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).

Top presenter and trainer Steven Harris provides a highly charged practical guide to customer service, based on the award-winning principles used by his consultancy Energize Learning. Fired Up and Ready to Go! is packed with tips and exercises to help readers work towards peak performance both as individuals and within the teams they manage. The book is divided into three parts: Part One focuses on techniques for self-management and peak performance; Part Two describes the skills and behaviours required to engage effectively with customers and colleagues alike; finally Part Three focuses on the leadership skills needed to get teams, departments and companies all fired up and ready to go at all times!

Do you want a better understanding of who your customers are? Do you want to learn how to acquire the customer voice? The next decade will be the decade of the customer. Meeting their wants, needs, and desires better than anyone else will be paramount to your organization's success. Acquiring, Processing, and Deploying Voice of the Customer gives you the tools you need to develop a Voice of the Customer (VOC) plan from beginning to end.

Shillito describes the delicate customer-company balance. He covers the various components types of VOC such as voice of the company, voice of the designer/engineer, and voice of marketing that must be integrated through the use of an interdisciplinary team to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage for the enterprise. The author not only discusses VOC but also includes a hybrid model - Customer Oriented Product Concepting (COPC) - for deploying VOC into a product or service design that balances the needs of the customer with the needs of the enterprise.

All of these elements go into developing a successful VOC process. However, timing is key. Shillito presents a step-by-step template for integrating VOC into the fuzzy front end of the commercialization process. He demonstrates how product development teams can get an early focus and stay on course during the commercialization process. The book provides a set of breakthrough tools that may be used to obtain and deploy VOC.

The most comprehensive VOC guide available, Acquiring, Processing, and Deploying Voice of the Customer provides you with the techniques required to shape a product or service so that their elements balance customer and company needs while being affordable to both. It describes qualitative and quantitative processes integrated into a system to determine the customer's wants and how you can meet them. The new methods found in this book will put you ahead of your competition and ahead of the crowd.

Excellent customer service is crucial to a successful phone-based business - it can secure customer loyalty, while poor service can lose it. This concise guide examines every important scenario that a customer service representative may encounter and shows how to handle each one. It tells how to ask the right questions and solve the problem in an efficient manner. It also explains how to make effective use of voice mail, e-mail, fax, and letters. Stephen Coscia's guide to customer service over the telephone shows how to accentuate the positive, how to determine the customer's problem and how to solve it as quickly and efficiently as possible. Exceptional customer service is crucial to a successful phone-based business. Quality service can secure customer loyalty, while poor service can lose it. This concise guide examines every important scenario that a customer service representative is likely to encounter and shows how to best handle each one. It tells how to determine what the customer's problem is by asking the right questions, and then solving the problem in a timely and efficient manner. It also explains how to make effective use of voice mail, e-mail, fax, and letters.

This text gives examples of how companies can leverage call centre technology to serve their unique needs, and how at the same time they can create a positive experience for customers. Solutions from leading call centres are provided for the problems behind basic call centre functions.

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.

The benefits include: cost reduction; increased productivity; improved safety; higher morale; and the ability to meet the changing expectations of your customers.
Step-by-step, the authors guide you through the creation and implementation of a process master. You will learn:

• Identify and gain control of your organization's key processes.
• Get the right people involved.
• Establish boundaries and measures.
• Use the process master to support ISO and HACCP compliance

A Book in the University of Michigan Business School Series It's a simple equation: no customers equals no profits. So how can a company ensure that its customers enjoy a consistently satisfying experience? In this book, two experts from the University of Michigan Business School lay out a five-stage process that links all of the key measures of customer satisfaction with marketing strategy and product development to guarantee excellent customer service. Johnson and Gustafsson show managers how to break down the organizational barriers that defy great customer service and instead tie together their customer value chain to create a cohesive customer measurement and management system. So, if like most companies, yours has only a fleeting understanding of its relationship with its customers, this book offers the organizational know-how to make and keep them happy.

