This book is a comprehensive practical guide for account managers, sales teams and account leaders operating in the B2B space. It provides knowledge to excel in developing, growing and retaining top accounts in local and global environments. With a nuanced version of 'account management' that will potentially be a game changer, the book offers a personnel-and-process based agenda that can create a 'competitive advantage' on its own.

The Simple Truths of Service is a customer service classic that will grab your heart and not let go! More than five million people have been touched by this story. Have you? Your competitive edge in today's business environment is in how your customers are treated. If you want to succeed, then it's time to get creative about customer service! The Simple Truths of Service is an unforgettable true story about a very special young man who takes a chance and changes the culture of a grocery store. Each and every member of your team will be coming up with their own ideas of how to deliver that extra special service after they read this book. Johnny is young man living with Down Syndrome who changes the culture of a grocery store by being creative and giving the customers more than they expect. He puts his own personal signature on each and every interaction. Read about Johnny and other great customer experience stories that will have your customer service team bursting with new ways to make your company stand out from the crowd.

Praise For "Business Process Mapping: Improving Customer Satisfaction, Second Edition"

"A must-read for anyone performing business process mapping This treasure shares step-by-stepapproaches and critical success factors, based on years of practical, customer-focused experience.A real winner "
--Timothy R. Holmes, CPA former General Auditor, American Red Cross

"Paulette and Mike make extensive use of anecdotes and real-life examples to bring alive the topic ofbusiness process mapping. From the outset, this book will engage you and draw you into the worldof business process mapping. Who would have thought that reading about business process mapping could make you smile? Well, Mike and Paulette can make it happen Within each chapter, theauthors provide detailed examples and exhibits used to document a process. Each chapter also includes a 'Recap' and 'Key Analysis Points' which enable the reader to distill the highlights of the chapter."
--Barbara J. Muller, CPA, CFE, Senior Lecturer, School of Accountancy W. P. Carey School of Business, Arizona State University

"Keller and Jacka cut through the drudgery of process mapping with a path-breaking approach thatenables the reader to better understand processes, how they work and how they work together toward successful achievement of business objectives. With great style and flair, this book will provide youwith a different way of thinking and new tools to assist you in process analysis and improvement. This book is a must-read for auditors, risk managers, quality improvement management, and businessprocess engineers."
--Dean Bahrman, VP and Internal Audit Director (Retired) Global Financial Services Companies

"Mike Jacka and Paulette Keller show their expertise with the application of business process mappingin increasing customer service and satisfaction in this updated and expanded edition of this popular book. With clear, practical examples and applications, this book shows the writing talents of bothauthors, and it will be used over and over by those from all lines of industries and professions. Kudos for a job well done "
--Joan Pastor, PhD, Founding Partner, Licensed Industrial-Organizational Psychologist JPA International, Inc., Beverly Hills, California

Like the international bestseller Who Moved My Cheese?, Hug Your Customers is powerful through its simplicity. Jack Mitchell is CEO of Mitchells - a clothes store and one of the most successful small businesses in America. This family-run business has built extremely healthy profit margins in a tough retail market through a most refreshing approach to sales - hug your customers! In other words: if there is one key to a successful business then it is happy customers and companies who go the extra mile enjoy the extra profits. From small independent businesses to established conglomerates, Hug Your Customers is an invaluable and fun tool for ensuring repeat business and outstanding results.

Bridget Brennan, CEO of Female Factor, shows readers how to win sales and grow market share by creating a customer experience that appeals to the most powerful consumers: women.

When people think about the world's growth markets, they often envision countries like China and India. Yet they miss the largest one right here at home, no matter where you call home: women. With women driving 70 to 80 percent of consumer spending, it would seem an obvious strategy to learn how best to appeal to this continually expanding market. Common sense? Yes. Common practice? No.

In Winning Her Business, Bridget Brennan, advisor to some of the world's biggest brands and businesses, provides a roadmap for selling in a world dominated by the rise of women's economic power. Brennan introduces The Four Motivators(R) Framework, which shows how every company can help customers feel:

- connected to them, their brand, and their business,

- inspired to buy from them specifically,

- confident in their buying decisions, and

- appreciated for their business.

