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.

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.

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?

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.

Me-Tailing looks at the ways digital and on-line retailing work and how retailers can embrace the changes and personalize their services.

An instant business classic and bestseller--the bible of customer service is now available in paperback! This acclaimed book distills The Forum Corporation's 20 years of experience helping such companies as Xerox, Westinghouse, American Express, and Fidelity Investments, and provides the most thoroughly researched and practical information ever available on customer service.

Total Commitment to the Customer:
The Only Way to Succeed in the Supercompetitive 1990s

Das vorliegende Buch fasst die Projektergebnisse der Nachhaltigkeitsmassnahme "Marktorientierung" zusammen. Marktorientierung als Massnahme zur Nachhaltigkeit sichert den Erfolg technologischer Neuentwicklungen, als Grundlage von Innovationen. Innovationen mussen evidente und latente Bedurfnisse befriedigen und einen Mehrwert zu bestehenden und konkurrierenden Loesungen bieten. Daher ist es unabdingbar, die Kundenpraferenzen bereits im Innovationsprozess zu erfassen und in der Produktentwicklung zu berucksichtigen. Ergebnisse der Forschung fuhren zur Entwicklung einer Methodik, mit der Kundenpraferenzen fur neuartige technische Loesungen erhoben werden koennen, die noch nicht real existieren. Unternehmen erhalten damit praxisorientierte Hilfestellungen, um technologische Vorteile in Nutzenvorteile zu uberfuhren. Mit den Ergebnissen koennen bereits fruhzeitig im Innovationsprozess notwendige Anpassungen vorgenommen werden. Kern des Projektes ist ein Planmodul, das speziell fur dieses Ziel konzipiert wurde. Die zweite Version (MarktLab 2.0) ist darauf gerichtet, ggf. auch fruhzeitig Informationen zu gewinnen und in einem Marktmodell die Moeglichkeit zu haben, alternative Loesungsansatze quasi "im Labor" zu testen. Online koennen ausgewahlte Kunden zu Produktentwicklungen befragt werden, Alternativen der Entwicklung sogar schon mit Abgabepreisen dargestellt werden und eine Praferenzrangfolge erhoben werden. Soweit noetig wird dazu auf virtuelle Realitat als Darstellungsform zuruckgegriffen.

Bridget Brennan, CEO de Female Factor, la firma de consultoria mas importante del mundo en marketing y ventas para mujeres, presenta los fundamentos para crear una experiencia de consumo centrada en el ser humano que ayude a las empresas a destacarse y hacer que la gente quiera entregarles su negocio. La primera pregunta que le hacen los vendedores a Bridget Brennan, CEO de Female Factor, es siempre la misma: "?Como puedo sobrevivir cuando los clientes tienen tantas opciones respecto de donde comprar mi producto?". Si bien hay muchas estrategias para crecer en ventas, la que ella visualiza es la que muchos vendedores pasar por alto, o sea, la mas obvia: hacer que la experiencia del cliente sea tan grande que quieran invertir su tiempo y dinero con usted. Dado que las mujeres manejan entre el 70% y el 80% del presupuesto de consumo familiar y le otorgan un valor tan alto a la experiencia del servicio, esto parece no tener demasiada ciencia. ?Sentido comun? Si. ?Practica comun? No. En esta era tecnologica que se acelera vertiginosamente, hay una necesidad urgente de un nuevo modelo de ventas dirigido a la consumidora que empuna habilmente su smartphone, instruida en Google, amante de las marcas, y que a menudo conoce mas sobre los productos que desea adquirir que el mismo vendedor que se para frente a ella. En este nuevo libro, Brennan brinda a los profesionales de ventas una guia para dominar las habilidades necesarias para la comercializacion en el siglo XXI. X

Advance praise for Service Innovation:

""To the CEOs of all service companies I deal with: READ THIS BOOK "" -- Dave Wascha, senior director, Bing Product Management, Microsoft Corporation

""Lance Bettencourt deftly blends his academic and consulting experience to provide an example-rich, readable, practical, and innovative discussion of service innovation."" -- Leonard Berry, coauthor of "Management Lessons from Mayo Clinic"

""Provides the robust framework to design services that unlock growth opportunities for every business."" -- Lance Reschke, vice president, Ceridian Corporation

""The tools and guidance in this book will inspire companies, small and large, to create effective and innovative services that are desperately needed."" -- Mary Jo Bitner, Ph.D., W. P. Carey School of Business, Arizona State University, and coauthor of "Services Marketing: Integrating Customer Focus Across the Firm"

""Cracks the code from the fuzzy front end through the complete life cycle of Service Innovation."" -- Angelo Rago, division vice president, Global Customer Services, Abbott Medical Optics

""Filled with rich examples of how firms can innovate service through helping customers get jobs done."" -- Stephen W. Brown, Ph.D., W. P. Carey School of Business, Arizona State University

""Any leader intent on providing distinctive value to customers must read Service Innovation."" -- Michael Reynolds, staff vice president, Commercial Marketing, WellPoint, Inc.

