Project Red Light is an invaluable resource for any business leader who wants to build a high performance team. Author Mark Bitner brings to life an improvement initiative that focuses on the repetitive cycle of experiences and decisions that teams are confronted with when delivering a service to a customer. In clear and understandable language, Bitner explains how a leader can implement a systematic approach to improving employee performance, business processes, and ultimately the service provided to the customer. Project Red Light covers a diverse field of topics, including: * Making continuous improvement a way of life for the team * Implementing a system where employees have the opportunity to rate and provide input on their service experiences * Improving team confidence, collaboration and contribution * Offering employees real empowerment opportunities * Partnering and coaching employees on project improvement fundamentals * Learning how to get employees interested and vested into the business they serve * Strengthening the employee relationship * Establishing Esprit de Corps Project Red Light is a useful resource for those leaders who want to get their employees on the s

Employee Management and Customer Service in the Retail Industry, by Gary Heil and Chris Thomas, attempts to combine the psychology of dealing with employees and customers with the practical realities of managing a retail business. Organized into ten chapters, this book loosely follows a retail manager's natural progression from interviewing prospective employees, to hiring the right ones, paying them fairly, and keeping them happy on the job.

In reading this book, you will find that The Six Principles of Service Excellence IS: . A simple, yet comprehensive, step-by-step process that, if followed implicitly, will lead any organization (small or large) to achieving and sustaining a work environment that will foster superior employee performance and service excellence. . More than a theory or concept. It is a process that is effectively used in many healthcare, financial, legal, hospitality and food service organizations today by skilled and knowledgeable performance consultants and leaders. You will further come to realize that The Six Principles of Service Excellence IS NOT: . A quick-fix. It is not about herding a group of employees through a 2-4 hour customer service workshop and calling it a day. . For everyone, nor every organization. Without 100% commitment and involvement from senior leadership, it will not thrive. . A superficial, Pep Rally. It is about making sound decisions and implementing interventions that will create lasting results.

Customer Service, Aiming for Excellence is a fast-paced, humourous and fresh approach to Customer Service that will benefit both first time employees and seasoned professionals as well. This easy-to-read, 'one sitting', book tells you how to handle different customers instead of just why you need to. The fun and insights are inescapable and 'it provides the tools to deal with difficult situations with confidence and a greater understanding of the underlying motives behind behavior'.
Customer Service, Aiming for Excellence introduces the concept of "Linked Pairs," the relationships between the situations/conditions that cause a problem and the generally appropriate techniques that aid in solving it.
Aiming for Excellence also teaches you to identify the 5 customer types and how best to handle them based on their personality.
The book also discusses Opportunities for Excellence, Everyday Extraordinary Service and Professionalism. If you have already read a book on customer service, have some fun and add this one to your list. If you read only one book on customer service make this one it!

Lynn Thomas, a nationally acclaimed retention specialist and speaker on the topic, now shares her practical and proven tools and techniques on how to delight and dazzle customers time, after time, after time. In her new book, she shares how to bring heart and a sharp customer focus to corporate America WHILE increasing profitability. Your company can apply these techniques immediately to increase your business' retention rate. The ROI is 15:1. Is there another profitable strategy that you are currently employing that will generate that return? No, because retention produces the highest impact on profits of any strategy that Lynn has uncovered over the 14 years she has been a retention expert. Lynn makes it easy, simple and fun to learn how to delight your customers. Companies can refocus on what really matters-Their Customers These top customers know the most about your business and are eager to share their ideas for your business to become even more successful. Read it now, to avoid the mistakes of your competitors and be the person to bring heart and a sharp customer focus back into your company while reaping the financial rewards.

"In "Thank God It's Sunday," Bernard Smalls delivers the good news that a serving heart is the key to prosperity. This uplifting parable--based on a true account of a wildly successful car dealership--shows that profit is the applause we get for taking care of our customers."
--Ken Blanchard, co-author of "The One Minute Manager" and "Raving Fans"

The Gospel of Customer Service is a parable based on the true story of the author's experience as a Corporate Trainer for the history making, award winning, fastest growing Toyota dealership in history. It presents a real life walk through of an excellent automobile dealership that trains its people in a Ritz Carlton/Nordstrom-like manner in customer service.

The story is a real life parable with Oscar, the apostle of customer service teaching his students in an entertaining yet spiritual way, the three empirical principles of excellent customer service. The three principles are pronounced and woven through the book. The three secrets Oscar the apostle/trainer shares are; 1) A Meaningful Service Vision, 2) Customer Oriented People, and 3) Customer Friendly Systems. Readers are guaranteed to be inspired, engaged, entertained, and enlightened that the true key to wealth and greatness is excellent service. The key message of this book is; the gospel of customer service is not only for Sunday, it's for everyday

This book is packed full of powerful marketing secrets that will help readers enhance their companies' images and increase their business.

i>>Value Based Marketing for Bottom Line Success" provides a 5-step model and critical tools necessary for creating and managing a successful Value Delivery marketing strategy. Customers buy value, not product or features. They buy from the company that provides the most value. And they buy what's in their best interest. Consequently, the secret to customer retention and growing value relationships with customers is to always make it in their best interest to do business with you by providing the best value in the marketplace.

