Exceptional Customer Service: Going Beyond Your Good Service to Exceed the Cutomer's Expectation: Going Beyond Your Good Service to Exceed the Customer's Expectation [Englisch] [Taschenbuch]

I have been working in customer service training for over a decade now and I've seen a lot of systems come and go. Lisa Ford's insights and ideas about customer service, however, are timeless. This book represent a compilation of the customer service ideas and techniques she has talked about over the years. It's great to have all of it in one place, and in a book format. I had been looking forward to the publication of this book for a while, and I have to admit that it exceeded my expectations. Not only did it talk about what good service is, but it goes a step beyond what other books do and talks about HOW to reach the level of exceptional service in your company. The book includes self-appraisals, ideas for team exercises, and numerous examples of good service and poor service. It is well written, very cohesive and, if sincerely adapted by a company, can turn-around any failing customer service program.

If you or your business deals with customers, Exceptional Customer Service is worth a good read, or at least a good skim. The authors provide many ways of thinking about, and actually taking steps toward, improving your customer relations. Written in an informal, friendly style, I especially liked the fact that the book is mainly straight text, with few of the silly graphics or distracting sidebars so common in many similar books. And, although the book makes extensive use of real-world examples, you never feel as if the authors are name dropping. Rather, it is easy to see yourself in the examples, and believe that if these folks can improve their customer service, you can too. I guarantee that you'll come across several ideas for making customers happier so that they don't become a problem, as well as what to do if they complain.

Like many books in the common-sense business genre, ECS does go on a bit longer than it has to, although you won't miss much if you just skim rather than study the text. But don't forget to take a look at the exercises included in the book, especially if you are part of a customer service team. These exercises allow you to evaluate and improve your customer service incrementally, and without undue effort.

Customer service seems to be one of those things that everybody

complains about, and it is also something that rarely seems to get

better . . . yet rather give up hoping that things will ever improve, there

is something that can be done; i.e., read EXCEPTIONAL CUSTOMER

SERVICE by Lisa Ford, David

McNair and Bill Perry.

This book inspired me with its many real examples of companies

who get it right . . . such as the case with Ben and Jerry's ice cream:

* They have incredibly effective letters to customers (you'll enjoy this

story). A customer who was seven months pregnant had a midnight

craving for Chunky Monkey ice cream. She managed to persuade

her husband to brave a blinding snowstorm for a pint. Upon scooping

the ice cream into a bowl, she was most disappointed at the

sparseness of walnuts in the product. She was accustomed to many

more from past experience. She wrote the company and complained. The

letter responding to her situation was great! First, the company apologized

to her for the "wimpy, anemic, under-chunked pint." What's more, they

included a coupon for a free pint because, as the letter stated, "you have to

feed that baby." Score! They just created a customer experience.

Then there was this other example:

* An idea at Marriott Hotels costs very little, and it makes a tremendous

statement. Marriott has put together a Sweet Dreams package. It

consists of a small bud vase, a flower, and some homemade cookies.

Hotel staff members are encouraged to give it to customers who are

having difficulties that the hotel really can't fix. For example, a guest

enters the hotel complaining that she's tired, feels awful, and her

four-hour plane delay didn't help. That's the cue for the staff person

to send this guest a Sweet Dreams. While the hotel couldn't control

the circumstances regarding this guest's day, they could control how

they responded to it. And better yet, when one employee noticed

a guest with an awful cough, a box of cough drops was included with

the Dreams package. Now that's exceptional service! Don't think

for a minute that customer loyalty and word-of-mouth advertising

haven't paid for that box of cough drops.

I particularly liked the many fine exercises in EXEPTIONAL

CUSTOMER SERVICE . . . they help show you can make

a difference; e.g., by doing the following:

* Reflect back on your last five encounters with customers

(in person or over the telephone). Think through how you handled

each situation, then try and identify and write down something you

could have done to improve your response by 1 percent.

In addition, I liked the accompanying cartoons by illustrator

Tate Nation . . . they put a smile on my face at the beginning

of each chapter.

My only quibble with the book was the fact that since it

was written by three authors, I would have liked all parts of it

to have been written that way; e.g., using such terms as "we"

and "our" throughout . . . instead, too many times I'd find myself

reading "I saw" or something similar and wondering which author

actually wrote that section.