When you concentrate on the fundamentals, the restaurant business can be very lucrative. But most servers are making far less money than they should be, simply because they fail to understand what is important or don't bother to work at their craft.

Don't shortchange yourself any longer. In " The Art of Successful Restaurant Service," Dan Licitra, who has done just about everything in the restaurant industry, tells you how to boost your income by a minimum of 32 percent. Learn how to: .Improve your concentration
.Build rapport with guests
.Sell more food and drinks
.Ask the right questions
.Reap the rewards from repeat customers
.Take advantage of special occasions
.And much more

You don't have to work an extra day to make more money. You don't even have to work harder. It's all about working smarter.

When you're ready to beef up your take-home pay, thrive in your job, and open career opportunities, this manual has all the motivation, advice, and practical tools you'll need.

Excellence in customer service is the hallmark of success in service industries and among manufacturers of products that require reliable service. But what exactly is excellent service? It is the ability to deliver what you promise, say the authors, but first you must determine what you "can" promise. Building on seven years of research on service quality, they construct a model that, by balancing a customer's "perceptions" of the value of a particular service with the customer's "need" for that service, provides brilliant theoretical insight into customer expectations and service delivery.
For example, Florida Power & Light has developed a sophisticated, computer-based lightening tracking system to anticipate where weather-related service interruptions might occur and strategically position crews at these locations to quicken recovery response time. Offering a service that customers expect to be available at all times and that they will miss only when the lights go out, FPL focuses its energies on matching customer perceptions with potential need. Deluxe Corporation, America's highly successful check printer, regularly exceeds its customers' expectations by shipping nearly 95% of all orders by the day after the orders were received. Deluxe even put U.S. Postal Service stations inside its plants to speed up delivery time.
Customer expectations change over time. To anticipate these changes, Metropolitan Life Insurance Company regularly monitors the expectations and perceptions of their customers, using focus group interviews and the authors' 22-item generic SERVQUAL questionnaire, which is customized by adding questions covering specific aspects of service they wish to track.
The authors' groundbreaking model, which tracks the five attributes of quality service -- reliability, empathy, assurance, responsiveness, and tangibles -- goes right to the heart of the tendency to overpromise. By comparing customer perceptions with expectations, the model provides marketing managers with a two-part measure of perceived quality that, for the first time, enables them to segment a market into groups with different service expectations.

The goal of the marketer is to grow revenue. The easiest way to grow revenue is to optimize your marketing process. To develop more profitable customers fasters, you have to plan every activity for converting targets to prospects, prospects to customers, customers to subscribers, AND turning subscribers to evangelists. Otherwise, your marketing process is incomplete and not optimized. By helping you to set customer milestones, define the recurring interactions for achieving those milestones, TRACKS helps you to define a predictable and consistent customer experience and develop more profitable customers faster.

Imagine using tools already at your disposal to significantly enhance relationships at all levels of your life. Nothing new to learnnot really. The vignettes in 'Care' from a Hall of Fame football quarterback to company CEOs to participants in homeless shelters renew our faith and lead to action in utilizing care factors in our lives starting right now.

The intended audience is includes parents, educators, anyone in social services or the medical field, managers and employees in business or non-profit organizations. The goal is for you to relate and be inspired to take simple actions that enhance trust and their relationships. 'Care' can also be a significant factor in improving loyalty when supervisors understand THEY have the power to positively impact their personnel no matter what else is happening in the organization.

Foreword by Goran Carstedt, CEO of Volvo Sales, Sweden In this thought-provoking book Karl Albrecht introduces the revolutionizing concept of internal service. According to Karl, "If you're not serving the customer, your job is to serve somebody who is." He outlines a practical plan for turning all internal support departments into miniature service businesses. He shows middle managers and support employees how to identify and understand their customers, develop their service missions, improve their service practices, get valuable feedback from their internal customers, and negotiate reciprocal added-value relationships between departments. Goran Carstedt, head of Volvo Sales in Sweden, says, "In this book Karl Albrecht once again demonstrates his deep understanding for what it takes to make service excellence happen. The unique lesson is: 'If you ever hope to get things right on the outside, you must first get things right on the inside.'" Provide a copy of "Service Within" to every one of your managers.