Showcasing best practices from brands as diverse as Lexus, Sephora, Allstate and the Minnesota Vikings NFL team, Winning Her Business offers invaluable insights into women as consumers and shows that almost all businesses have an opportunity to create an inclusive customer experience that inspires increased sales, referrals, and repeat business.

This cutting-edge reference represents a new phase in the talkRA project-an initiative dedicated to improving the discipline of revenue assurance (RA) for communication providers. From blog to podcasts and now a book, the project offers a platform for a select group of RA experts to share ideas and best practices in revenue assurance, revenue management, business intelligence, and fraud prevention in telecommunications and other industries. Drawing on the expertise and insights of some of the leading minds in RA, Revenue Assurance: Expert Opinions for Communications Providers supplies high-powered ideas and techniques for the effective management, planning, strategy formulation, and measurement of RA performance. Presented as a series of articles on current and emerging topics of interest, it provides extensive and multi-faceted guidance to help readers move up the scale from basic checks to optimizing performance. Covers the fundamentals of revenue assurance Explains the relationship between revenue assurance and fraud management and how revenue assurance sits within the wider context of enterprise risk management and the control environment Provokes readers to think of creative ways to adapt RA to the needs of their business, whether they are initiating the RA process or seeking to take an established RA function to the next level Shows how to measure the financial benefits delivered by the RA team and how to appraise the RA maturity of the whole business Illustrates how to perform root cause analysis through Q&A discussion of how top experts deal with a variety of leakages Identifies trends in how RA techniques are changing, and links these to developments in tools and technology Entertains through sympathetic and sometimes irreverently humorous observations about the working life of an RA practitioner The book provides an analysis of the drivers for RA products and services, enabling RA suppliers and consultants to compare their competitive offerings with what customers really want and need. Complete with real-world tips and case examples, it supplies the well-rounded understanding that will enable you to best fit the needs of your business and best support its objectives. This book will give you the confidence to determine the most effective and efficient methods to achieve and maintain healthy revenue streams in the ever-changing landscape of electronic communications. Praise for: ... draws upon the actual experience of a number of RA professionals-those who have actually lived through the journey, learned from setbacks, and adapted their approaches to determine best practices in the field. -Julian Hebden, Director of Enterprise Information Management, Telstra

This book highlights the latest research on sub-supplier management while also discussing its current state and related managerial challenges. It provides a process framework for managing sub-suppliers and an overview of the various buyer / sub-supplier relationships and their key characteristics. Furthermore, the respective chapters address essential capabilities to successfully manage sub-suppliers and to discuss how to overcome barriers and challenges associated with sub-supplier management. Concrete examples and cases are also provided, and, in closing, potential research opportunities are outlined and demonstrated.

The ability to look after your customers is crucial to anyone who wants to advance their career. Written by Di McLanachan, a leading expert on customer care as both a coach and a practitioner, this book quickly teaches you the insider secrets you need to know to in order to keep your customers happy and coming back. The highly motivational 'in a week' structure of the book provides seven straightforward chapters explaining the key points, and at the end there are optional questions to ensure you have taken it all in. There are also cartoons and diagrams throughout, to help make this book a more enjoyable and effective learning experience. So what are you waiting for? Let this book put you on the fast track to success!

The customer service book that will help you blitz the competition and win life-long customers! The options customers have today to get what they want are so plentiful that not a single company, or representative of that company, can afford to be powerless in the competitive world of service. Through the story of a $6,000 Egg, Deb and Todd Duncan reveal that even the smallest interactions have the power to create lifelong patrons, or on the flipside, alienate once-devoted customers. The 10 Golden Rules of Customer Service represents the costly mistake of removing customer satisfaction from the bottom line. The teachable moments divulged throughout the book transcend industry, position, and career level and encourage everyone to contribute, coaching readers to go above and beyond in order to get ahead and create a one-of-a-kind customer experience. Perfect for readers of Be Our Guest, The Service Culture, and Raving Fans! "The $6,000 Egg blows up the traditional customer service model and presents a new, exciting, and revolutionary way to win customers for life. Todd and Deb's 10 NEW Golden Rules will transform the bottom line of both he provider and the customer forever!"-Dave Ramsey, New York Times bestselling author and nationally syndicated radio show host

Strong customer-focused companies have a clear, relevant promise which they obsessively deliver day-in, day-out. At the same time, they relentlessly drive the market by evolving the offer in the face of market developments and opportunities. Because they meet customer needs better than the competition, again and again, they are able to generate sustainable, profitable, market-leading organic growth. The problem the book addresses is how to achieve this. The authors identify five key steps using their framework for success: Offer a clear, relevant "customer promise"Build "customer trust" by reliably delivering that promise"Continuously improve" the promise, while still reliably delivering itDrive the market by "innovating" beyond the familiarSupport all this with an "open organization" that promotes frank discussion based on clear facts and market feedback.

