Customer satisfaction and loyalty in the tourism sector is highly dependent upon the behaviours of front-line service providers. Service is about people, how they relate to one another, fulfill each other's needs and ultimately care for each other. Yet surprisingly there are few or any books which focus on the detailed specifics of the social exchange and interaction between the service provider and customer. Tourist Customer Service Satisfaction fully explores this relationship by defining the specific kind of verbal and non-verbal messages needed for successful exchanges, outlining how the service provider ought to behave & cope in a situation as well as detailing positive approaches that enhance a service provider's role performance. The book uses encounter theory to examine the customer - provider relationship as well as drawing on current research and theories from hospitality, tourism, management, psychology bodies of literature. In doing so the book offers important insight into how employee - centric competitive advantage in this sector can be achieved in various markets. This book is unique in its approach by focusing on the specifics of the social exchange and interaction between the service provider and customer. It therefore offers a novel synthesis of knowledge on service satisfaction in the tourism sector which will serve as valuable pedagogical and research reference for students and academics interested in hospitality and tourism.

Praise For What's the Secret?

"In a world of ever-increasing mediocrity, real customer service and relationship buildingare the keys to competitive differentiation. DiJulius's work is a blueprint to helping businesses exceed customer expectations."
--John Maguire, COO, Panera Bread

"It's no secret that DiJulius helps companies go above and beyond mundane services to stage truly compelling experiences. His real-world, down-in-the-trenches perspective in What's the Secret? is sure to help many managers create an enduring legacy of being the very best they can be."
--James H. Gilmore, coauthor of Authenticity: What Consumers Really Want

"DiJulius has an amazing ability to offer clarity and simplicity to the message of creating world-class service. This book offers a road map to creating superior service in any industry."
--Nance Hastings, Vice President, Field Education and

Talent Development, Estee Lauder

"Given the general uniform quality of global products and services, the primary way firms differentiate themselves and drive exceptional margins is through outstanding customer service--secret service! DiJulius's book provides the kind of practical simplicity and depth it takes to achieve industry-dominating customer service. I know, because we've exposed thousands of business owners to DiJulius's approach and results match the promises."
--Verne Harnish, founder, Entrepreneurs' Organization; CEO, Gazelles, Inc.;

and author, Mastering the Rockefeller Habits

"In this fast-changing global world, DiJulius has been able to simplify the game of service. People's tastes and time constraints have rapidly changed, but the desire for personalized humancontact still remains the overwhelming factor in winning."
--John Rolfs, General Manager, The Ritz-Carlton

"What's the Secret? delves even farther into the customer service experience and, more importantly, explains how to focus the entire organization on this one key element to all business success. DiJulius has once again delivered a fine addition to any business library."
--Maggie Hardy Magerko, owner and President, 84 Lumber Company

First Published in 1999, this book stresses the service aspects of an organization - especially customer service, marketing, and organizational responsiveness, and how to create and provide outstanding customer value to the target market(s).

In their efforts to become more customer-focused, companies everywhere find themselves entangled in outmoded systems, metrics, and strategies rooted in their product-centered view of the world. Now, to ease this shift to a customer focus, marketing strategy experts Roland T. Rust, Valarie A. Zeithaml, and Katherine N. Lemon have created a dynamic new model they call "Customer Equity," a strategic framework designed to maximize every firm's most important asset, the total lifetime value of its customer base.

The authors' Customer Equity Framework yields powerful insights that will help any business increase the value of its customer base. Rust, Zeithaml, and Lemon introduce the three drivers of customer equity -- Value Equity, Brand Equity, and Retention Equity -- and explain in clear, nontechnical language how managers can base their strategies on one or a combination of these drivers. The authors demonstrate in this breakthrough book how managers can build and employ competitive metrics that reveal their company's Customer Equity relative to their competitors. Based on these metrics, they show how managers can determine which drivers are most important in their industry, how they can make efficient strategic trade-offs between expenditures on these drivers, and how to project a financial return from these expenditures. The final section devotes two chapters to the Customer Pyramid, an approach that segments customers based on their long-term profitability, and an especially important chapter examines the Internet as the ultimate Customer Equity tool. Here the authors show how companies such as Intuit.com, Schwab.com, and Priceline.com have used more than one or all three drivers to increase Customer Equity.

