creativity in the area of the customer experience for all who take on the role of "revolutionary." Leading The Revolution is a collection of articles, blog entries and thought processes that form the leadership and training offered by Experience Pros, LLC. Customer service is not a department... It is a culture.

"Talk is cheap." A cliche, perhaps, but the idea that what we do is more important than what we say is a fundamental truth. It applies in our personal lives and can extend into our professional work, too. Learning to let your actions do the talking can be revolutionary to a company that struggles to create enduring customer relationships.

People who own operate, manage, or otherwise lead a company are always looking for ways to improve productivity, beat the competition, and ensure long-term success. Learning how to put words and ideas into action can be a key to success in the business world.

"Hooked on Customers" is not about finding the right words, whether labeled as a "strategy" or not. It is an insightful, highly informative book that propels businesses into action. It explores successful customer-centric businesses, examines the ways they "execute" their strategies, and provides practical recommendations for business leaders to more effectively outperform their competition.

A must-have for any business leader who wants to have a healthy relationship with customers, this book avoids the pitfalls that often plague others that offer business advice. Frequently, company leaders turn to consultants and other resources to recommend strategies that sound great but ultimately don't have any real meaning because they are a series of words without a tie to actions.

Combining his own professional experiences working as a CEO with his extensive research and expertise as an international authority on customer-centricity, author Robert Thompson has identified the five routine organizational habits successful customer-centric businesses use when executing strategy. Legendary leading customer-centric businesses: LISTEN to their customers' values and feedback. THINK about the implications of fact-based decisions on customers EMPOWER employees with the freedom they need to please customers CREATE new value for customers, without being asked DELIGHT customers by exceeding their expectations

Crucial to Thompson's discussion of these habits is the premise that there are no quick fixes. Customer-centricity takes time, determination, and company-wide commitment. It must be maintained and constantly pursued to ensure that it becomes part of the fabric of a business.

In the end, the results are well worth it. "Hooked on Customers" helps leaders understand, adopt, and implement the five crucial habits that enable companies to not only survive in highly competitive, overcrowded markets but to dominate them, creating a legacy of success and inspiration along the way."

If we are to get America back to work, it is imperative that we return to the values that made this nation great. There is a common thread among all thriving companies. They all understand the importance of customer service excellence. Legendary customer service begins with a commitment to the customer... at any cost In order to differentiate from your competition, you must stop talking about customer service excellence and start living it. This ideology must flow from the pinnacle of your organization to the very core of its foundation - persons who interact directly with your customers on a daily basis. A positive customer encounter can change the customer's perception of your organization from ordinary to exceptional. Therefore, it is paramount to understand that your organization's success depends entirely on its ability to create positive and memorable customer service experiences. In this book, you will discover timeless gems (quotes) from some of the world's most influential leaders. Leaders and innovators, who have turned their values into action and, in the process, changed the way the world does business. This book is required reading for all who work with and/or support customers. In order to get the most from your reading, we recommend that you read Legendary Customer Service until you master the precious gems within.

"Alison Mathiebe has written a book that is clear, concise and comes from evident practical experience. It is certain to boost the confidence and success of those just entering (or considering) the profession, and is a great go-to resource for established call centre agents." Brad Cleveland bradcleveland.com/blog Author, Call Center Management on Fast Forward (ICMI Press) "How To Survive (& Thrive) in a Call Centre by Alison Mathiebe is a very welcome contribution which will help call centres to guide, support and inform new and existing call centre staff. In particular, it would prove a useful text to give to all new staff helping them understand and adjust to working in stimulating and sometimes challenging environments. The 24 chapters address the main topics and are short enough to provide bite-size learning for agents and operators. " John P. Wilson author of The Call Centre Training Handbook This book will give you inside secret tips for supercharging your call centre career and increasing your income. How to Survive (& Thrive) in a Call Centre is a comprehensive, solution filled resource designed to improve the careers of call centre agents. Think your call centre job is going nowhere? This book will show you how to recast the dead-end into a satisfying, financially sound career pathway. Alison Mathiebe is the trainer, the award-winning call centre manager and the success story. She provides stable, sensible solutions for call centre agents with the calming voice of a mentor. She will show you: How to reduce stress How to contribute to the call centre's success How to provide outstanding customer service How to increase sales results and maximise bonus opportunities How to improve your overall performance How to advance your career When Alison completed university she dreamed of working in a museum, but she had to survive. While she waited to land the coveted position in a museum, she took a job in a call centre and designed a career. Her success documents accepting a stop-gap job and carving a future in a sustainable field with more promise than she ever imagined. Whether you are looking for work or are an experienced call centre professional, this book holds the key to your call centre success. In How to Survive (& Thrive) in a Call Centre, Alison Mathiebe demonstrates the power of the call centre agent as a team member and a problem-solver. Through Alison, access the personal pride in succeeding in a traditional role with a non-traditional work-flow. Alison Mathiebe is the one mentor to catapult you into career success and financial gain.

