First impressions are often lasting impressions. How customers are treated on the phone can quickly turn them into either an ex-customer or a customer for life. This thorough, quick-reading guide shows anyone who uses the phone -- from salesperson to manager to secretary -- how to treat it as a service tool that directly impacts on company profits. Readers will be able to double their effectiveness when they learn how to: * handle irate customers * end those ""endless"" calls * take meaningful messages * handle conference calls and transfer calls * screen calls and ask focused questions * use the phone during emergencies * improve their voice effectiveness With worksheets, checklists, and fill-in forms, this desktop primer will inspire fabulous phone service.

This volume presents the results of the Flourishing Children Project. The study addressed gaps in the research on indicators of positive development of adolescents. Such indicators are essential for the balanced and scientifically sound study of adolescents. Yet measures of many aspects of flourishing are not available, and when they do exist, they are rarely measured in a developmentally appropriate manner for adolescents. In addition, they are often too long for program evaluations and surveys, have not been tested on diverse populations, nor carefully validated as predictors of positive outcomes. The Flourishing Children Project undertook the development of scales for adolescents ages 12-17 for 19 aspects of flourishing covering six domains: flourishing in school and work, personal flourishing, flourishing in relationships, relationship skills, helping others to flourish, and environmental stewardship. This volume describes the four-stage process of developing the scales, including: Reviewing the literature for extant measures for items to test and synthesizing the existing research into consensus definitions for each construct; conducting cognitive testing of items with adolescents and their parents; pilot testing the items; and conducting psychometric analyses.

Ellie Ashburn has come a long way from her poor, rural upbringing: She has an upwardly mobile career, great friends and access to culture and consumerism denied to her in her youth. Although she loves the fast-paced life of Los Angeles, she can't stand the fast-paced men. Just when she's about to throw in the towel on dating, she meets environmental activist Jake Tillerman. Although the attraction between them is sizzling, their lifestyles could not be more different. As they get to know each other, a series of events unfold that range from comedic and frustrating to passionate and eye opening in this romantic story of opposites attract. As Ellie embarks into his eco-friendly world, she begins to question the very things she holds dear. When presented with a seemingly irresolvable conflict in their beliefs, both Jake and Ellie must decide if it will tear them apart or transform their budding romance into a lifelong love.

This reader-friendly series is must read for all levels of managers

All managers, whether brand-new to their positions or well established in the corporate hierarchy, can use a little brushing-up now and then. The skills-based Briefcase Books Series is filled with ideas and strategies to help managers become more capable, efficient, effective, and valuable to their corporations.

As customer loyalty increasingly becomes a thing of the past, customer relationship management (CRM) has become one of today's hottest topics. "Customer Relationship Management" supplies easy-to-apply solutions to common CRM problems, including how to maximize impact from CRM technology, which data warehousing techniques are most effective, and how to create and manage both short- and long-term relationships.