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.

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.

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.

Dr. Rich has been featured on ABC, NBC, CBS, & FOX "The Smile Prescription" isn't just a book to read, it's a Smile Prescription to take and master. Real science, true stories, and fun exercises create lasting results. "The Smile Prescription" teaches you how to live a happier, healthier, and more abundant life. "Create more smiles in your life and your relationships NOW with 'The Smile Prescription'." --- Larry Benet, The Connector, Forbes 25 Professional networking Experts to Watch "Dr. Rich is the original "Smile Dr." and I recommend 'The Smile Prescription' to anyone who wants to grow professionally or personally." --- Scott Hallman, Two-Time Inc. 500 Founder & CEO and World's Leading Business Coach Rich Castellano, MD, The Smile Dr. is a double board certified facial plastic surgeon, bestselling author, scientist, and busy speaker. He is an expert on how to change the facial appearance, and also on how our facial appearance changes us. You must hear what the latest science and research shows about your greatest asset and resource, your SMILE!

Retail supply chain consists of multiple segments from sales to distribution to finance. Retail manufacturers rely on a complicated web of suppliers. Customer demand and market competition today requires extreme efficiency from end to end. This book offers the retail supply chain executive with the tools needed for full strategic advantage. The new edition gives special attention to recent challenges, such as vast technological change, higher levels of customer personalization, and more global supply chains.

Phone calls and emails from customers are not just events; they are significant milestones in customer relationships. This book presents a roadmap to significantly improving customer relationships, whether by phone, mail, fax, email, or Website, by getting the most out of call centre technology. The book bridges the business, technical and financial issues in building and managing a customer contact centre. It evaluates call centre technology and its practical implementation to foster enhanced customer satisfaction, while delivering results at a reasonable cost. The author explains how to transform a call centre into an effective cross media contact point staffed by people equipped with the appropriate tools, knowledge and skills to provide responsive answers to emails, faxes and calls requesting service and information. Further, the author explores how to make the call centre an engine of business growth by minimizing costs, enhancing customer satisfaction, and using technology to upsell and generate new revenues from existing customers.

Customer Service: Career Success through Customer Loyalty, 6e provides a systematic process for building service skills that all business people need. Presented in a friendly, conversational manner, the text is filled with examples that demonstrate the link between service skills and career achievement. This edition features more on social networking, trustability, and customer service trends. Information is also included on internal customers, emerging technologies, and stress-reducing techniques. Throughout the text, there is an emphasis on transforming good service intentions into a workable plan that yields loyalty and success.

In this book, nine librarians from across the country describe their libraries' best practices in this key area. Their contributions range from all-encompassing customer service policies and models any library can both adapt and be proud of to micro-approaches that emphasize offering excellent user-focused technology planning, picture book arrangement with patrons in mind, Web 2.0 tools to connect users with the library, establishing good service delivery chains, and making your library fantastic for homeschoolers. As past Public Library Association President Audra Caplan writes in her introduction to this book, "There is nothing magical about providing excellent customer service; it just takes the right people, the right philosophy and the passion to make it a reality." If you've got all that, here are the best practices to make stellar customer service a reality for your library's users.

The focus of marketing is shifting away from transactional marketing and toward relationship marketing. Companies are beginning to recognize the economic value of stable, long-term customer relationships based on a high degree of customer satisfaction, trust, commitment, and loyalty. The book provides a comprehensive overview of both fundamentals and important recent developments in this fast-growing field. It also presents examples of successful relationship marketing in practice."This book makes a landmark contribution in assembling some of the best contemporary thinking about relationship marketing illustrated with concrete descriptions of companies in the automobile industry, consumer electronics, public utilities and so on, which are implementing relationship marketing. I highly recommend this to all companies who want to see what their future success will require."Prof. Philip Kotler, Northwestern University, Illinois

Learn how to cultivate the most incredible customer experiences on earth through this essential guide by Colin Cowie, distinguished purveyor of unforgettable "wow" events for the world's most demanding clients. If you're searching for ways to ensure your customers walk away from your company with a smile on their face and a plan to return, you found it. And any business organization can adapt the tools and techniques in this book. Colin Cowie, one of the world's most sought-after event planners, shares the hard-won and hard-nosed advice he has learned through entertaining and engaging stories and examples. He gives readers the indisputable blueprint for creating a customer-service culture that anyone can tailor to their own needs, whether you're a shopkeeper, corporate marketing director, or budding event planner. Upon coming to the United States from South Africa with $400 in his pocket, Colin built his highly successful catering and event-planning business from the ground up to become event planner to the most respected tastemakers and personalities in the world-including Oprah Winfrey, Jennifer Lopez, Ryan Seacrest, and Kim Kardashian, to name a few. In this book, you will: Learn how to formulate your own vision, mission statements, and guiding principles, and effectively communicate them to your team. Learn how you can align your vision with your essential mission statement. Discover the core values, including service and accountability, that fuel Colin's customer-care ethos, and how you can apply those values to your own business. Have a renewed understanding of how vitally important it is that you take good care of the people who work for you so they, in turn, can care for your customers. Become armed to inspire and empower your team. Be guided to create your own "bible" of scripts, protocols, and procedures that will streamline customer-care situations while making every customer feel like their individual desires are being taken care of. Learn how to use every complaint as an opportunity, as well as why you should be more afraid of a client who doesn't complain when something goes wrong versus one who does.