Above all the book runs counter to the fashionable claim that the starting-point for business success should be to find a 'blue-sky', 'out-of-the-box' breakthrough innovation. Barwise and Meehan use many compelling cases to illustrate how managers can find ways within their existing network and organization to achieve long term growth.

Almost every advertising, promotion, or marketing communications textbook is based on an inside-out approach, focusing on what the marketer wants to communicate to customers and prospects. This text takes a different view - that the marketer and the customer build the ongoing brand value together. Rather than the marketer trying to 'sell', the role of the marketer is to help customer buy. To do that, a customer view is vital and customer insight is essential. Customer insights allow the marketer to understand which audiences are important for a product, what delivery forms are appropriate, and what type of content is beneficial. "Building Customer-Brand Relationships" is themed around the four key elements marketing communicators use in developing programs - audiences, brands, delivery, and content - but provides an innovative approach to marketing communications in the 'push-pull' marketplace that combines traditional outbound communications (advertising, sales promotion, direct marketing, and PR) with the inbound or 'pull' media of Internet, mobile communications, social networks, and more. Its 'customer-centric' media planning approach covers media decision before dealing with creative development, and emphasizes measurement and accountability. The text's concepts have been used successfully around the world, and can be adapted and adjusted to any type of product or service.

Win the attention of high-level decision makers in large corporations; spark their interest and earn their trust to achieve long-term, sustainable mutual value. When it comes to buying and selling complex, high value products and services, people buy from people. Big businesses and public sector organizations rely on solutions to keep their essential services running - things like payroll, IT, property maintenance and communications technology. For the companies that provide those services, winning the business can mean huge, multi-year, multi-million contracts. Executive Engagement Strategies is a comprehensive guide to engaging with the senior professionals making the buying decisions - to win sustainable, long-lasting business. It provides an easy-to-follow guide that will help professionals interact at each step of the B2B buying process using a combination of people, messages and communication channels. Highly practical, Executive Engagement Strategies provides a clear, step-by-step process to capture the attention of busy c-suite executives, and keep them engaged and motivated throughout the lengthy buying process. Filled with global case studies and examples, it will help readers know what to say, and when and how to say it, to build trust and win the business. With key takeaways at the end of each chapter and clearly actionable guidelines and instructions, it is the only resource you'll need to build truly customer-centric engagement with core decision makers.

This invaluable resource is the training manual you need to give your employees the thorough training, review, and--if necessary--overhaul they need in the vitally important area of customer service. If their interactions with you and your employees were the only things your customers knew about your business, what would they say about it? Would they use descriptions such as "uninformed," "rude," "hot-tempered," "uncaring"? For your customer, nothing else represents your business more than your employees; therefore, nothing is more important than arming them with the knowledge and skills they need to find the best solution for every customer. Using scenarios, guidelines, and practice exercises, Customer Service Training 101 will train them in: Creating positive first impressions Speaking and writing effectively Listening attentively Identifying needs Making customers feel valued Confidently handling customer complaints Your business plan is sound. Your product is needed. Your growth strategies are ground-breaking, but poor customer service can bring it all to a crashing halt. Equip you and your employees with the necessary skills before it's too late.

