Book Description

A "textbook with passion", Hardwiring Excellence offers a road map and practical how-to guide for creating and sustaining a culture of service and operational excellence.In this book, author Quint Studer, CEO of Studer Group, draws on his personal experience as a former hospital executive who led two organizations to the top 1% in patient satisfaction and his experience coaching hundreds of healthcare organizations since.

Studer, a nationally acclaimed educator, coach, and thought leader in healthcare today, is a master storyteller, mixing "chicken soup style" stories with personal insight, simple tools, and in-depth recommendations on how good organizations can become great ones.

Based on Studer Group’s Nine Principles SM, Quint Studer shows how to retain more employees; ensure better customer service; build strong leadership, align organizational values, goals, and results; increase communication; reward and recognize individual success while also requiring accountability; and move operational performance for better financials, market share, and growth.

At the core of the journey, he says, is a sense of purpose, worthwhile work and making a difference.When organizations learn how to harness this passion in their employees, they create a success spiral with ever increasing momentum.

In fact, Richard L. Clarke, FHFMA, President and CEO of Healthcare Financial Management Association says, "Quint Studer’s Nine Principles of service and operational excellence provide the missing link between people power and strong financials.It’s about courageous leadership." ... Read more

Reviews (10)

Turning Passion into Performance
This book has something for everyone - those just starting to create their culture of excellence AND those who are already quite good and looking for the "tweaks" to be even better. Personal stories make it easy-to-read and show how hardwiring a few specific actions can turn passion into performance.

The definitive textbook on excellence
Quint Studer has been making a difference in healthcare for years. His nine principles have been proven successful many times over in organizations large and small throughout the nation. Hardwiring Excellence is a primer of how the nine principles can help an organization achieve excellence. It is a step by step guide that provides an entertaining combination of wonderful stories and practical information that works. You will read and re-read this book many times over, and it will take you on a journey to achieve excellence that you never thought possible.

A "How-To" for Excellence
Quint has an amazing way of always connecting, always reducing the complexity and showing the way to simplicity in the pursuit of excellence.
His advice and coaching tips are real-world and real-time and shouldn't be thought of as exclusive to healthcare. It would be difficult to make it to the end without identifying one or two leadership-enhancing behaviors....ready to be put to use tomorrow.
Having attended his speaking engagements, I can share that "Hardwiring Excellence" is like an extended conversation with Quint.

Life Changing! If you are a burned out healthcare leader...
You simply must read this book. This clearly demonstrates how to take complex situations and make them easy to understand by connecting to purpose, worthwhile work and making a difference. I now remember why I got into healthcare in the FIRST place. I am a better leader because of these Principles.

Changing Healthcare
While applicable to most environments, Hardwiring Excellence gives specific tips for healthcare providers on creating a culture of operational excellence. If each reader implements three recommendations from the book, they will improve their chances of retaining their excellent employees. ... Read more

Book Description

This best-selling book is dedicated to the development of decision-making skills in marketing. It introduces concepts and tools useful in structuring and solving marketing problems, while extensive case studies provide an opportunity for those concepts and tools to be employed in practice.Consisting of 10 chapters and 43 cases that feature contemporary marketing perspectives and practices, this book covers the topics of marketing management: its foundations; financial aspects; decision-making and case analysis; opportunity analysis, market segmentation, and market targeting; product and service strategy andbrand management; integrated marketing communication strategy and management; pricing strategy and management; the control process; and comprehensive marketing programs.For marketing executives and professionals. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Strategic Marketing Problems... Not Solutions
I was disappointed. The book does contain some interesting thoughts, but 90% of the content is a description of companies facing marketing problems (case studies with a lot of facts). The author doesn't offer the solutions and best practises that would help solve these problems. While reading this book, i felt i was eating a burger without meat. Something is missing...

This is a good book for teachers who want case studies for their students to work on. It's a classroom book. It's not a good book if you want want to read marketing theory and best practises (if you're already in the management world).

Great and comprehensive
I am a MBA Candidate with a finance focus who had the pleasure to use this book. Never before had I imagined that marketing could have the amount of numerical focus that this book shows. There's a case for every type of industry and many world-famous companies in this book. What else is missing from an introduction to marketing text?!

A good book...
I'm a MBA student in marketing. This book is good, but just that... good. I'm absolutely certain that somewhere has to be a book about strategic marketing that has a little more information (that's the problem, little theory and plenty of numbers) and not so expensive. Teresa M. Rodríguez ... Read more

Reviews (5)

Great Book
As a former student of Dr. Bitner, her course and this book made up the foundation that the Services Marketing and Management MBA program at Arizona State Uni. built from. It's an extensive review of how customers are the most important part to a service oriented business, and to neglect them at any touch point is a service failure.
This book will outline the process by which any company, be it real or virtual, can develop world class service.
This book and the SMM program at Arizona State University are highly recommended.

Great!
The book is very clear in the format and structure. It talks about the solutions of the problems arising in service marketing step by step. It first describes what service is and the increasing importance of service. Then, it puts much emphasis on people, the very important marketing mix in service. It focuses on customers: how customers perceive and expect service. Next, it focuses on providers: how companies know what customers expect; how they select the right service designs and standards; how they deliver service to standards and how they match performance to promising.

It is also good to have a very detailed example (case) in the beginning of each chapter and the content will very often refer to that example, which make me easier to understand. But sometimes, I think it would be better if more different examples are used in the same chapter.

Besides, the GLOBAL FEATURE, the TECHNOLOGY SPOTLIGHT and the EXHIBIT make the book even more fruitful and let me know more about the related areas under that topic. Great!

this book may help you.
First of all, I like the structure of this book because it uses Gap Model to connect the content of the whole book. At the begining of this book, it first introduces the importance and tools of service marketing. Then it chooses Gap Model to divide this book into different parts. Under different gap problem, the book shows the ways to close the gap. I believe this structure helps to understand more easily and relate what should be done under different problems.

Secondly, many diagrams are used to describe the concept under service marketing. Service blueprint in the chapter 6 is a good example. It uses diagrams to explain how to draw, how to read and how to use the service blueprint. It is very clear and useful to explain in this way.