When faced with the choice between cutting costs or improving customer service, most companies focus on tangible assets. But in our service economy, the most important asset is intangible: a company's relationship with its customers. The Satisfied Customer is a blueprint for understanding this fact of modern business and reveals the unheralded value of customer satisfaction. Drawing on the results of a massive survey of American consumer satisfaction and including examples from companies like Home Depot and UPS, Fornell presents some surprising conclusions about outreach strategy (exceeding a customer's expectations is risky, and increasing customer complaints can actually be a good thing). He also explains how to quantify and increase the value of a firm's customer relationships - what he calls the Customer Asset.

The people approach to customer service will help everyone in your organization exceed the expectations of their internal & external customers.

Like most businesses today, municipal utilities are confronting transformational change. Once a protected monopoly, they face an increasingly competitive environment. Their production is being outsourced. Their ability to sustain prices is being challenged. As a result, they are recognizing the importance of their relationship with their customers. The need for quality training focused on specific competencies is becoming evident. Drawing on the results of a national survey of customer service representatives, the most important competencies for customer service providers are explored. Information from utility research, customer service competency research, training and development theory, and intellectual capital theory are combined. These concepts are linked to current research based on subject matter experts' insights.The information is essential for managers who confront rapid change in their marketplace. This book explores the importance and competitive advantage of customer relationships. HR professionals, marketing managers and customer service managers who seek to improve customer service through training will also benefit.

The tenets of excellent customer service are central to any organization that creates or delivers products or services In fact, excellent customer service is a bigger differentiator today than it was twenty years ago. Customers are hungry for good service; they are hungry to establish long-term relationships with those who provide not only a one-time solution but serve as a long-term resource. There is a problem, however. Organizations and the people who work within them have difficulty implementing the principles of customer service. The vast majority of books and training materials on customer service teach the concepts, but do not provide the tools to implement them. In Building a Customer Service Culture, we take you on an enjoyable journey where you will learn about the foundational principles of customer service and acquire the tools to implement those principles. These application tools will help make you more successful in your job and simultaneously contribute to an enhanced service culture in your organization. In the pages that follow, we blend classic knowledge with new information to create valuable insights about how to make customer service a sustainable competitive advantage in your job and for your organization.

"Remember What Your MAMAs Taught You" provides a unique way of looking at customer service.

Author Brenda Hill brings over 20 years of experience providing quality customer service to many customers. "Remember What Your MAMAs Taught You" provides valuable information in a humorous, easy to understand format that helps you to:

remember what you've already been taught many years ago by one of your greatest teachers, your MAMAs,

see how negative perceptions about customer service has affected your treatment of others,

dissolve negative perceptions about customer service,

understand the true meaning of customer service

If you want to discover the key to delivering extraordinary customer service consistently and effortlessly, "Remember What Your MAMAs Taught You" is definitely the resource you need.

Keep your customers coming back again and again If you want to grow your company, the best way to start is by increasing customer loyalty. According to one study, a 5% growth in customer loyalty can lead to a growth in profits of anywhere from 25% to 95%. So increasing customer loyalty makes sense. This book gives you real-world examples, tips, tools and advice on how to get started. It's fast-reading but packed full of valuable ideas and suggestions you can use right away. Here are some examples of what you'll learn from this book: * The most important thing you can do to get customers coming back. * Six powerful steps to deliver great customer service. * How to create customer evangelists for your company. * What your customers really want. Now these tools are available to you in this valuable book. Buy this book now, read it today and you could be on your way to increased customer loyalty tomorrow

In the last years, organisations have invested considerable resources into programs that enhance the satisfaction of their personnel. The implicit proposition underlying these activities is that content employees lead to content clients. Employee satisfaction is expected to result in better working performance including politeness, positive non-verbal behaviour, respect, and cooperativeness in the employee-customer interaction. In the interaction process customers may affect the satisfaction of employees. This publication focuses on the following questions: Is there an influence of customer satisfaction on employee satisfaction? Does employee satisfaction have an impact on customer satisfaction? Is there an interrelation between customer satisfaction and employee satisfaction? The target audience of this publication are decision makers in human resources departments and marketing departments, managers in customer oriented organisations, as well as researchers in the areas of economics and psychology.