In this age of one-to-one marketing, understanding how to drive Customer Equity is central to the success of any firm. In particular, Driving Customer Equity will be essential reading for any marketing manager and, for that matter, any manager concerned with growing the value of the firm's customer base.

Visits to customers by a cross-functional team of marketers and engineers play an important role in new product development, entry into new markets, and in exploring customer satisfaction and dissatisfaction. The new edition of this widely used professional resource provides step-by-step instructions for making effective use of this market research technique.Using a wealth of specific examples, Edward F. McQuarrie explains how to set feasible objectives and how to select the right number of the right kind of customers to visit. One of the leading experts in the field, McQuarrie demonstrates how to construct a discussion guide and how to devise good questions, and offers practical advice on how to conduct face-to-face interviews.Extensively updated throughout, this third edition includes three new chapters as well as expanded coverage of the analysis of visit data. It also discusses which industries and product categories are most (and least) suitable to the customer visit technique. The author also covers how the customer visit technique compares to other market research techniques such as focus groups.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) introduces the management philosophy of CRM. This is the first book to explore the benefits to the firm of a globally integrated approach to customer relationship management. The authors contend that the best hope for achieving a sustainable competitive advantage in a global marketplace is by means of better understanding which customers are in the best position to experience long-term, profitable relationships for the globally-oriented firm. The book offers both an academic and practical viewpoint of the importance of CRM in a global framework. It integrates the topics of knowledge management, total quality management, and relationship marketing with the goal of explaining the benefits of CRM for internationally active firms. The authors have included six case studies which allow the reader to undertake the role of CRM consultant in a 'learning by doing' approach.The book should be required reading for all business executives who desire a customer oriented approach to success, and for all students of business who desire to gain insight into a relationship management approach which will become ever-more important in the years ahead.

Learn how to navigate the bullies, manipulators and complainers who drive you mad. With example dialogue and techniques, it will help you navigate tricky situations and keep your cool. By understanding the motives and individual behaviours of difficult people, you can learn to manage aggression, reduce awkwardness and remain the better person. This 5th edition of the bestselling Dealing with Difficult People features practical exercises, useful templates and top tips you need to get the best out of the worst, including how to deal with difficult customers, dealing with difficult people in the digital sphere, advice on beating bullies at their own game and how to deal with a boss who drives you barmy. The Creating Success series of books... Unlock vital skills, power up your performance and get ahead with the bestselling Creating Success series. Written by experts for new and aspiring managers and leaders, this million-selling collection of accessible and empowering guides will get you up to speed in no time. Packed with clever thinking, smart advice and the kind of winning techniques that really get results, you'll make fast progress, quickly reach your goals and create lasting success in your career.

The internet has changed the way consumers interact with companies. Businesses must maintain good levels of customer service in a digital world where old strategies may no longer suffice. This text explores what the successful compliance-centred businesses are doing to manage and improve customer experience.

This book focuses on unfair contract terms in consumer contracts, in particular the existing legislation and the proposals by the Law Commissions for a new unified regime. In this context it considers, in particular, what we mean by fairness (both procedurally and in substance); the tools used; the European dimension; the move from general principles from the more piecemeal approach typical in UK legal tradition; and the further move in this direction as a result of the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive.

This work offers a state-of-the art survey of information systems research on electronic customer relationship management (eCRM). It provides important new frameworks derived from current cases and applications in this emerging field. Each chapter takes a collaborative approach to eCRM that goes beyond the analytical and operational perspectives most often taken by researchers in the field. Chapters also stress integration with other enterprise information systems. The book is organized in four parts: Part I presents an overview of the role of CRM and eCRM in marketing and supply chain management; Part II focuses on the organizational success factors behind eCRM implementation; Part III presents cases of eCRM performance enhancement; and Part IV addresses eCRM issues in business-to-consumer commerce.