If there's one truism about the service sector, it's that businesses don't succeed by inventing a better mousetrap; they succeed by finding the best, most cost-effective way to get rid of their customers' mice.

In industries ranging from heavy machinery to health care to financial services to consumer goods, service innovation is helping businesses find new revenue streams--and enhance existing ones--by satisfying their customer's need to get things done.

Few understand this better than Lance Bettencourt, a strategy adviser at Strategyn and a leading educator in management innovation consulting. And in "Service Innovation," Bettencourt gives a master's class on the art and science of creating breakthrough service products.

True service innovation demands that you shift the focus away from the solution and back to the customer. To achieve this shift in your business--one that takes you from making educated guesses to building a clear model to guide service innovation--Bettencourt instructs on the finer points of how to rethink your approach to the customer's needs: how the customer defines value in a product or service.

Bettencourt mines nearly 20 years' experience in teaching and advising clients with service- and product-dominant businesses to demonstrate proven ways you can build, streamline, and focus your company's service product innovation processes.

Among the numerous key ideas and practices are: Insight on understanding the different types of clients you serve--and how your products deliver value to them Ways to design specific frameworks for discovering service innovation opportunities for new, improved, and supplementary service products Practical guidance on staying focused on the "fuzzy front end" of service innovation The fundamental elements of a winning service strategy

Finding new ways to help people solve problems and get things done is why there are goods and services in the first place. And in "Service Innovation," Lance Bettencourt fills a vital need by delivering the essential guide that can put your business on the latest frontier of value creation.

Owning a B&B is the dream of many ... More and more people are considering downshifting. Buying a property that can pay for its own upkeep and give you a comfortable lifestyle is a popular option. Not only has the interest grown in becoming a B&B proprietor, so has the interest by the public in the B&B as a viable short-break option. With this rise in popularity, however, come expectations, and this is where this book comes in. - It will help you: - Determine who your customers are - Manage the necessary financial tools - Ready your house for B&B service, or help you buy/build a new one - Successfully market your property - Ensure you make a profit from your enterprise. In short, everything you need to know to make your B&B a truly special place to stay! This book has been written for would-be and current B&B owners. It can be used as a short course giving invaluable insights for the experienced and inexperienced alike.

How to successfully apply the principles of customer care in any company

Most organizations today recognize the importance of improving customer care—the need to go beyond traditional customer service and truly manage customers as assets—but only about 6% apply its principles effectively. This book fully explains the three stages in the evolution of customer care. Readers will be guided through the process of acquiring customers, retaining them through segmentation and management of the relationship, and targeting their most significant marketing efforts to the most profitable segments.

• Shows companies how to identify where they are in their own evolutionary process
• Outlines successes and failures of companies, including Sears, CIBC, AT&T/Matrixx, Kodak, FedEx, and more

'Put this on your bookshelf and in your classroom! This is a comprehensive guide to understanding and managing customer relationships from two top scholars and educators.'Dr Linda L PriceUniversity of Wyoming, andEditor, Journal of Consumer ResearchCustomer relationship marketing (CRM) opportunities are embedded in the entire customer journey spanning several touch points across all stages including prepurchase, purchase, and postpurchase stage. Customer relationship marketing evolved from traditional marketing concept and has broadened its scope today, intersecting with the following domains, namely customer buying behavior process models, customer satisfaction and loyalty, service quality, customer relationship management tools and strategies, customer centricity, and customer engagement activities. A comprehensive, state-of-the-art textbook, Customer Relationship Marketing: Theoretical and Managerial Perspectives is organized as follows:

Libraries are public places-open to anyone and everyone. This book contains invaluable, practical tips for library staff who sometimes must deal with difficult or even dangerous individuals and situations. Every library experiences difficult patrons. Thorough preparation is the best defense: it's always much better to be proactive than reactive. The authors of Crash Course in Dealing with Difficult Library Customers realized that these kinds of situations are more universal than unique, despite the great variations in library environments and customer bases, and pooled their more than 100 years of experience to offer practical advice that will help library staff prepare for the many kinds of "worst case scenarios"-before they arise. The book identifies the basic types of problem-causing individuals, thoroughly overviews effective strategies for offsetting their actions, and explains how to successfully manage the stressful, emotionally charged situations that can arise. Drawing on their extensive real-world experience, the authors provide instructions for "last resort" options when dealing with illegal activities, acknowledge the rights of employees in difficult situations, and present strategies that will minimize staff members' stress levels when dealing with patrons. While this book will be extremely valuable to public library staff, it addresses common situations that can happen in public service at any type of library. Administrators who need to develop policies to protect their staff and their users will also find this unique work essential reading. Presents practical, down-to-earth approaches based on the authors' many years of real-world experience that can be applied in any type of library environment Provides advice about unpleasant situations in an accessible, non-threatening way that also injects an appropriate modicum of levity into a serious subject Supplies essential tools for dealing with difficult patrons ranging from "the censor" to "the VIP" to dangerous, unstable individuals Gives readers the knowledge they need to be prepared for handling potential problems, resulting in greater confidence and peace of mind at the workplace