However, there are still some drawbacks. For example, when talking about the different kinds of strategies used under service marketing, sometimes the explanation is too simple and not in depth.

An important book for electronic marketers
Essentially everything that marketers do over the Internet, from the ASP to the online retailer, is a service. Services marketers face unique challenges. Today's electronic marketer will find useful lessons in the services marketing literature. You will find either Valarie Zeithaml or Mary Jo Bitner in the byline of almost every important piece of research on services marketing published in the 1990s. Together, they have produced a textbook that is very much worthy of their reputations.

This book is fairly comprehensive, although it does not include Bitner's most recent work on consumer response to self-service technologies. Still, as an electronic marketer reads through this book, they cannot help but find themselves asking new questions about their business and how they can make it better. The book is a relatively easy read, and it is not overly academic--the theories and frameworks presented are simply tools that lead to practical solutions to real problems. There are many examples in the text; often, the company is familiar but the business practices described here are not so well known.

I strongly recommend this book to e-marketers.

Customer as a competitor
All in our life,there are competition which must be handled. I'm sure that whoever feel about customer position's as competitor, but they were not aware it. Your book tells about it. That's good. ... Read more

Book Description

"Your customers are only satisfied because their expectations are so low and because no one else is doing better. Just having satisfied customers isn't good enough anymore. If you really want a booming business, you have to create Raving Fans."

This, in a nutshell, is the advice given to a new Area Manager on his first day--in an extraordinary business book that will help everyone, in every kind of organization or business, deliver stunning customer service and achieve miraculous bottom-line results.

Written in the parable style of The One Minute Manager, Raving Fans uses a brilliantly simple and charming story to teach how to define a vision, learn what a customer really wants, institute effective systems, and make Raving Fan Service a constant feature--not just another program of the month.

America is in the midst of a service crisis that has left a wake of disillusioned customers from coast to coast. Raving Fans includes startling new tips and innovative techniques that can help anyone create a revolution in any workplace--and turn their customers into raving, spending fans.

Reviews (65)

I'm a Raving Fan!
Kenneth Blanchard continues his trend of writing easy-to-read books with BIG ideas for making your business better. Raving Fans is a book of stories relating how fictional companies have created an environment of delivering awesome customer service. A guy that has just been put in a managment position requiring a turnaround goes on a fictional trip with his "angel" to visit businesses that have figured out their vision and their system to deliver customer service extraordinary. Based on three simple principles (Decide, Discover, Deliver), each company has created a group of Raving Fans (not just customers, but fans) who wouldn't consider shopping anywhere else for what one of these companies offers. Within each story is other nuggets of common sense and good ideas that can be implemented in any company that has customers and wants to create fans. We required our store managers to read the book and each created a list ranging from 20-40 points that they can put into effect at their stores to improve customer service. This is a simple, must-read for every business owner and manager.

Great Model for Approaching Perfection through Innovation
A major problem with most books on management processes is that that do too little to focus on how to make large amounts of progress beyond what is now done. Raving Fans is a big success in providing you with simple instructions for making large strides toward achievable perfection.

Imagining perfection is a critical first step to improvement, yet most people have never thought about what that could mean. Then testing that perfection with customers (and potential customers) must be done to be sure that there is a valid opportunity, and to be able to understand customers' ideas about achievable perfection. Then attaching the idea of continuous improvement toward that vision is also valuable, and useful. There are plenty of practical tips about how to do each part, which is key to making this book so valuable.

One of the reasons that I enjoy writing reviews about books on-line is that I can find a Raving Fans that agrees so much with my own perspective and research. This book will quickly get you past your Psychology of Disbelief, Bureaucracy, Procrastination, Communiation, and Ugly Duckling stalls.

Good for Ken Blanchard and Sheldon Bowles . . . and good for you, too!

Fluffy
Way too fluffy. It should have been presented as a bulleted list, not a book. If you must get this book, I recommend the print version; Charlie's voice is quite annoying.

good concepts, juvenile delivery
The intellectual content of this little book could fit nicely and succinctly in a 500-1000 word magazine or journal venue. Instead, Blanchard sticks to the successful story telling formula that served him well in The One Minute Manager. The concepts are good, and I think their true value lies in their simplicity. They are easily understood and therefore should be easy to apply. Successful implementation may be another matter. If you agree with the concepts, and it's hard to see how you wouldn't, the actual book is a great tool to get them out to your people. The long narrative has the effect of beating the points into your head and the examples leave little to the imagination as to how the concepts can be fleshed out. I have found that people who last raved about Who Moved My Cheese also rave about this book. Those who don't care for this type of cutesy, least common denominator writing style will try to get through it as fast as possible and glean the concepts for further consideration afterwards. It can be read cover to cover in about an hour and a half at a pretty leisurely pace. Regardless of whether or not you like the style of the book I think you will find the concepts and down to earth examples good food for thought in your own enterprise.

Raving Fans
I really enjoyed reading this book. It is an easy read and contains some great fundamentals on providing excellent customer service. Readers who enjoy this book may also enjoy reading Time Management is an Oxymoron. ... Read more

Book Description

• Shows sales people, marketers, and customer service representatives how to harness the power of Salesforce.com to enhance productivity, improve customer relations, and boost sales
• Salesforce.com, which has more than 147,000 subscribers at 9,800 companies worldwide, won InfoWorld’s Best Hosted Application award in 2004
• Covers navigating Salesforce.com, managing leads, understanding customers and competitors, keeping track of contacts, creating a sales forecast, managing users, creating service and support e-mails, working with campaigns, using the report wizard, and more

Reviews (2)

Nothing more to say...other than this book is great!
The other reviews here sum up this book nicely. It is very insightful and great to read. Highly recommended.

learn from the best
"Uncommon Practice is the book that lets you hear about the essence of business success straight from the horse's mouth. "
Phil Dourado, Editorial Director, eCustomerServiceWorld.com

In an increasingly crowded market place, there are certain companies that really stand out from their competitors - companies like Tesco, PizzaExpress, Virgin, easyGroup, First Direct, Harley Davidson, Krispy Kreme and Pret A Manger.