Business Models for Transforming Customer Relationships What if there were a way to turn occasional, sporadic transactions with customers into long-term, continuous relationships--while simultaneously driving dramatic improvements in operational efficiency? What if you could break your existing trade-offs between superior customer experience and low cost? This is the promise of a connected strategy. New forms of connectivity--involving frequent, low-friction, customized interactions--mean that companies can now anticipate customer needs as they arise, or even before. Simultaneously, enabled by these technologies, companies can create new business models that deliver more value to customers. Connected strategies are win-win: Customers get a dramatically improved experience, while companies boost operational efficiency. In this book, strategy and operations experts Nicolaj Siggelkow and Christian Terwiesch reveal the emergence of connected strategies as a new source of competitive advantage. With in-depth examples from companies operating in industries such as healthcare, financial services, mobility, retail, entertainment, nonprofit, and education, Connected Strategy identifies the four pathways--respond-to-desire, curated offering, coach behavior, and automatic execution--for turning episodic interactions into continuous relationships. The authors show how each pathway creates a competitive advantage, then guide you through the critical decisions for creating and implementing your own connected strategies. Whether you're trying to revitalize strategy in an established company or disrupt an industry as a startup, this book will help you: Reshape your connections with your customers Find new ways to connect with existing suppliers while also activating new sources of capacity Create the right revenue model Make the best technology choices to support your strategy Integrating rich examples, how-to advice, and practical tools in the form of "workshop chapters" throughout, this book is the ultimate resource for creating competitive advantage through connected relationships with your customers and redefined connections in your industry.

Electronic Customer Care (ECC) ist seit Erscheinen der zweiten Auflage ein Bestseller fur Softwareanbieter geworden. Unter dem Begriff Customer Relationship Management (CRM) bieten boomende Firmen Losungen zur Optimierung der Kundenprozesse an. Sie werben mit hoher Kundenzufriedenheit und reduzierten Kosten. Auch traditionelle Softwaregiganten beginnen, Losungen im Bereich Marketing, Sales und Service zu vermarkten. Fur viele Unternehmen allerdings ist die Reorganisation der sogenannten Front-Office-Prozesse Neuland. Auf was mussen Unternehmen achten, wenn sie CRM-Projekte starten? Wichtig ist es, vom Kundenbedurfnis auszugehen und die Kundenbeziehung ganzheitlich zu betrachten. Das Buch abstrahiert die Kundenbeziehung anhand des Customer Buying Cycles und schafft so einen neutralen Orientierungsrahmen fur CRM-Projekte. Die dritte Auflage nimmt neue Themen wie e-Marktplatze in die Betrachtungen auf und bietet einen aktuellen Uberblick uber fuhrende CRM-Anbieter."

This book contains the latest and most up-to-date research results from the fields of brands, labels and product, presented at the international colloquium COBLI 2021, held in Orleans, France. It covers a wide range of topics from the fields of economics, psychology, information technology and social sciences. In particular, the book deals with various areas of application such as consumer behavior in the omnichannel, the influence of the coronavirus pandemic on attitudes and customer behavior, franchising, origin labelling, transparency in the agri-food industry, tourism and the triptych of brand/label/product. The contributions are gathered under the following main topics: Consumer behavior and decisions, labeling strategy, brand market trends, branding of local brands, territorial impact on brand/label/product, theoretical and managerial research methods.

Eine Kundenbeschwerde als zunachst einmal unangenehmes Ereignis kann Ausgangspunkt fur beachtliche Qualitatsschube innerhalb eines Unternehmens sein. Damit sowohl die Kunden als auch die Dienstleister als Adressaten fuhlbar und schnell von den Verbesserungen profitieren konnen, mussen die Verantwortlichen sinnvolle und effektive Arbeitsablaufe im Beschwerdemanagement etablieren. In diesem Buch beschreiben anerkannte Praktiker nutzliche, leicht umsetzbare Konzepte. Die Autoren verraten ausserdem, wie man den Teil der Unzufriedenheit entdeckt, den die Kunden gar nicht erst ausdrucklich formulieren. Auch hier liegen grosse Potenziale fur zukunftige Ertrage. Dieses Buch haben vornehmlich Experten aus dem Bereich Finanzdienstleistungen geschrieben. Die gewonnenen Erkenntnisse sind aber problemlos auf andere Branchen ubertragbar."

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

You've read about Customer Loyalty in the Los Angeles Times, Dallas Morning News, Miami Herald, Kansas City Star, Entrepreneur, Industry Week, Marketing News, Boardroom Reports, Marketing Management, Library Journal, The Selling Advantage, Ideas Magazine, Executive Briefings, Training, Hospitality Upgrade, Direct, Quality Digest, Marketing Tools, Houseware Executive, Journal of Pharmaceutical Management, Discount Merchandiser, TeleProfessional, NationsBank Business, Modern Jeweler, Furniture Today— now read the new and revised edition of the ground-breaking book that created all the buzz.