The Long Term Care Customer Service Improvement Program is designed to accelerate your skills and your resident's satisfaction. This course includes: A systematic and simple method for improving customer service skills Learning sessions as short as 15 minutes Practical skills you can apply immediately to improve how you work with your colleagues and your residents The Customer Service Improvement Program provides consistent reinforcement of what's learned through dozens of role plays and other learning exercises, testing, repetition of the basic principles and immediate application. The evidence-based curriculum is designed to meet the objectives of key national long term care initiatives including the Advancing Excellence in America's Nursing Homes Campaign, Quality Assurance and Performance Improvement (QAPI), and the AHCA Quality Initiative. Through careful study of the dozens of 15 minute learning modules you will learn the importance of: 1.Skillfully Resolving Intercultural Conflict 2.Employing Strategies for Handling Conflict 3.Asserting Yourself Respectfully 4.Identifying Your Conflict "Style" 5.Using Active Listening Skills Effectively 6.Overcoming Barriers to Listening and Understanding 7.Learning Why You Aren't Listening to Others 8.Developing Rapport with Different Personality Types 9.Managing Your Attitude 10.Avoiding "Rapport Killer" Words and Phrases 11.Tailoring Communication to Fit a Customer 12.Improving Customer Interactions 13.Managing Stress in a Long Term Care Facility 14.Relaxing with Visualization and Abdominal Breathing 15.Understanding Who the Customers in Your Facility Are 16.Communicating with Authority and Credibility 17.Demonstrating the Power of Friendliness and Approachability 18.Providing Excellent Customer Service at Mealtimes 19.Understanding The Costs of a Dissatisfied Customer 20.Identifying Customer Touch Points 21.Adhering to Your Facility's Dress Code 22.Reducing the Risk of Lawsuit 23.Placing Your Facility Above the Competition 24.Employing the Power of First Impressions 25.Understanding Customer Expectations 26.Building Relationships with Empathy and Compassion 27.Understanding Emotional Triggers 28.Creating Unforgettable Customer "Experiences" 29.Learning to Ask Questions Effectively 30.Employing Strategies to Manage Difficult Customers 31.Taking Effective Steps to Resolve Complaints ...And many other critical skills Human beings are complex and our behavior consistently misunderstood. To enhance how we work together takes time and commitment. The Customer Service Improvement Program is an effective tool you can use to improve your skills and the lives of your residents.

Client relationship management (CRM) results in great service to the client, but it is so much more than service with a smile. Recognizing that CRM needs to be embedded throughout all levels of an organization, Bill Howatt and Tyler Hayden, an international expert in developing teams and customer service, created an easy-to-use and relevant model (the H&H CRM Model). This model focuses on the two pillars of CRM: relationship building and client service. Neither can independently ensure client satisfaction. Together, they offer a sustainable means of providing CRM excellence. After reading this book you will understand the roles of clients, companies, and caretakers in relationship building ABCs (attitudes, behaviours, and consequences) of client service.