This new book by Interbrand and Forum, demonstrates, through interviews with key executives from these and other leading companies, how they provide remarkable experiences for their customers and staff alike. The premise behind Uncommon Practice is that that this success stems from their distinctive cultures uniquely developed to meet the needs of customers. The companies featured have defied conventional wisdom and broken the traditional rules of management to engender exceptional levels of commitment from their people, who, united behind a clear brand vision, translate their belief in the company into exceptional customer service.

Editors Andy Milligan and Shaun Smith have taken care to let the voice of the organisation speak for itself. Uncommon Practice is not a 'how to...' book, and does not provide a 'quick-fix' list of invariable rules for success. The editors do however provide insight into the core principles and practices that the leading companies featured share but which are uncommon in many organisations today.

Uncommon Practice explores the creation of outstanding brand experiences delivered through people, illuminated with interviews with senior executives and front-line managers.

Critical to the success of these brands is the way they treat their own people. Open management, share ownership, training and appraisals are common benefits, but can you guess which company has an empty seat policy on the company jet, keeps a fleet of yachts, has a monthly beer bus, gives an employee the Bentley for the weekend or awards Tiffany stars? Through a series of interviews with key executives, Uncommon Practice gives an insight into how certain companies have become so successful by providing remarkable experiences for their customers and staff alike. ... Read more

Book Description

Communicating a fascination for the everyday activities of people, this leading book on consumer behavior examines how our world is influenced by the action of marketers, and considers how products, services, and consumption contribute to the broader social world we experience. Its incredibly interesting and dynamic content proves hip and engaging, while reflecting the latest research. KEY TOPICS A four-part organization looks at consumers as individuals, consumers as decision makers, consumers and subcultures, and consumers and culture.For brand managers, marketing research analysts, and account executives. ... Read more

Book Description

A five-step strategy for turning a commodity into a necessity

When products and services become interchangeable, price becomes the ultimate determinant for consumers. Indispensable shows businesses how to break out of that cycle by using The Five Drivers-a strategy that takes companies to the next level of performance. Renowned business consultant Joe Calloway looks at how real companies have made their product or service "mission critical," and satisfied customers in the process.

Indispensable goes straight to the heart of the issue and reveals how successful companies-of any size, in virtually any manufacturing, selling, or service endeavor-achieve market leadership through The Five Drivers of fierce customer loyalty. Indispensable shows readers how to:
* Create and sustain momentum: overcome organizational inertia and keep moving forward
* Develop habitual dependability: make consistency of performance a defining characteristic
* Connect continuously
* See the Big Picture Outcome: create compelling customer experiences
* Engage, Enchant, Enthrall: make magic in the marketplace

With interviews, detailed case studies, and dozens of real-world, effective customer service ideas and initiatives, Indispensable is just what today's forward-thinking businesses need. ... Read more

Book Description

Customer service is the single most pressing problem for business managers and people in any service or sales operation, especially at the retail level. In fact, many experts believe that you build a business from the customer up.In Customer Mania!, Ken Blanchard, one of America's biggest bestselling authors and inspiring business leaders, writes of the key to customer service -- creating a people-oriented, performance-driven, customer-first organization. Along with coauthors Jim Ballard and Fred Finch, Blanchard explains why the customer is the right starting place from which to build a successful business. By drawing on examples from the world's largest restaurant company, Yum! -- owner of KFC, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, Long John Silver's, and A&W Restaurants -- the authors explain how any company, large or small, can develop a unified, people-first, customer-oriented culture. Packed with practical insights, Customer Mania! emphasizes four critical steps:

• Set Your Sights on the Right Target. The bottom line grows from taking care of customers and creating a motivating environment for your people.

• Treat Customers the Right Way. Determine the kind of experience you want your customers to have as they interact with every part of the company.

• Treat Employees the Right Way. Use strategies ranging from smart hiring to training and development to managing performance and creating a recognition culture.

• Build the Right Kind of Leadership. You can't do it all yourself, so let your people put their own brains to work and then support them all the way.

By relying on these concepts, businesses everywhere can cultivate passionate and engaged team members who contribute to the company's overall success. From CEO to middle manager to the person facing the consumer, Customer Mania! is a vital tool for enhancing their experience -- and their customer's. ... Read more

Book Description

A master of customer service reveals his secrets for developing long-lasting business relationships and customer loyalty. "We shower our customers with attention. There's no doubt in my mind that our philosophy can be applied to selling just about anything -- from aircraft engines to beanbags." (Jack Mitchell) The only way to stay in business is with customers, and Jack Mitchell knows how to attract them, and how to keep them.

He has a deceptively simple but winning relationship approach to customer service -- that a relationship is at the heart of every transaction. Jack's business philosophy is based on "hugs" -- personal touches that impress and satisfy the customer, such as: -- Remembering the name of your customer's dog
-- Calling a customer to make sure he's satisfied after a purchase
-- Having a "kids' corner" with TV, books, and treats
-- Knowing your customers golf handicap
-- Introducing customers to business contacts
-- Letting your customer use your office to make a personal phone call This is a proven theory -- hugging works! Mitchells/Richards achieves among the highest margins in its industry, as well as amazing customer loyalty. Complete with anecdotes that exemplify outstanding customer service, Hug Your Customers shows how any business can adapt this hugging philosophy to attract great staff, lower marketing costs, and maintain higher gross margins and long-term revenues. At a time when customer service has become the difference between success and failure, Hug Your Customers shows how Jack's one-of-a-kind philosophy brings the results you're looking for. ... Read more

Reviews (21)

One of the best business books I've read in a long time
HUG YOUR CUSTOMERS by Jack Mitchell is one of the best business books I have read in
a long time . . . it describes how he transformed a little store
started by his parents into two of the most successful clothing
establishments in the business.

I know that I was really into it by the copious notes I was
taking on just about every topic . . . in addition, I kept thinking
to myself that next time I'm anywhere near one of his
stores in Connecticut, I want to stop by and see for myself

how Mitchell has managed to succeed when so many
others fail in the industry.

As he notes, "We shower our customers with attention.
There's no doubt in my mind that our philosophy can be applied
to selling just about anything--from aircraft engines to beanbags."