In a world where there is increasing choice for just about every kind of product and service, winning and holding the best customers is key to the success of any business. Customer Relationship Management, or CRM, is a concept that senior managers in any kind of business ignore at their peril. At its heart is the successful management of customer retention by being customer-focused as an organization.
The concept is not rocket science, but its implementation is more of a challenge. It involves a fundamental change within the organization.
In this book, John Murphy introduces "The Lifebelt" - quite literally an aid to keeping afloat in this pressured environment. The Lifebelt is a framework that offers a practical way forward to integrating and mobilizing the entire oragnization toward a holistic CRM programme.
The proprietary framework features six key factors identified as being essential for consistent delivery of service: customer focus, processes, employee involvement, training, measurement, and continuous improvement.
John Murphy outlines how each of the factors should be owned by an appropriate member of the top management team. When this framework is systematically and effectively implemented and managed it will considerably enhance the customer retention capacity of the company.
The logic of the framework applies to virtually all industries internationally. Managers and marketers across the board will find this book one of the most practical gudies to retaining customers published to date.

Consumer Services have been viewed as parasitic activities, dependent on other sectors of the economy for their viability and vitality. Yet local economic policy is now looking towards consumer services to solve severe economic problems. The rapid expansion of the service sector is now a principal feature of contemporary global economic restructuring. Consumer Services and Economic Development evaluates the contributions that consumer services can make to local economic development and revitalisation. A broad range of consumer service industries are examined in turn: tourism, sports, universities, retailing and cultural industries. Detailed local case studies illustrate the role, impact and effectiveness of consumer services in economic regeneration in a number of different contexts: the global city, contrsting urban areas and rural localities. With many localities in the advanced economies suffering from severe deindustrialisation and weak producer service growth, this book highlights the need for a fundamental rethink of both the function of services and of economic development theory and practice in general.

Who should read this book? This is a must read if you're a newcomer to predictive dialers and responsible for analyzing, recommending and deploying inbound and outbound call center solutions; or, if you're in the midst of implementing a predictive dialer,
For anyone analyzing, recommending and deploying predictive dialers in outbound call centers, this book explains how they work, how to get the maximum benefit from them in automating telemarketing, customer service and collection calls.

This book illustrates the vital link between satisfying external customers and improving processes within the organization to ensure that internal customers are satisfied, too.

In an attempt to achieve high levels of growth, profit, and competitive advantage, American businesses have been implementing a variety of management initiatives, such as TQM, reengineering, service management, self-directed work teams, and empowerment. Too often, these initiatives, when implemented individually, fail or provide only short-term results. American industry is now realizing that no single initiative can provide an overall, long-term solution. A more comprehensive, integrated approach is necessary to sustain future success. Sustaining High Performance shows you how to develop and implement an integrative "systems-thinking" strategy that will ensure a successful long-term management plan. Sustaining High Performance will help you reinvent your strategic management system (planning and change) for the 21st century and give you the tools and information to pull ahead of the competition and become a powerhouse organization.

Total Quality Service rises to the business challenge of the 90s. It explains in the most concise terms possible the principles of TQS. The research stands-most unhappy customers do not complain. Instead, they never again buy from businesses that just once left them unsatisfied. What then is TQS? In the simplest terms, it is the true commitment to operationalizing the concept of customer focus, establishing service performance standards, measuring performance against benchmarks, recognizing and rewarding exemplary behavior, and maintaining enthusiasm for the customer at all times. Companies that do not provide quality service not only won't compete-they won't exist. Let Total Quality Service put you and your employees on the cutting edge of customer satisfaction.

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.

Your company needs a call center to be competitive in the 21st century. This book is your guide to the technology, techniques, and trends in today's call centers. The Call Center Dictionary contains all the information you need to: Understand: Your boss,

"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.

Exceptional customer service is crucial to a successful phone-based business. Quality service can secure customer loyalty, while poor service can lose it. This concise guide examines every important scenario that a customer service representative is likely to encounter and shows how to best handle each situation. It also explains how to make effective use of voice mail, email, fax, and letters. ;

Get the most out of ACDs (automatic call distributors) and other complex systems in order to boost customer satisfaction and increase sales Includes three ready to use RFPs (request for proposals) for buying an ACD, computer telephony system, or recording

A guide to improving sales and profits in consumer financial services that stresses the development of a sales and service culture. The key principles discussed are interaction with customers, cultural support and values, service from the customer's point of view, service selling, characteristics of successful sales organizations, star sales people, perfecting the sales process, dealing with prospective clients, and ongoing interaction with the client.