"Designing the Best Call Center for Your Business" examines all key aspects of opening and expanding a live-agent call center here and abroad. Key topics discuss offshoring as well as nearshoring, and consumer and political resistance including the impact of federal "Do Not Call" legislation.

This title was first published in 2003. An exhaustive and synthetic framework for the use of Internet tools in customer-supplier relationships is one aspect of e-business that is still missing from existing literature. This book analyses the main management implications related to the adoption of the Internet in the supply chain and unifies different research studies and contributions in order to build such a framework. It is based on wide empirical evidence including four in-depth case studies in both Europe and the US, a cross-industry survey of more than 160 US companies and website research describing emerging Internet initiatives in B2B relationships. By creating a concrete link between theory and practice it should appeal to academics and practitioners alike.

Good customer service may be seen as a crucial asset for most organisations. But how do you know that you are delivering good customer service both externally and internally and, more importantly, delivering it to meet and exceed your customers' expectations? Customer service is an intangible thing, it is perishable and it is personal, so measuring it can be complicated and less than straightforward. Help is at hand. Sarah Cook's down-to-earth guide provides the rationale behind measuring service effectiveness externally and internally and explains the measurement process, from preparation to managing the results. The book also includes an exploration of the various techniques open for measuring effectiveness and how to use them. Utilising her consultancy experiences the author has ensured that there is plenty of ready-to-use materials to enable you to start measuring your own organisation's service effectiveness straight away.

The sales function is the front--line of any business. Keeping up with the latest sales techniques is essential, as well as ensuring you have a motivated, incentivised and focused sales team well--versed in the basics of selling, from identifying new prospects and getting repeat business to closing the deal. This module gives essential insight into all the key sales drivers such as account management, handling complex sales, selling services, FMCG selling, customer relationships and self--development for sales people.

Discover an important tool in the development of new marketing strategies for satisfying online customers! Edited by two experts in the fields of business and marketing, Customer Relationship Management in Electronic Markets is designed to help you build Internet relationships that lead to customer retention and long-term loyalty. With this book, you will be able to offer customers the benefits they seek in the virtual marketplace and serve their best interests. Examining Web sites, e-mail, data mining, and other technology, this valuable tool can help you attract and keep the customers who will be the most profitable for your business. Despite many predictions that electronic marketing would create high profits for lower costs, many businesses have been discouraged by low yields due to ineffectual methods of obtaining and maintaining customers. Customer Relationship Management in Electronic Markets provides multiple frameworks, strategies, and techniques around which to organize your company's electronic marketing plans. It shows you how to calculate trends, predict customer loss and gain, and prevent dissolution through analysis of the customer's ever-changing needs. This volume also utilizes examples of real successful companies that have used the Internet to the fullest extent, like Staples, Dell, and Amazon.com. Customer Relationship Management in Electronic Markets is an excellent resource for individuals engaged in any aspect of business relationships, from customer service managers, consultants and corporate trainers in marketing, to owners of major corporations, online businesses and entrepreneurs, and students in the field. Specifically, you will gain information on the following: business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-customer (B2C) exchangessimilarities, differences, and how the Internet has changed these relationships the prospects of the Internet for marketing and customer relationshipspredictions, positive effects, and negative effects from its inception to today how to develop and maintain a loyal customer base via the Internet improving B2B exchanges and business buyer relationship management through seamless Internet integration how to create a Web site that satisfies loyal customers and draws in new customers Featuring several charts, tables, and graphs, this guide provides effective measures that you can institute to ensure your company's longevity. Customer Relationship Management in Electronic Markets will help you create marketing strategies that will successfully meet the needs of your customers and enhance your business reputation.