"Value Based Marketing for Bottom Line Success: 5 Steps to Creating Competitive Value" offers a Value Creation and Delivery process which will help a company to compete profitably in its marketplace by: 1) identifying the value expectations of target customers; 2) selecting the values on which it wants to compete; 3) analyzing the ability within the organization to deliver that value; 4) communicating the value & selling the value message; 5) delivering the value promised & improving the company's value model.

In Anytime, Anywhere, Robert Spector showcases the pioneering efforts of a dozen companies who are now increasing market share by combining the best of both physical and virtual worlds. From Wells Fargo to Powell's Books to the San Francisco Giants, companies in every industry are discovering that "seamless service"-integrating all elements of the customer experience with consistent messages and execution-offers a competitive edge that technology alone can never achieve.Packed with practical advice and colorful, in-depth stories from the front lines, Anytime, Anywhere shows any business how to meet, and exceed, the expectations of customers through all points of contact.

HOW TO BRIDGE THE GAP BETWEEN TECHNOLOGY AND SERVICES

FEATURING ITS OWN REGULARLY UPDATED WEBSITE, TELECOM CONVERGENCE IS THE ONLY SURVIVAL MANUAL YOU NEED FOR THE BRAVE NEW WORLD OF TELECOM

In this new edition of Telecommunications Convergence, globally recognized telecom guru Steven Shepard gives you a life raft for the whirlpool of todays tech market. With the keen analytical skills and deep knowledge of the industry that have earned him marquee status at telecom conferences around the world, Shepard breaks down the key questions you must answer for your own company and career.

Steven Shepard predicted the current overcapacity, convergence shakeout, and downturn in telecom. Now, in this second edition, he gives you nearly 300 new pages of solutions that work--an almost entirely new book. With this information you and your company can survive--and even thrive--in the challenging environment he forecast.

If youre serious about telecom, you need Shepards technology, service, and management answers to the most critical questions you face:

* What survival strategies will work for my company?

* How do I build a company-sparing blueprint?

* Can management and network hierarchy changes improve the outcome?

* Capability: build or buy?

* What are the smart companies doing right now?

* And most important of all--whats next?

Written to enhance awareness for the consumer and provider, the information in this book will help both sides see their responsibility. The author hopes to make the dining experience a happy one for all.

This is a lucid book on the ins and outs of the much-in-vogue call centres, it caters to the need of a global audience with panache. The focus is on honing personal relation skills and educating the reader on what it takes ti thrive in the highly competitive, vibrant and evolving world of call centres.

For courses in Customer Service, Hospitality Management, and Travel and Tourism.

A must-read for all practicing and future hospitality managers, this text serves as a step-by-step guide to providing high-quality customer service. It applies to the entire spectrum of hospitality, including restaurants, hotels, clubs, theme parks, travel, and tourism, and includes as many examples from the various sectors of the industry as possible. These examples—along with numerous exercises and a multitude of figures— are what make this text directly applicable to the real world of hospitality.

"How to Mind-Read Your Customers" is about using the principles of behavioural psychology to master the art of salesmanship, improve customer relations, and increase the effectiveness of sales and marketing efforts. Based on a popular training programme of the same name, this book is written in a distinguished and non-hyperbolic tone. It clearly explains how the "Big Five Traits" of human personality and behaviour influence buying decisions, and provides a specific blueprint readers can use to improve their fundamental skills in these areas. With its premise that you will succeed more if you evaluate yourself on your professionalism rather than your income, the book should generate controversy.

In the last half of the 20th Century, the world economy has benefited from a globalization process driven by the enlightened confluence of technology, innovation, trade, and foreign direct investment. This book broadens our understanding of that process. Opening with a review of current global economic metrics and the significant differences between advanced and developing nations, the book goes on to discuss the globalization paradigm and the forces driving it. Discussing the importance of new ideas and new technology in continued economic growth, the volume shows how the protection of intellectual property encourages innovation. Also covering the evolution of international trade, the book reviews trade distortions from both external and internal sources, comparing trade on a multilateral, non-discriminatory basis with alternative trade practices, such as free trade and custom unions. The work also reviews the origins and functions of the new World Trade Organization.