He does this by showering his customers with "hugs"--personal touches
that impress and satisfy the customer . . . these include such
things as:
Remembering the name of your customer's dog;
Calling a customer to make sure he's satisfied after a purchase;
Having a kids' corner with TV, books and treats;
Knowing your customer's golf handicap; and
Letting your customer use your office to make a personal phone call.

The book was chock-full of other ideas that could be applied
to just about any situation; among them:

When I'm bored at home, rather than reading a book, I often
punch the button on my computer and put in parameters to
pull up our top one hundred or top one thousand customers,

men and women, and I study them like I was studying vocabulary
words for the SAT's. The names go into one of the attic rooms
of my brain and lodge there. As I once knew all stats on Joe
DiMaggio and Mickey Mantle, I now try to know all the stats
on my top thousand customers. Because that's the game:
knowing the customer.

A hug can be a thoughtful remedy for an annoyance. When the
Postal Service raised the price of a stamp to 37 cents from 34 cents,
my first thought was, "Oh, great, now I've got to stand in line to get
3-cent stamps so I can use that mound of 34-cent stamps I bought
so I wouldn't have to wait in line for a long time." I hate waiting
in lines, especially at a government agency. But who doesn't? So
I sent out a personal note to five hundred of our good customers,
thinking they might be in the same boat, and included some 3-cent
stamps. "You know you are the focus of our business," I wrote.
"In an effort to make your life less hectic, I have enclosed a
handful of 3-cent stamps." It was a hug out of nowhere, and they
loved it.

Consistency means that if you're going to do anything for the customer,
you have to do it for everyone, including someone you've never seen
before. That means that a customer is more important than a
mannequin. One Saturday years ago, Mitchells was really mobbed,
and this couple came in who had never been there before. The wife
asked if we had a certain tie in a green coloration. I flipped

through the tie racks and couldn't find it. The woman nodded at
a mannequin and said, "There it is." So I got up and removed it and
took if downstairs to be steamed. Meanwhile, the couple browsed
around and wound up buying several suits, a couple of sport jackets,
and twenty-three custom shirts. As they were checking out, the woman
said, "We were in a store in Stamford before we came here, and there
was a tie on the mannequin that I liked and I asked the manager if he
could take it off, and he said, 'Absolutely not, the visual department
is coming out from New York today and the visuals have to be
perfect.' "

Hooray For Customer Service!
In an era of cookie cutter department stores, and speciality shops that require sales staff to complete "Attitude 101", it is incredibly refreshing to learn the story of Jack Mitchell, and his vastly successful enterprise Mitchells/Richards, which is the subject of "Hug Your Customers".
Mitchell, the second generation to run the family clothier, stresses time and time again in this history/marketing/advice tome that the key to retailing success is going the extra mile to please a customer, thereby developing loyalty (as well as increased sales).
Mitchell is not only a shrewd business, but also a great storyteller, and has mastered the art of remembering his customers - the stories he tells in this book about exceeding customer expectations through fairly simple means (creating customer profiles, involving family in business...) are lessons that anyone in business has heard ten times over, and has probably discarded for the latest marketing trend. Mitchell's simple storytelling style works great when discussing the importance of old fashioned customer service principles (selling merchandise displayed on mannequins, charting birthdays, phone calls to customers to remind them of special events...) - his buisness philosophy makes great (common) sense.
Mitchell's ideas of service translate extremely well into any sales environment, and this book is a great resource (and reminder) for anyone in sales, marketing, or public relations work. He is great at capturing the larger picture of the value of relationships in the sales enviroment - as well as valuing the sales staff.
In an era where quality customer service seems to be a forgotten skill, its great to read of someone who has had great success because he practices the very simple rules of successful sales - know your customer - greet them and treat them with respect - go tohe extra mile to satisfy their needs. Unfortunately, we have come to expect less of salespeople these days because such simple courtesies are rarely extended in today's retailing marketplace. I found a number of strategies laid out by Mitchell to be great starting points for customer interaction in my own work, and that is the best reccomendation a reader can give a book of this type.

Creating a Magical Experience for Customers
A business owner who'll do anything for his customers--even fly across the world to deliver a suit! He turns clothing shopping from commodity to magical experience--and he is very well-compensated. I read this all the way through in about two sittings.

Packed With Knowledge!
This terrific book wastes no words and no time, but delivers the goods. Jack Mitchell, CEO of two high-end clothing stores in Connecticut, offers solid (if not all new) principles of customer service and relationship management in a personal, lively, entertaining way. The book is immediately applicable to retail and small businesses, and sheds much-needed light on managing a family business. The book draws a straight line from customer service to business success. The author, whose warmth and candor is totally endearing, may be faulted for denying that location matters. After all, his stores sit in one of the most affluent regions in the U.S., so he would probably enjoy some measure of success even with mediocre customer service. And, his customer service is great, intense to the point of being instructive. If he is overenthusiastic about his formula, that's to be expected of a salesman. We find a lot of useful material here for anyone in a customer-contact business and, as a bonus, this familial saga is really fun to read. Highly recommended.

Mitchell Deserves A Hug
Everyone that deals with people should read this book. I would love to give it to the geeks that invented the computerized customer service reps.. those shameful beings. Hugs become extra important for someone who basically deals with clients through a computer.. like me :) The one thing I would change about this book is that certain sections tend to get really vague. ... Read more

Amazon.com

Fish! Tales is Stephen C. Lundin, John Christensen, and Harry Paul's follow-up to Fish!--their enormously popular fable that draws lessons aimed at combating dysfunctional workplaces from the happy fishmongers at Seattle's Pike Place Market. In Fish! Tales the authors show how these lessons were put into practice at businesses both big (a major hospital and long-distance carrier) and small (a local car dealership and roofing company). Anyone who enjoyed Fish! (or, for that matter, Who Moved My Cheese?) or is looking for a motivational tool to help energize their own workplace, should find this short, upbeat primer worthwhile. --Harry C. Edwards ... Read more

Reviews (25)

Insightful!
Things are going swimmingly in Fish! land. In the latest volume, Fish! Tales, authors Stephen C. Lundin, John Christensen, Harry Paul and Philip Strand build on the successful training program that evolved from their first Fish book. Tales shows how four companies - a long-distance call center; a hospital neural-renal unit, a car dealership and a roofing company - have applied Fish! theories effectively. They also provide short examples from other companies to show how well the Fish! function. The four main principles are familiar by now - keep the work fun, seek to serve others, stay focused on your customers and have an enthusiastic attitude - but the examples in the book bring them alive. Along the way, the authors heavily sell their Fish! courses and merchandise - that's just good salesmanship - but the real catch of the day is the final how-to section, showing ways to apply these principles in any organization. The lively writing style helps keep you hooked. We from getAbstract suggest that if you haven't yet caught any Fish!, start with this one. Its cheery, accessible methods should lure you in, hook, line and sinker.

