Strategic Customer Service

Managing the Customer Experience to Increase Positive Word of Mouth, Build Loyalty, and Maximize Profits

John Goodman

• Publisher: AMACOM
• Year: 2019
• eBook ISBN: 9780814439067
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business Development
• Index: Business

Any organization can win more customers and increase sales if they learn to be more strategic with their customer service.

When customers complain, employees respond. The typical service model is riddled with holes. What about people and businesses who never speak up, but never come back? Learn to actively reach out, prevent problems, and resolve issues in ways that boost loyalty.

Strategic Customer Service is a data-packed roadmap that shows you how. This invaluable resource distills decades of research on the impact of great versus mediocre service. Complete guidelines and case studies explain how to:

• Gather and analyze customer feedback
• Empower employees to fix problems
• Track your impact on revenue
• Generate sensational word of mouth
• Tap opportunities to cross-sell and up-sell

Strategic Customer Service draws on over 30 years of research from companies such as 3M, GE, and Chick-Fil-A to teach you how to transcend a good business into a profitable word-of-mouth machine that transforms the bottom line.

Why settle for passive service? Make a business case for ramping up operations—and get the tools for making it pay off. Transform customer service into a strategic function, and reap benefits far exceeding investments.

INDEX

AAA, 100

AARP, 151

A/B testing, 91

access objective, 55

measuring, 78

see also awareness function; intake function

accountability, 164

action planning, 184–185

Adams, Scott, 44

Aflac, 106, 216

aggressive customer service, 48

airline industry, 15, 42, 68–69, 90

Albert, Jim, 214, 217

Alexa, xiv

Amazon, viii, 4, 91

The Amazon Way, 160

ambiguity, in surveys, 175–176

American Association for Clinical Chemistry, 90, 209

American Express, 65, 130

Amtrak, 87–88

analysis process, 75

anecdotes, 171

ANI, see automated number identification

AOL, viii

appraisal process, 73–74, 201, 232–233

appropriately targeted actions, 40

apps, 217

artificial intelligence (AI), 199, 200, 213–214

assessment, 64–65

assistance, ease of finding, 79–80

Atari, viii

Audi, 197

authentication, customer, 64, 86–87

automated number identification (ANI), 36, 66, 198

automatic teller machines (ATMs), 144

automotive industry, 8, 83, 100, 141, 147, 197, 212

average answer speed, 106

awareness function, 57–61

B2B customers, see business-to-business customers

bad news, welcoming, 175–176

Bankers Financial Corporation, 217

baseline surveys, 172, 173

Bell, Chip, 68, 85–86, 88, 90

benchmarking, 173

best practices

with CE surveys, 185–191

for creating delight, 90–94

for customer engagement, 85–90

for VOC, 160–164

for working with retailers/outsourcers, 96–101, 106–108

biometrics, 213–214

Blair, Chris, 236–237

Blann, Jim, 65

Blinds.com,...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Foreword By Chip R. Bell
• Introduction: Customer Service vs. Customer Experience
• Section One
• Section Two
• Section Three
• Section Four
• Section Five
• Appendix A: Customer Relationship Management Systems
• Appendix B: List of Acronyms
• Endnotes
• Index