Praise for The Best Service Is No Service

"A very sharp and practical treatise on why so many call centers and service operations are playing with the wrong deck of cards altogether. We strongly recommend it to anyone involved in customer service issues."
--Don Peppers and Martha Rogers, Ph.D., authors, Rules to Break and Laws to Follow

"The Best Service Is No Service presents great new ideas about how to make service work for the company and the customer. Customers are clamoring for self-service that answers all of their questions, and this important book shows companies how to achieve this level of customer satisfaction."
--Sheryl Sandberg, vice president of online sales and operations, Google

"I recommend The Best Service Is No Service to companies and their outsourcing partners alike--when customers don't need to contact companies for help or information because everything is clear and works right, then everyone benefits. The 'best service' principles also work across all countries and cultures, a new universal goal!"
--Sanjeev Aggarwal, managing director, Helion Ventures Pvt Ltd Gurgaon, India, and founder and former CEO of IBM Daksh

"Building 'the best service is no service' also applies outside of corporations--universities and business schools can learn a lot from this book and its principles. I recommend this book to academic leaders for their schools and for their students to obtain firsthand lessons that really work!"
--James Jiambalvo, dean, Michael G. Foster School of Business; and Kirby L. Cramer Chair of Business Administration

"This book is compulsory reading for executives, customer service managers, and decision makers whose actionsdefine a company's customer experience. The Best Service Is No Service points out areas where management mistakes or confusion can lead to unnecessary contacts and disoriented customers. The concept of 'no service' is elegant in its simplicity. You will find clear solutions and tips on how to achieve 'no service' but also how to provide 'awesome customer experiences' while pursuing 'no service.'"
--Bert Quintana, former vice president, Dell International Services

Every company is recognizing the critical importance of protecting its customer base by raising the bar of its customer service prowess. Excellence in Managing Worldwide Customer Relationships identifies the risks companies face when expanding their business model in both domestic and overseas markets and offers solutions, strategies, and a structure to minimize obstacles when selling to domestic and foreign markets while satisfying customers and developing new business. This fifth book in the Global Warrior Series looks at the obstacles in customer service management and provides a 10-step process for developing a best-practices approach that offers the best opportunity for excellence, world class initiatives, and high client satisfaction and retention levels. It focuses on technology, along with other measures and how it can be utilized in customer service relationships that will enhance the customers' loyalty. As companies grow within their North American markets and internationally, the book will also look at customer service in home markets, as well as in global operations, cultural issues, and expanding into world markets.

*SHORT-LISTED FOR THE BUSINESS BOOK AWARDS 2020!* Are you a Customer Success Executive or making your way up the Customer Success ladder? Do you want to transform churn into maximum recurring revenue and growth? Are you looking for a clear route to an established framework? Are you determined to be proactive, rather than constantly firefighting, with your customers? Is your company invested in or implementing a customer-focused philosophy? If you answered yes to any of these questions, this book is for you! Customer Success is an emerging discipline for professionals pioneering revenue growth through customer relationships, outcomes, trust, loyalty, retention and referrals. The Customer Success Pioneer is a practical handbook for creating a best-in-practice Customer Success function from the ground up. It will help you ensure that your existing portfolio of customers become successful partners - delighted, committed and renewing - by putting in place processes that will work across your portfolio and into the future. This book will help you find the essential frameworks to maximise customer retention, recurring revenue and growth, build a productive and balanced team and excel as a Customer Success professional.

Use this guide book in its fully updated second edition to study for the ITIL 4 Foundation certification exam. Know the latest ITIL framework and DevOps concepts. The book will take you through the new ITIL framework and nuances of the DevOps methodology. The book follows the topics included in the foundation certification exam syllabus and includes new sections on ITIL's guiding principles, service value chain, and the four dimensions of service management. Also included are the concepts, processes, and philosophies used in DevOps programs and projects. ITIL and DevOps concepts are explained with relevant examples. By the time you finish this book, you will have a complete understanding of ITIL 4 and will be ready to take the ITIL 4 Foundation certification exam. You will know the DevOps methodology and how ITIL reinforces the philosophy of shared responsibility and collaboration. Over the course of a week, even while working your day job, you will be prepared to take the exam. What You Will Learn Know the basics of ITIL as you prepare for the ITIL Foundation certification exam Understand ITIL through examples Be aware of ITIL's relevance to DevOps and DevOps concepts Who This Book Is For Professionals from the IT services industry

Rainmakers are the people who bring money into their organisations and this book is packed with hints and tips to pursue prospective customers and keep them.