Insightful!
Things are going swimmingly in Fish! land. In the latest volume, Fish! Tales, authors Stephen C. Lundin, John Christensen, Harry Paul and Philip Strand build on the successful training program that evolved from their first Fish book. Tales shows how four companies - a long-distance call center; a hospital neural-renal unit, a car dealership and a roofing company - have applied Fish! theories effectively. They also provide short examples from other companies to show how well the Fish! function. The four main principles are familiar by now - keep the work fun, seek to serve others, stay focused on your customers and have an enthusiastic attitude - but the examples in the book bring them alive. Along the way, the authors heavily sell their Fish! courses and merchandise - that's just good salesmanship - but the real catch of the day is the final how-to section, showing ways to apply these principles in any organization. The lively writing style helps keep you hooked. We suggest that if you haven't yet caught any Fish!, start with this one. Its cheery, accessible methods should lure you in, hook, line and sinker.

"Real" It In
I enjoyed reading Fish, but Fish Tales is even better because it has real world success stories. While the original Fish! seemed like a business theory, Fish! Tales shows how several companies actually benefited from implementing these ideas instead of just reading about them. Fish! Tales enhances the credibility of the original book. Rat Race Relaxer: Your Potential & The Maze of Life by JoAnna Carey is another great book for companies to share with employees because it offers entertaining stories and goal oriented advice about improving your workplace and your life.

Disappointing
While the message is a good one, it nearly gets lost in this very poorly written book.

Integrating Fish and optimizing the workplace
The Fish philosophy isn't new but the unique context and delightful presentation makes it effective. I got a lot out of this book because I saw how the concept is integrated into organizations. We have found that the best companion for the Fish philosophy is to train employees in Optimal Thinking. Optimal Thinking is the simple, realistic mental resource to empower individuals to be their best and bring out the best in others. I recommend both of these books. ... Read more

Amazon.com

In What Clients Love, marketing maven Harry Beckwith offers valuable lessons about capturing and keeping clients. (As Beckwith puts it, "Competence gets firms into the game that relationships win.") Using snappy examples from Absolut Vodka, Kinko’s, Starbucks, and Ian Schrager’s boutique hotels, he organizes his advice by describing four significant social trends that shape client needs and loyalty. Beckwith’s strategies for coping with information overload focus on getting to the point--using a shorter sell and fewer superlatives. He makes a clever and convincing case for giving both testimonials and blurbs the death penalty. He details the decline of client trust with a plan to eliminate cold calls, dress for success, and a spot-on critique of PowerPoint ("Lincoln had no slides at Gettysburg.") Other chapters explore the limits of the Internet and offer nongimmicky ideas about creating a brand, including 20 questions for choosing a name for your business.

Beckwith’s advice is fresh, funny, and strategic. He is a master of anecdote and metaphor whose examples range from television’s Sex and the City to nihilistic philosopher Nietzsche. Yet the book’s clarity is sometimes undermined by its too clever formatting. It's best to enjoy its wisdom one chapter at a time, over coffee. Consider it the caffeine in your cup. --Barbara Mackoff ... Read more

Reviews (19)

The Greatest Business Book Ever Written
What Clients Love is a timeless book that enlightens the reader through short lessons, personal and professional. Not only do the teachings apply to business, they can be carried over into your life outside of work as well. Businesses are built and strengthened through partnerships and good relations, so are close families and friends. This book works to bridge the gaps that most companies will overlook (such as boring job titles that send the wrong message) and Beckwith does it in a clear and concise manner. Buy this book! I wish I had more time to extoll the book, but I don't. Whether you are in a Fortune 500 company or a hermit with no interest in the outside world, you need this 278 page gospel! Also, if you get a chance to meet Harry Beckwith, ask him about his wonderful son Harry IV.

Worth ten time the selling price!!!!
This book is short, sweet, to the point, and reads like a daily devotional book. I plan on using at for discussion groups at work to get non-marketers to understand how to make customers happy. The book is written in a clear, concise, but extraordinarily interesting manner than lends itself to discussion and implementation. Each section contains at least one example of each point - and this is stuff you are going to remember. Many books in this market are pure fluff - you can't remember a darn thing they said two hours after you put the book down. Not so with "What Clients Love."

Highly recommend for those whose business depends on developing business and keeping customers happy. Whether selling hardcore tangible products or professional services, this book should be on your required reading list. Truly transformational.

Not Useful
After reading 10 pages I quickly learned that this book is useless in helping me and my company develop customer service.

In one example, Beckwith insults the reader's intelligence by suggesting that you answer "Swamped!" when someone approaches you and askes how you are if you suspect that they are going to ask you to do a task that you don't want to do.

Don't waste your money on this book.

Another Excellent Book by Mr. Beckwith.
This is another incredible contribution to the literature on marketing of service-oriented companies. Beckwith provides anecdotal accounts of what marketing techniques work; for instance, he talks about how he has helped to name certain companies that are descriptive, are memorable, and are not full of cliches. His account of Nike's rise to fame through the use of celebrity characters is also an intriguing account of the need for someone we can trust to help share our services. Beckwith's main point is that services are not like products. With services, we have to develop trust and believe in the person. Beckwith provides the techniques--such as providing some slightly negative, but truthful, information about yourself that will help to gather integrity. People like someone who has integrity and is believable.