A disruption in your call center operation can conceivably cost you hundreds of thousands of dollars. And multiple disruptions can cost in the millions. Call Center Continuity Planning shows you how to plan for - and avoid - service interruptions through disasters large and small. This book will show you how to deal with everything from power outages to major hurricanes. Should you use external Call Volume Management (CVM) solutions such as pre-established procedures for disaster call routing? Or, should you use internal solutions such as planning for a company cold site, virtual call center, or use of the excess capacity of your other call center during emergency? What about managing call volumes to cope with non-emergency seasonal or time of day peaks? Can you use your call centers minimum daily overflow of calls as a benefit rather than a problem? What is involved in contracting to outsource call handling to another call center in terms of effectiveness, expertise, technology, and human resources - and what advanced call processing techniques are available? Call Center Continuity Planning answers all these questions and more. It also provides detailed information on the concept of CVM, that treats the volume of calls as a fluid, that can be channeled from one place to another via computer-managed switching. Your Call Volume Management system acts like a series of aqueducts to manage the floodwaters of incoming calls before your call-takers are swept away.

The conflict between staying true to your faith and staying true to your company is a constant battle for Christian business owners. The serenity you feel on Sunday soon goes away Monday morning when dealing with customers, vendors, and employees. So here's the question: Can you have God in your life every day so that you can feel that joy constantly? YES! In God's Business: How to Supercharge Your Faith, Your Profit, and Your Client Experience, Frederick "Coach" West III lays the foundation to enjoy more of your faith in your business.

Finally, here is a customer service book with no fluff. The authors have extensive experience in owing and managing retail operations and franchises. They know the challenges and frustratioins of providing service on the front lines because they've been there and done it themselves. This book guides you through a simple six step formula called The Circle of Service. This is a system developed and applied in their family business for over fifty years. The principles covered can be applied by individuals as well as business organizations of any size. You'll enjoy the tips and techniques that have been developed from ""street smarts"" rather than a rehash of material from other text books. Furthermore, you will discover not only is this book a quick read but fun and entertaining as well.

How do you know---with certainty---that your business is as profitable as it could be? Don't put this book down until you've earned all the profits you need to fund every worthy project on your business bucket list. This straightforward Roadmap shows you how to profit safely, sustainably, and with integrity, in ways that have nothing to do with traditional accounting tactics... in less time than you're currently spending on email. "Profit in Plain Sight" shows you exactly what you need to do to: 1. Get Buy-in: Activate the three uncommon Drivers that shatter your speed limits, get your people on board, and change behaviors almost overnight 2. Generate Loyalty: Implement the single most effective way to keep the customers who keep you in business from cozying up to your competition 3. Maximize Top Line Growth: Achieve 'the nirvana' of Top Line growth by selling more products and services, to more customers, at higher prices 4. Optimize Bottom Line Profits: Plug your hidden profit leaks and stop your vampire customers (they're NOT who you think they are!) from sucking the lifeblood from your business 5. Differentiate for Competitive Advantage: Attract customers in droves with the overlooked but common-sense strategy that simultaneously drives unnecessary costs right out of your system. 6. Innovate and Win: Leave your competitors wondering what happened with the 21 paths to low cost, low risk, stealth innovation that they can't just copy 7. Implement for Results: Simply follow the Action Plans to make it happen Eight out of ten leaders report that they don't have enough profit to fund the growth they want. Don't be amongst them. Simply accelerate your results

Most people fail to see the correlation between "business" and "brains." For Yitzchok Saftlas, master of marketing, it seems readily transparent. During our challenging economic times, when people desperately seek to recharge themselves on various planes, Saftlas presents us with So, What's the Bottom Line? taken from his real-life experiences and knowledge from a two and a half decade career as founder and president of his own marketing consulting company, Bottom Line Marketing Group. Perfect for executives, entrepreneurs, salespeople, and marketers in the corporate and nonprofit spheres, So, What's the Bottom Line? teaches key business fundamentals, such as creative marketing initiatives, effective communication, customer retention, and strategic planning and execution. The stories, examples, and practical insight demonstrate the principles and practices leading to winning results and how to think like a savvy individual prepared for success. Ideas such as how you gain by thanking your customers and making your clients' priorities yours may seem basic. Others, such as learning from Rufus the Dog or gaining insight into the value of performing market research and demographic studies from your local dry cleaners, may not be as obvious. Wise and to the point, each of the 76 short and motivational chapters includes a concise action step, providing a clear direction of how to succeed. Prepare to be enthralled as you uncover Saftlas's acumen derived from his exposure to extraordinary people, events, and institutions. It will shed an often unseen human light on the field of marketing. Gain experience-based tactics, common-sense ideas, and principles to grow your bottom line.