The way a person feels does effect how they behave which in turn effects the results they acheive. "You Are The Difference" works because not only does it help people to think differently about the customer it also help them to think differently about themselves and the service they give.
When the skills and techniques within this book are used on the shop floor everyone wins. The business wins because the level of service and customer conversion is increased resulting in happier customers and greater sales. The store manager wins because they are able to lead, motivate and coach the team, and keep the "You Are the Difference" Coaching Program alive helping it to become part of the service culture in store. The sales person wins because they are given the skills, knowledge and confidence to interact more easily with the customer making their role within the store more rewarding and effective. The customer wins because they receive a level of service second to none.
This book IS different. The techniques within its pages were developed on the shop floor working with REAL customers. Each skill has been perfected to help both the retailer and the customer enjoy a perfect shop floor relationship... in short it DELIVERS!

Effective Customer Relationship Management (CRM) begins with a customer's first contact---whether on the Internet, through a call center, or in a brick-and-mortar store. "Jems from Johnson: A Guide to Successful Customer Relationship Management" provides an up-close look at the life cycle of the retailer-customer relationship. The quality of what follows the first contact, says author Claude Johnson, is every bit as important to your company's success as your product and your sales staff.

Successful CRM is the art of amassing and using data effectively to identify your customers and communicate with them frequently in a style that is personalized and appropriate to their purchases.

"Jems" is a treasury of results-oriented CRM techniques geared to maximizing your profits while yielding you more---and more satisfied- customers. You'll discover: .

how target marketing of your product can save your company money .

how to increase your customer base by determining your company's target market .

how to identify your ideal customer---and those you should avoid .

how to populate your IT system with the best data and how to use it for the mutual benefit of your company and your customers

You'll also learn techniques for developing dynamic, multi-media communications that captivate and draw prospects, then nurture and retain them as customers. Let "Jems from Johnson" show you how to get CRM right---from the first hello.

For forty years managers have been exhorted to "stay close to the customer and ahead of the competition." And with good reason Research now shows that market driven organizations outperform their rivals. Given the obvious benefits, why do so many companies fail to become market driven? Because their internal processes, structures, incentives, and controls get in the way, says George Day, one of the world's leading authorities on mar keting Strategy. Building on his pathbreaking book "Market Driven Strategy" and a decade of experience in coaching firms to deliver superior customer value, Day presents for the first time a battle tested hame work for creating the market-driven organization.

In eminently readable prose, Day argues that in successful market driven organizations, three key elements -- capabilities, culture, and configuration -- are aligned to the market. Day explores the distinctive market sensing and market relating capabilities that are at the heart of the market-driven companies. He draws on examples of such market-driven firms as Intuit, Wal-Mart, Virgin Airlines, Disney, and Gillette to illustrate how intimate knowledge of their customers and markets gives these firms a powerful advantage over rivals. By contrast, Day shows how failure to align the organization to the market can result in such mishaps as IBM's loss of leadership of the computer market or Motorola's stumble in shifting from analog to digital cellular phone systems.

Using case studies of Owens Corning, Sears, and the Eurotunnel, Day provides a concise roadmap to managers who want to strengthen the orientation of their organizations to the market. He concludes with a detailed diagnostic questionnaire to help managers assess their own progress Here at last are all the insights and tools necessary to construct a company with superior skills for understanding, attracting, and keeping valuable customers.

Quality of service is essential in the retail industry, if customers are to return time after time. This book sets out the "Continue and Begin" method of training for quality, using anonymous shoppers to observe staff in action. It explains how to motivate people and help them to improve, to achieve consistent high quality service across all branches of a company.

When did delivering mediocre client service become acceptable? It didn't! Then why do so many professional service firms fail to deliver excellent client service? Craig gives you 21 reminders that will make your clients say "wow!"

It's amazing that the way you think about yourself changes the way you think about the and fired because of their attitude. Successful executives credit their attitude for what they have achieved. You can change the world around you just by changing your attitude about life, your family and your career. Discoveries like these and many others led Jim Mathis to speak to thousands of people on how to improve relationships on the job and at home. Sharing what he knows about people, performance and productivity has opened new doors of increased revenues for business organizations. You, too, will benefit from your exposure to these ideas and want to pass them along to your friends and associates. You have the opportunity! You will find many ideas and resources that will empower, enlighten and energize you. Reaching Beyond Excellence is your passport to excellence and success. You will discover high-impact ideas that will elevate your career beginning today! Jim's unique hands-on approach to life and work is written from his fify years of life experiences. Every year, Jim invests hundreds of hours in changing lives and motivating people to outdo themselves in performance and productivity.