Another very important principle of Beckwith's is that when you are selling a service, you are really building a relationship with your clients. If you appear to be focused on money or work in a truly impersonal basis, the clients will notice. There is a lot of psychology in this book. Almost every page is about "feelings" of one sort or another, which is necessary because people do not follow rigid rules of conduct. Instead, people often make decissions on irrational feelings, which, if one reads Harry Beckwith's book, they will be ready. And they will deliver exceptional services.

-- Michael Gordon

Reset
This book is the "reset" button that needed to to be said. People may argue that this book is common sense but in the decade of unrealistic expectations and unprecedented white collar low's getting back to the basics is very timely. For beginner's this book is a gold mine for superstars, this book is a reminder of all the things that we sometimes forget as success blinds us. Quit judging and start reading. The entertainment value alone will ensure that you are glad that you did. ... Read more

Book Description

As the cost of doing business increases, call centers and help desks are frequently moving overseas. How can your center remain competitive? Is pooling the best way to slash your wait times? James Abbott concisely answers these questions as he leads you through the world of process-centered customer service. Strategic and tactical terms, how to choose metrics to measure, and the miracle of Queuing Science are covered thoroughly, using easy-to-grasp anecdotes to explain the key technical topics. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

A Wakeup Call
"Abbott's book is a much-needed wakeup call. In order to compete, managers must use scientific methods, not gut feelings or hocus pocus. This book is back to basics--what needs to be monitored, why you need to monitor it, and who should make which decisions."

To understand metrics, read this book first!
Very good approach to metrics and how to apply metrics to call center operations in order to understand and support the goals of the call center. Mr. Abbott uses easy to understand language and examples rather than technical language and equasions and this makes it very easy to understand the principals and see the big picture. Every manager should be required to read this as thier first book on metrics. ... Read more

Book Description

This is the only book available today that provides a very readable, step-by-step guide for managing an incoming call center. The book combines theory with practical advice and is filled with over 100 charts and graphs, several case studies and an extensive glossary and index. ... Read more

Reviews (25)

Book for all business people
This book is for everyone in the business world, not only for call center managers. All organizations of all sizes are closing the gap between businesses and customers. And the main customer contact point, call center, is coming into a spotlight as the centerpiece of businesses. This book introduces readers to call center management practices, the good and the bad. It also point out the factors that are changing call centers, their functions and people who work in them. Its insight into some of the technology changes help readers grasp their importance in the context of everyday operation. Fast reading.

An excellent overview in Call Center Management
I love this book, it provides an excellent overview on a myriad of call center topics, including staffing, forecasting, metric assessment and performance review. It definitely proved to validate some of the observations and concerns that I had regarding my own call center.

I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a reference on call center management, or any person new to the field of call center management. The book is very well formatted to be used as a stand alone reference or a cover to cover read, each chapter is very thorough in explanation without going into excruciating detail or debate.

This book will help you do your job better!

Wow! So This is How Call Centers Work!
I've generally been an IT Director and Project Manager, so I read this book to get a better idea of my customers' needs. I was pretty excited to discover that there's at least one good summary of what call centers do and how they do it. For my own sake--and perhaps yours--here's my summary of Brad and Julia's summary:

1. Incoming call center management is the art of having the right number of skilled people and supporting resources in place at the right times to handle an accurately forecasted workload, at service level and with quality.

2. Though average call load may be predictable, calls arrive randomly--which means that they often bunch up.

3. A service level is defined as "X percent of calls answered in Y seconds", not as "X percent answered" or "Average Speed of Answer". (The ASA is skewed by the bad times when calls bunch up.) Abandonment rates matter, too, but fixing abandonment problems usually means fixing service levels.

4. Service level and quality don't conflict. If you try to fix service level with poor quality, it comes back to bite you with more calls and demoralized reps.

5. A good forecasted call load--including talk time, after-call work, and volume--is critical for budgeting people and circuits. Often, a good forecast should predict load by the half hour, using previous data, knowledge of upcoming plans, and good judgment.

6. To determine staffing needs, use a variation of the Erlang C formula. Its input is the number of reps, number of callers forecasted, and the time to serve each caller; its output is a prediction of waiting time. (Even better, add an input for response time, and you'll get the percentage who'll wait longer than that!) If agents have different skills, you'll need forecasts and calculations for each set of agents.

7. More staff, less waiting, fewer phone lines for people on hold. Less staff, more waiting, more phone lines. Formulas exist for phone lines, too.

8. Not everyone scheduled is always working on customer service. Schedule accordingly. Be clever about work schedules to get the right number working at the right time. Service level results tell you whether you got it right.

9. If you have too few reps on duty, queues get long (service level goes down), more circuits are needed, and customers get frustrated, sometimes abandoning the call. If you have too many reps on duty, you spend too much paying for them to wait.

10. Give senior managers good reports, but make sure they understand the points above.

11. Monitor the number of calls in the queue and the longest current wait. Service level and other metrics tell more about the past than the present. Be ready with plans for unexpected load (reassigning, rerouting, delay announcements, busy signals).

12. There are lots of tools and graphs to measure aspects of quality. Use them to identify root causes, not beat your employees. Reps should adhere to schedules, and do good work. Use monitoring capabilities to coach. Measuring based on "calls per hour" is unreliable, and invites cheating.

13. Customers are getting more demanding, automated systems are taking the easy calls, so reps have to be better trained and more skilled.

14. Create a good environment that uses technology well.

The book was written in 1997, and I don't know whether it's been updated. The authors have some commentary about email-based, web-based, and CTI-based systems, but the next edition might want to say more about the similarities and differences between those and the traditional call center.

Overall, I'm happy to understand more about the math and science behind this discipline. As another reviewer commented, it's clear that IT Help Desks have something to learn from the Call Center experience.

Call Center Management ~On Fast Forward
We were in the process of re-organizing our call center and based on the excellent reviews that I read, I choose this book. Well, the reviews were right. This book is excellent. It is very well written and explains all aspects of organizing and analyzing a Call Center. We have ordered a total of 6 copies and they are being utilized by the V.P. of Operations, Operations Manager, IT dept, and the Customer Service Dept.