Need to know how to buy a phone switch for your call center? How to measure the productivity of agents? How to choose from two cities that both want your center? No problem. "The Call Center Handbook" is a complete guide to starting, running, and im Establish and operate an efficient call center with this authoritative guide that covers everything from choosing the best site and buying the right equipment to managing agents, monitoring productivity, and enhancing customer relationships.

Electronic bill presentment and payment (EBPP) is revolutionizing the billing process by offering online and real time presentment of bill content and payment choices. EBPP is the easy way of viewing billing status, remittance items, and presenting balances using a universal browser from any location. In contrast to paper-based bills, electronic billing enables service providers to combine billing with advanced customer care and improved customer relationship management.

Electronic Bill Presentment and Payment presents the essentials about this new way of viewing and paying bills. The author defines basic business models, such as biller direct and various consolidator model options, allocates the right tools to each of the models, and differentiates between the needs of principal industries. The text describes how to build and implement value added capabilities such as personalization, up-selling, online dispute management, and better control of the accounts payable and receivable process can significantly improve customer care and customer relationship management on behalf of service providers.

About the Author:
Kornel Terplan is a telecommunication expert with more than 30 years of highly successful multi-national consulting experience. He has provided consulting, training, and product development services to over 75 national and international corporations on four continents. He has served on the editorial board for over 140 articles, 22 books, and 115 papers. Dr. Terplan has designed five network management related courses and conducted over 80 seminar presentations in 15 countries.

Customer Relationship Management presents a ground-breaking strategic framework for successful CRM policy. Built around Professor Payne's five key processes, the book demonstrates a systematic management progression that will guarantee the maximum impact and efficiency of a CRM programme.The book backs up these five processes - strategy development, value creation, channel and media integration, information management and performance assessment - with 16 best practice case studies which set the universal theory in a specific practical context. These feature a range of companies, including Orange, Brittania, Homebase, Canada Life, Sun Microsystems, Natwest, Sears, Roebuck & Co., Nortel Networks and Siemens. The book concludes with interviews from four thought leaders, offering a 'futures' vision forum for CRM.Customer Relationship Management is a vital instrument for anyone who needs to know how to develop and measure effective CRM within an organization. It includes overviews and key learning points preceding each case study, and a summary chapter to draw out the most salient lessons from CRM best practices. For practitioner or academic alike, this is essential reading.

A thorough and practical guide to maintaining a proactive support operation. Customers expect constant assistance no matter what type of products they buy, and today's support operations face greater responsibilities than the IT help desks of the 1990s. This book provides readers with up-to-date case studies and research that illustrate how support is evolving beyond trouble tickets and maintenance contracts to encompass up-selling and long-term customer care. This book also furnishes readers with examples of how and how not to offer support on-line. It highlights how organizations apply theories of customer relationship management in the real world of support. And it describes what types of products and services are essential for any support operation - including tools for reducing or preventing future requests for help - and shows readers the best ways to use them.

In every industry, and any company, customer loyalty marketing is an important pillar of corporate strategy. This second edition of Customer Loyalty Programmes and Clubs, explains how the key to effective protection against competition lies in identifying and offering your customers the right combination of financial and non-financial benefits. Stephen Butscher has reviewed the developments that have taken place since his original successful step-by-step guide was published and now includes 'pricing for customer loyalty' and 'e-loyalty' along with extra case studies. He takes you through all the necessary stages to research, plan and launch a programme that builds and develops the relationship between you and your customers, and emphasises value measurement and selection of the right benefits, enabling you to integrate the loyalty programme into every part of your organization. Customer Loyalty Programmes and Clubs includes case studies from some of the most successful companies, including Volkswagen Club, Kawasaki Riders Club, Swatch the Club, Porsche and many more.