What simple innovation brought billions in new investments to Fidelity? What basic misunderstanding was preventing Office Depot from achieving its growth potential? What surprising insights helped the Mayo Clinic better serve both doctors and patients?

The solution in each case was a focus on customer experience, the most powerful—and misunderstood—element of corporate strategy today.

Customer experience is, quite simply, how your customers perceive their every interaction with your company. It’s a fundamental business driver. Here’s proof: over a recent five-year period during which the S&P 500 was flat, a stock portfolio of customer experience leaders grew twenty-two percent.

In an age when customers have access to vast amounts of data about your company and its competitors, customer experience is the only sustainable source of competitive advantage. But how to excel at it?

Based on fourteen years of research by the customer experience leaders at Forrester Research, Outside In offers a complete roadmap to attaining the experience advantage. It starts with the concept of the Customer Experience Ecosystem—proof that the roots of customer experience problems lie not just with customer-facing employees like your sales staff, but with behind-the-scenes employees like accountants, lawyers, and programmers, as well as the policies, processes, and technologies that all your employees use every day. Identifying and solving these problems has the potential to dramatically increase sales and decrease costs.

RockStar Service, Rockstar Profits reveals a new, fast, easy way to increase revenues, grow a business, and create loyal customers for life. Imagine for a moment that your favorite artist, musician, group or rock star came into your office or called you today requesting your product or service. What would you say to them? What would you do to serve them? Now ask yourself: When was the last time I treated a customer or a client like a rock star? What would it do for your business if you treat every customer and client like a rock star? Rockstar Service, Rockstar Profits shows business owners, executives, customer service reps, and others a more effective way for their team to deliver world-class, rockstar customer service to their customers. Inside, business coach David Brownlee teaches how to build rapport in 60 seconds or less, create customized customer service strategies to implement immediately, and how to look at customers in a new light. Rockstar Service, Rockstar Profits reveals how to increase revenues, grow a business, and create raving fans-clients that will never leave.

Improving service quality has finally become a top priority of management today, yet according to service quality expert Leonard Berry only a handful of companies have managed to determine exactly what to improve and how to improve it. For the past two years, Berry studied dozens of companies of all sizes renowned for their capacity to deliver what they promise and more. From his on-site observation of the strategies and practices of such companies as Mary Kay Cosmetics, Tattered Cover Book Store, Longo Toyota & Lexus, Lakeland Regional Medical Center, and Hard Rock Cafe, Berry has constructed a dynamic new framework for improving service.

This framework provides a roadmap for implementation found nowhere else in the service quality literature. In every chapter Berry draws on his twelve years of research in service quality to explain each part of the framework in detail. He provides rich insights and inspiring examples of great service -- including numerous examples unique to this book as well as the classic success stories of USAA, Taco Bell, and many more. Berry shows that a company must (1) develop service leadership skills and values -- a concept substantially different from developing general leadership; (2) build a service quality information system; and (3) create a comprehensive service strategy based on the four principles of great service: reliability, surprise, recovery, and fairness. He demonstrates how these four principles, when adopted by the leadership and infused into the systems of a service company, are the building blocks of the framework and form the anchor for implementation.

Berry shows how the "artistry" of great service can be systematically created from this foundation through a company's organizational structure, technology, and often under utilized human resources assets. He challenges service managers to set their service quality aspirations higher, and his innovative, practical ideas will help them achieve those higher standards. Linking service excellence to value creation, Berry provides solid financial reasons for the necessity of great service. Here, at last, is the book for which managers in every service industry have waited: Leonard Berry's "operating manual" for turning plans for great service into action.

Based on four empirical studies, Moritz Merkle examines the introduction of humanoid robots to the frontline service encounter in a customer-centric approach focusing on customer expectations and customer responses. The author identifies desirable robotic behavioral cues and shows that service robots meet great acceptance among customers. After service failures, customers are even more likely to forgive service robots than human employees. Further, he shows how crucial it is to manage customer expectations that depend on cultural dimensions and internal reference categories.