What Do Citicorp, UPS and Marriott have in common? They are "breakthrough" service providers,
firms that changed the rules of the game in their respective industries by consistently meeting or exceeding customer needs and expectations. To find out how these companies do it, service management experts James Heskett, Earl Sasser, and Christopher Hart put the question to the chief executive officers of fifteen of America's leading service firms attending a workshop at the Harvard Business School. Breakthrough leaders, they discovered, think very differently about their businesses than do their competitors, in distinct and well-defined ways. Now, in "Service Breakthroughs, " based upon five years of exhaustive research in fourteen service industries, Heskett, Sasser, and Hart show exactly what enables one or two companies in each industry to constantly set new standards for quality and value that force competitors to adapt or fail.
At the heart of breakthrough performance, the authors contend, is a sometimes intuitive
but thorough understanding of the "self-reinforcing service cycle" that replaces traditional management of "trade-offs." The "cycle" is a paradigm derived from the research results suggesting direct links between heightened customer satisfaction, increased customer retention, augmented sales and profit, improved quality and productivity, greater service value per unit of cost, improved satisfaction of service providers, increased employee retention, and further heightened customer satisfaction. With detailed examples and dramatic case studies of Mark Twain Bancshares, American Airlines, Florida Power & Light, Federal Express, McDonald's and many other companies, Heskett, Sasser, and Hart show how this self-reinforcing cycle of behavior differentiates breakthrough leaders from their "merely good" competitors.
The authors describe how breakthrough managers develop counterintuitive, even contrarian, strategic service visions. These companies define their "service concept" in terms of results
achieved for customers rather than services performed. They target market segments by focusing on
psychographics -- how customers think and behave -- instead of demographics. And instead of viewing a
service delivery system as a facility where the service is producted and sold, breakthrough firms see it as an opportunity to enhance the quality of the service.
These profound differences in thought and action have brought spectacular results. For managers who wish to set the pace in their service industries, "Service Breakthroughs" will be essential reading.

A fresh approach to providing extraordinary customer service!
Something that will set you apart from your competitors, expand your customer base, and improve your bottom line!
In "You're the Doctor...So Fix the Problem" Curtis Cowan presents an innovative and extremely effective customer service principle that will change the way you and your company do business. Read it in an hour; get a lifetime of Results! It's easy. It's rewarding. It's time!
"Revolutionize" Your Customer Service
* Easy transition of thinking different.
* Building a superior WEB-BASED Customer Service.
* Successfully performing Dual Roles, Customer Service and daily tasks.
* Thirteen Keys to Success in Customer Service
* Five sure ways to get Customers to lengthen each visit to your place of business.
Bring true Customer Focus into Reality.
See yourself in control not empowered. Dedicate Yourself to Serving Others - Three easy ways of enjoying servicing your customers. New powerful concepts and proven goal-setting exercise that you can easily relate to and change the way you think when dealing with customers.

Quality Customer Service Rekindling the Art of Service provides reflective and easy to read narratives about customer service, via the lens of seven characters that individually represent different business types. The characters, Dollar, Stu, Meaty, Shopper, Peachie, Medic, and BATS, depict quality customer service for personal usage, businesses, educational institutions, and organizations offering enhancement skills. Whether working for a business, planning to operate a business, or know someone in business, this innovative work will greatly assist professional efforts. The book offers skill sets to bridge customer service gap between generations (Matures, Baby Boomers, Generation X, and Generation Y. It provides a well illustrated range of customer service scenarios, a better understanding of internal and external customer service, diversity in customer service, and an enhanced awareness of communication methods. The reader gains increased knowledge of how people, businesses, and leaders affect quality.

For nearly four decades, J.D. Power and Associates has been measuring consumer satisfaction and helping businesses improve profits by paying attention to what customers really want. Now, the company has created the definitive book on how to boost profits by increasing customer satisfaction.