A Business guide to getting paid kit is three of my most popular books combined together to give you a handy reference as you make collection calls and try to deal with excuses, how to choose a reputable collection agency when you need one and how to get paid from your customers on time. The economy has changed how we do business and how we get paid. This affects our biggest asset - our cash flow. So what can we do to keep the cash flowing and keep up with these changing market conditions? We have to change, change how we limit our credit risk, how we extend credit, our payment terms and how we deal with customers who may suddenly have a hard time making payment. Now is the time to take a look at your credit screening processes, are they still relevant or working the same as they did 3 or 4 years ago or does something need to be changed?

The Welcomer Edge is a business book that unlocks the secrets to repeat sales. Its principles are appropriate for all sales and service environments. It's about four distinct categories of service professionals -- the people that will make any customer service function or department a success. The author provides real life examples and anecdotes to help transform this concept into action. Welcomers are a rare breed of friendly and engaging people. Most importantly, they are innately intuitive, and understand that customers are people first. Identifying and recruiting welcomers is the key to a healthy consumer base. The book provides practical recommendations and strategies so that any company -- regardless of industry or size -- can maximize the quality of its customer service and the quantity of its loyal consumers. The book describes the four categories of frontline associates. Understanding that each category has definitive service personalities will help optimize your business at its most crucial moment: the encounter that brings two people together to make a purchase, subscribe to a service, provide praise, or raise a concern. The bottom line shows how sales and customer associates have a powerful impact on sales because they determine the outcome of the all-important first impression, and this translates into whether or not a company will achieve its most important goal: repeat business.

Today's consumer views loyalty to a business as a fad, and they also expect everything and then some. The companies that are thriving (and will continue to thrive) deliver amazing customer experiences. Customer service isn't just about being a department or a policy; it is about creating a culture where customers can't wait to do business with you, and are excited to refer their friends to you as well. This book's characters, Negative Ned and Positive Paul, illustrate the ABSURDITY of terrible customer service and the simple steps necessary to improve nearly every customer experience.

Your relationship with a client is as important as having a service to provide a client. Without one, you'll never survive the stormy waters of the business environment. If you're a professional service provider (IT consultant, CPA, attorney, marketing or branding expert, etc.), then your whole business is based on relationships. Yes, you have to be good at what you do, but you must be great at interacting, engaging, nurturing, and connecting with people. The ability to do so makes you either a tremendously valuable asset to your firm and/or a powerful threat to your business's competition. To that end, this book is dedicated to helping you initiate, build, and maintain a relationship with clients.

Despite proclaiming the contrary, most businesses don't really care about their customers. Sure, they swear blind that the customer is at the heart of everything they do. But when push comes to shove, customer happiness comes second to quarterly profits and Christmas bonuses. In just 99 pages, So You Want to Be Customer-Centric? helps you shake the habits that are preventing companies being truly customer-centric. This straight-talking executive action guide helps you focus on customers in spite of budget constraints, corporate politics, organizational silos and ambivalent data. Not because it's a nice thing to do, but because it is ultimately more profitable. The book includes case studies and best practice insight from senior executives who have been there: C&A, ING, Lexus Europe, L'Oreal Group, Orange Business Services, Philips, Sanoma Magazines International and the World Economic Forum.

If you've ever thought that you're the only one who truly cares about service and you're not sure how to maintain momentum in your organization, 'The Customer Service Zoo' may be just what you need to look at things with a fresh perspective. It's an easy to read parable with a light hearted approach to the perennial challenges of customer service; told with the charm and experience of Australia's most recognized customer expert. Along similar lines to 'Who Moved My Cheese' or 'Fish, it encourages you to look creatively at customer issues; while still looking after yourself. Feeling uninspired while preparing a customer service strategy, a father reluctantly takes his daughter to the zoo. The animal antics trigger a brainstorming journey, where his seemingly childlike thoughts convincingly come together. The lessons learned, as the story unfolds, are captured in an A-Z of simple and memorable animal analogies. It's for anyone who has direct or indirect customer contact. Originally released by Allen & Unwin, Australia's largest independent publisher, it's been translated into numerous languages. Les Galbraith Vice President American Express Travel 'An excellent reference for leaders amidst today's demanding work life' Peter Weisner Manager Sales Mercedes Benz 'Original as well as effective' Tony Jollye Australian Institute of Management 'Characteristics that good managers may well take to heart''