Comprehensive handbook for management
The perfect book for the people that are managing the call centers. Especially when call center is just a part of your responsibility and you need a comprehensive and ehhaustive in-depth description of call center activities. Great book. Good for both excecutives to understand what the call center managers are doing (even in terms of languages they speak, very usefull, if you are not able to undestand sometimes the cc managers you need the book) and call centers managers in order to understand how to present their work to the executives. ... Read more

Reviews (18)

How to Select, Focus, and Dominate
The message of this important book is that "no company can succeed today by trying to be all things to all people. It must instead find the unique value that it alone can deliver to a chosen market. Why and how this is done are the two key questions the book addresses." The authors focus with rigor and precision on three different "disciplines": operational excellence, product leadership, and customer intimacy. It remains for any company (for any organization, for that matter) to determine which of the three should be its primary discipline but all are obviously important...indeed interdependent. Nonetheless, one discipline should be pre-eminent. The authors examine dozens of companies which have concentrated primarily on one of the three "disciplines" so that they can select their customers and then narrow their focus inorder to gain and sustain dominance within their respective marketplaces. I think this book will be of substantial value to executives in any organization but of greatest value to those in organizations which are small-to-midsize. Unless they have dysfunctional management and/or defective products, their mastery of that discipline will enable them to compete more effectively against larger organizations which (obviously) have greater resources available. My own view is that as B2B and B2B2C continue to increase at exponentially greater velocity, leadership of ANY market will require mastery of customer intimacy and at least one (but preferably both) of the other two disciplines. In that event, the insights which Treacy and Wiersema share will be even more valuable.

Common sense marketing perspective
Winning firms focus on one of three customer value disciplines: product leadership, customer intimacy, or operational excellence. Trying to be all things to everybody is tantamount to being nothing for anyone. If your firm can't get its act together, you'll find this an inspiring book that makes a compelling case that success is only possible by having the courage to focus on specific tasks & disciplines. This seems very elementary, but I've observed many firms that refused to choose what they wanted to be, ensuring that they became nothing. This book is helpful in positioning exercises.

I have two concerns about the book. 1, it doesn't need to be this long in order to get the central idea across. 2, I'm becoming increasingly convinced that this model is counterproductive in a Geoff Moore tornado period. If you're in a high-tech tornado, wait until Main Street before applying discipline.

Aside from these caveats, I still find the simple model presented in this book as being useful in analyzing market approaches. You have to understand the model in order to know when it isn't appropriate. Product Managers, sales, marketing and product development staff need to be aware of this book and its ideas.

Not just for the sales and marketing folks!
This business book should be in EVERY marketing and sales professional's library. In one reading of less than four hours you can understand the distinct value disciplines that define your company. And, just as important, you can recognize the value disciplines of your customers and competition. But, you don't have to be strictly a sales person. I'm my company's Chief Technology Officer and I felt the book was very valuable - after my CEO made me read it!
The message of The Discipline Of Market Leaders is that no company can succeed today by trying to be all things to all people. It must instead find the unique value that it alone can deliver to a chosen market. Why and how this is done are the two key questions the book addresses,
Three concepts are introduced that every business finds essential:
1. the value proposition - implicit promise to deliver a particular combination of values - price, quality, performance, etc.
2. value-driven operating model - combination of operating processes, manage-ment systems, business structure, and culture that allows a company to deliver on its value proposition.
3. value disciplines - three desirable ways in which a company combines operating models and value propositions to be the best in their markets. THIS is the key take away from this book.
Three distinct value disciplines:
1. operational excellence - provide middle-of-the-market products at the best price with the least inconvenience - value proposition is low price and hassle-free service.
2. product leadership - offering products that push performance boundaries - value proposition is offering the best product, period.
3. customer intimacy - delivering NOT what the market wants but what specific customers want - value proposition the best solution for the customer with all the support needed to get the maximum value from our products.
The selection of a value discipline is a central act that shapes every subsequent plan and decision a company makes, coloring the entire organization, from its competencies to its culture.
If a company is going to achieve and sustain dominance, it must decide where it will stake its claim in the marketplace and what kind of value it will offer to its customers.
markets, the only established way to improve value to customers is to cut process. If you haven't started thinking about cutting your way to leanness, it's going to cost you later.
High quality is the cost of admission to the market. Without it, you're not even in the ballpark.
Four new premises underlie successful business practice today:
1. companies can no longer raise process in lockstep with higher costs
2. companies can no longer aim for less than hassle-free service
3. companies can no longer assume that good basic service is enough
4. companies can no longer compromise on quality and product capabilities
These four points are critical to the book and to how you must think about value. It is true - we can no longer charge for high quality - it IS expected. By delivering superior value, companies change their customers' expectations. In effect, these companies became market leaders NOT by fulfilling old-fashioned ideas of value, but by getting their business to master one band in the value spectrum. They believed in three important truths that characterize the new world of competition:
1. Different customers buy different kinds of value. You can't hope to be the best in all dimensions, so you choose your customers and narrow your value focus.
2. As value standards rise, so do customer expectations; so you can stay ahead only by moving ahead.
3. Producing an unmatched level of a particular value requires a superior operating model - "a machine" - dedicated to just that kind of value.
Four rules that govern market leaders' actions:
1. Provide the best offering in the marketplace by excelling in a specific value disci-pline.
2. Maintain threshold standards on other dimensions of value.
3. Dominate your market by improving value year after year,
4. Build a well-tuned operating model dedicated to delivering unmatched value.
The operating model is the market leader's ultimate weapon in its quest for market domination. Value comes from choosing customers and narrowing the operations focus to best serve those customers. Customer satisfaction and loyalty are simply the by-product of delivering on a compelling value proposition - not the drivers behind it. When a company selects and pursues one of the value disciplines, it ceases to resemble its competitors.
Customer-intimate companies demonstrate superior aptitude in advisory services and relationship management. This is an incredibly difficult concept for sales and marketing professionals to grasp. They want the largest market possible. If you are customer-intimate, your market is one company at a time. This calls for hard work. Customer-intimate companies don't deliver what the market wants, but what a spe-cific customer wants. The customer-intimate company makes a business of knowing the people it sells to and the products and services they need. It continually tailors its products and services, and does so at reasonable prices. The customer-intimate company's greatest asset is, not surprisingly, its customers' loyalty.
Customer-intimate companies don't pursue transactions; they cultivate relationships.
They tailor their mix of services or customize the products, even if it means acting as a broker to obtain these services and products from third parties or co-providers.
Where to begin? Start with the last chapter and take a close look at Figure 11. From that point I realized my company's value discipline. The rest fell neatly into place.