Unlike other books which focus solely on the business or profit aspects of measuring the customer experience, this book focuses on the benefits to the consumer as well as the company or financial institution. The book describes how business and government can undertake market research to determine whether the credit and investment markets are functioning properly and providing consumers with adequate information to make sound and safe credit and investment decisions. A discussion of different market research methods abilities to uncover problems in the credit and investment markets is provided. Findings and trends from studies measuring the customers experience in the credit and investment markets during the 1991 - 2009 time periods are discussed along with regulatory guidelines and consumer protection laws. The methodologies used to measure the customer experience and detect misleading sales practices; unfair treatment and discrimination in the financial services market place are described in detail. The techniques of mystery shopping, matched pair testing and consumer surveys are described along with a detailed discussion of study design, data collection methods, sample size determination, statistical testing, reporting and analysis. Sample questionnaires, mystery shop scenarios and profiles and sample analyses and charts are provided.

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.

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.

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.

Despite businesses often being based on creating desirable experiences, products and services for consumers, many fail to consider the end user in their planning and development processes. This book is here to change that. User experience research, also known as UX research, focuses on understanding user behaviours, needs and motivations through a range of observational techniques, task analysis and other methodologies. User Research is a practical guide that shows readers how to use the vast array of user research methods available. Written by one of the UK's leading UX research professionals, readers can benefit from in-depth knowledge that explores the fundamentals of user research. Covering all the key research methods including face-to-face user testing, card sorting, surveys, A/B testing and many more, the book gives expert insight into the nuances, advantages and disadvantages of each, while also providing guidance on how to interpret, analyze and share the data once it has been obtained. Now in its second edition, User Research provides a new chapter on research operations and infrastructure as well as new material on combining user research methodologies.

On the front lines of customer service, every day presents new and unexpected challenges-and even the most dedicated employees can be caught unprepared. They need confidence. They need training. They need help. Those who work on the front lines of customer service never know what new and unexpected challenges await them each day. But they do know one thing--they will be needed. But how can you prepare for the unexpected? How can customer service reps get the training and confidence required to tackle the unknown? In Be Your Customer's Hero, internationally recognized customer service expert Adam Toporek provides the answers to preparing for the surprises awaiting the CSR. Through short, simple, actionable advice, in quick, easy-to-read chapters, this invaluable guide shows customer-facing CSRs how to: Achieve the mindset required for Hero-ClassTM service Understand the customer's expectations--and exceed them Develop powerful communication skills Avoid the seven triggers guaranteed to set customers off Handle difficult and even irrational customers with ease Armed with the tools and techniques in Be Your Customer's Hero, you will have all they need to transform themselves into the heroes their customers need.

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.

"A QUICK BUT THOUGHTFUL LOOK INTO THE PROS AND CONS OF GAMIFICATION...."-Daniel H. Pink, Author, Drive Why can't life-and business-be fun? For thousands of years, we've created things called games that tap the tremendous psychic power of fun. In a revised and updated edition of For the Win: The Power of Gamification and Game Thinking in Business, Education, Government, and Social Impact, authors Kevin Werbach and Dan Hunter argue that applying the lessons of gamification could change your business, the way you learn or teach, and even your life. Werbach and Hunter explain how games can be used as a valuable tool to address serious pursuits like marketing, productivity enhancement, education, innovation, customer engagement, human resources, and sustainability. They reveal how, why, and when gamification works-and what not to do. Discover the successes-and failures-of organizations that are using gamification: How a South Korean company called Neofect is using gamification to help people recover from strokes;How a tool called SuperBetter has demonstrated significant results treating depression, concussion symptoms, and the mental health harms of the COVID-19 pandemic through game thinking; How the ride-hailing giant Uber once used gamification to influence their drivers to work longer hours than they otherwise wanted to, causing swift backlash. The story of gamification isn't fun and games by any means. It's serious. When used carefully and thoughtfully, gamification produces great outcomes for users, in ways that are hard to replicate through other methods. Other times, companies misuse the "guided missile" of gamification to have people work and do things in ways that are against their self-interest. This revised and updated edition incorporates the most prominent research findings to provide a comprehensive gamification playbook for the real world.

The Third Edition of A GUIDE TO CUSTOMER SERVICE SKILLS FOR THE SERVICE DESK PROFESSIONAL explores the changing role of the service desk professional. Each chapter expands upon a particular skill required to provide effective customer support and provides proven techniques for implementing the concepts. Research, references, and resources have been updated in each chapter, and ITIL vocabulary and concepts are reflected throughout the text. New information is also incorporated, such as a discussion of general trends currently affecting the information technology industry and technology trends affecting the service desk. The text focuses on providing individuals with practical instruction on the unique skill set needed to execute the expanding mission of the service desk.

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.

Use this bestselling and practical guide to steer you through how to create exceptional customer experience for the modern B2B consumer. This new edition explores key topics such as AI, the role of IT in customer experience and customer relationship management. B2B Customer Experience shows readers how to deliver the very best customer experience within the business-to-business industry. Intensely practical in its approach, it is divided into five parts to walk readers through the journey of planning, mapping, structuring, implementing and controlling an effective customer experience, all bespoke for the B2B environment. Now newly revised, this new edition will provide new case studies demonstrating what makes for good or bad customer experience as well as providing new tactics and strategies that will help build an effective customer experience plan. This new edition also aims to guide the reader on how to successfully incorporate AI into their strategy whilst still delivering great customer experience. Discussing some of the best-known examples of consumer-focused customer experiences from companies such as Zappos, Nordstrom and John Lewis, B2B Customer Experience is the must-have text for any marketing professional working within a B2B environment.

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.

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.