Describing the rapidly growing practice of foreign direct investment, the book shows how FDI is closely linked to international trade and concludes with a review of the important function FDI can play in the bundling and delivery of the resources required for accelerated economic development of the emerging world.

What makes the world's top companies so adept at providing stellar customer service? How do they meet the needs of every customer and still turn healthy profits? And, most important, how can you adapt their practices to fit your business?

Thanks to over six years of ongoing research and an investment of $30 million, Arthur Andersen has created its Global Best Practices Database to uncover breakthrough thinking at world-class companies. Now, in Best Practices, Arthur Andersen for the first time shares its understanding of how more than forty best-practices companies focus on their customers, create growth, reduce cost, and increase profits. Managers of any business in any industry can adapt and apply what those companies do best.

Unlike most books based merely on an author's own theories or limited anecdotal experience, Best Practices is backed up by 30,000 pages of active, documented data on hundreds of companies worldwide. This book concentrates primarily on customers and how to involve them in everything from the design of products and services to marketing, selling, and product delivery.

Perhaps the greatest value of the book lies in its linking of best practices to business processes, thereby encouraging managers to expand their thinking and engage in creative problem-solving with the help of insights from companies inside or outside their own industry For example, the manager of a clothing store chain can study how Federal Express adapted the concept of just-in-time manufacturing to its rapid delivery of parts between supplier and customer. The owner of a small coffee shop chain might learn from American Express and Peapod how to target customers by offering particular products and predicting exactly when they will make their next purchases.

These and other examples will help business people diagnose the processes in place at their own companies and determine how best to improve them. Comprehensive and on the cutting edge, Best Practices will serve as an invaluable information resource.

The importance of customer service is widely emphasized in business today. This book offers the first comprehensive analysis of the organization and dynamics of front-line work. The volume is based on a five-year study of over a thousand employees and eight leading companies in the United States, Australia, and Japan.

On the Front Line reveals similarities and differences found in work environments -- such as variance in authority relations and division of labor -- as well as significant contrasts between management approaches used in Japan and those used in the United States and Australia. By examining how work differs among service, sales, and knowledge-based settings, it also shows how bureaucratic, entrepreneurial, and network forms of organization coexist in the informational economy.

The importance of customer service is widely emphasized in business today. This book offers the first comprehensive analysis of the organization and dynamics of front-line work. The volume is based on a four-year study of over a thousand employees and eight leading companies in the United States, Australia, and Japan. On the Front Line reveals similarities and differences found in work environments such as variance in authority relations and division of labor as well as significant contrasts between management approaches used in Japan and those used in the United States and Australia. By examining how work differs among service, sales, and knowledge-based settings, it also shows how bureaucratic, entrepreneurial, and network forms of organization coexist in the informational economy.This seminal analysis of work in the service sector offers both a benchmark for consultants working with customer-contact organizations and valuable information for anyone concerned with the changing nature of work."

A valuable tool for any health care leader dedicated to improving the quality of care and enhancing patient satisfaction. Combining theory and discussion with a practical `action plan' format, Sherman challenges the reader to think about solutions, not just ideas.
--Irwin Press, president, Press, Ganey Associates, Inc.

Whether you're a CEO, a caregiver, or simply someone who cares about the results of service initiatives, you'll find plenty of great ideas in this book.
--Mark C. Clement, president and CEO, Holy Cross Hospital, Winner, 1994 AHA Great Comebacks Award, 1996 International Enterprise Award for Customer Satisfaction, 1998 Global Best Practices Award for Customer Service

Total Customer Satisfaction reports on the breakthrough methods used by awarding winning hospitals and health care organizations to achieve top-rated national status in customer satisfaction. Learn from top experts in the field of how to create and implement total customer satisfaction tactical plan that will boost customer satisfaction ratings in your health care organization.

This is a story of how work gets done. It is also a study of how field service technicians talk about their work and how that talk is instrumental in their success. In his innovative ethnography, Julian E. Orr studies the people who repair photocopiers and shares vignettes from their daily lives. He characterizes their work as a continuous highly skilled improvisation within a triangular relationship of technician, customer, and machine. The work technicians do encompasses elements not contained in the official definition of the job yet vital to its success. Orr's analysis of the way repair people talk about their work reveals that talk is, in fact, a crucial dimension of their practice. Diagnosis happens through a narrative process, the creation of a coherent description of the troubled machine. The descriptions become the basis for technicians' discourse about their experience, and the circulation of stories among the technicians is the principal means by which they stay informed of the developing subtleties of machine behavior. Orr demonstrates that technical knowledge is a socially distributed resource stored and diffused primarily through an oral culture.Based on participant observation with copier repair technicians in the field and strengthened by Orr's own years as a technician, this book explodes numerous myths about technicians and suggests how technical work differs from other kinds of employment.