A Must for Every business owner
In Business studies, we were taught that to succeed with our business we should be able to provide best product/service, best prices and superb customer service. The results are mainly unsatisfactory because while we try to master all three aspects, we fail in all of them.

This book will teach you for the first time how to succeed with "imperfection" along with customers blessings.

You dont have to provide your customer with the best product AND best price AND best service, just choose one of those values (depending on your target market and long term objectives) and focus all your resources on developing this value. The book is backed with real life stories from some of the leading firms and the values they have chosen to focus on.

This book is a must for every business owner.

Highly Recommended!
Authors Michael Treacy and Fred Wiersema make it clear that market leading companies all concentrate on creating value for their customers. Then they focus on specific cases from Nike to Johnson & Johnson. No company, including yours, can succeed by trying to be all things to all people. Companies must ascertain the unique value - be it price, quality or problem solving - they can deliver to a specific market. The book proves that comparisons are not odious if they are interesting, and the comparisons it offers are intriguing indeed. Anecdotes and case histories cover companies that are market leaders today - AT&T, Intel, Airborne Express - and companies that used to be market leaders. The authors offer you three choices: lead with low costs, great products or outstanding ability to solve customers' problems. But if you are going to lead, you have to pick a direction and implement a management strategy that supports it, a lesson eased along by the clarity of the writing. We from getAbstract recommend this book to executives who are seeking advice on trumping their markets. ... Read more

Book Description

The best-selling front-line customer service book ever published is now better than ever. More than a decade after the debut ofDelivering Knock Your Socks Off Service, this newly revised edition introduces readers to the next generation of first-class service strategy.Applying the winning Knock Your Socks Off formula to the new demands of 21st-century business, the third edition features all-new chapters onDelivering Knock Your Socks Off E-Service, Creating Trust with Your Customer, and Service Recovery Expectations, plus new and updated stories,real-world examples, and new illustrations by cartoonist John Bush. And as always, Delivering Knock Your Socks Off Service reveals how to:

* See things from the customer's point of view * Become a fantastic fixer and a powerful problem solver * Cope with "customers from hell" * And avoid The 10 Deadly Sins of Customer Service

Today's customer is smarter, more demanding, and more mobile than ever. Once again, Delivering Knock Your Socks Off Service delivers thestrategies, techniques, and tips that will keep those customers coming back. ... Read more

Reviews (12)

It's not Brain Surgery ¿ So why is it so hard to do well?
"Knock Your Socks Off" is an easy to read, well-organized, thorough introduction to the crucial aspects of providing excellent customer service. I kept it on the corner of my desk and read it during lunch hours. The 31 short chapters (approx. 150 pages) can be finished in just a week or two. I intend to pass it along to the Customer Service Reps that work for me as "required reading" (or maybe even splurge and buy them their own copy!)

The book is organized in Four Parts:

1. The Fundamental Principles of Knock Your Socks Off Service - includes the RATER factors: Reliability, Assurance, Tangibles, Empathy, Responsiveness.
2. The How To's of Knock Your Socks Off Service - honesty, rules, doing the right thing, listening, asking questions, winning words and soothing phrases, telephone tips, writing skills, details, thank-yous.
3. The Problem-Solving Side of Knock Your Socks Off Service - how to fix problems, fix the person, apologize, and handling nasty customers.
4. Knock Your Socks Off Service Fitness - Taking Care of You - how to stay calm, professional, and competent and how to have fun doing it

Whether you're new to the business of providing customer service or a seasoned pro, this book will give lots of great advice and a positive perspective on the challenges of providing good customer service. I plan on using the book to help set goals and establish metrics for improving service at my company.

Packed With Knowledge!
In Delivering Knock Your Socks Off Service, Performance Research Associates - with some editorial help from Ron Zemke - highlight the main principles and techniques involved in providing great customer service and resolving customer problems. This lively book features many short chapters, cartoons, bulleted axioms and what-to-do examples. However, much of the information seems very familiar, like a juiced-up version of hints, tips and advice that have appeared in many other customer service books. Thus, it has a kind of déjà vu quality. While someone who is experienced in this field may find the information here too familiar, we recommend this accessible volume as a great introduction to customer service.

Packed with Knowledge!
In Delivering Knock Your Socks Off Service, Performance Research Associates - with some editorial help from Ron Zemke - highlight the main principles and techniques involved in providing great customer service and resolving customer problems. This lively book features many short chapters, cartoons, bulleted axioms and what-to-do examples. However, much of the information seems very familiar, like a juiced-up version of hints, tips and advice that have appeared in many other customer service books. Thus, it has a kind of déjà vu quality. While someone who is experienced in this field may find the information here too familiar, we recommend this accessible volume as a great introduction to customer service.

Great for those joining the service line for the first time
After two weeks of joining the service business I was eagerly looking for a book that discusses about delivering good--if not exceptional--service. My conclusion is that this book will meet your expectations if you are new to the business--just like me.

The authors provided many suggestions and recommendations in ways of delivering quality service. I read this book in the span of two-three months, and by the time I finished reading, I realized that I have been doing pretty much most of the things that the authors are suggesting. And based on my customer service feedback, the authors are pretty correct. So, I walked away knowing that I have been doing the right things and a few more ideas of how to improve my service level.

I would have given a five-star if I can find some of the chapters being elaborated further, such as those towards the end of the book. For example, I would like the chapter (Chapter 20) on Exceptional Servic Is in the Details being further elaborated as I found I need some suggesstions for carrying my service level to another level. Nevertheless, the book does give me some hints on areas to look into.

In conclusion, I would recommend this book to those who join the service industry for the first time and want to get some ideas on providing quality service. And for those who are searching for more, you will be refreshed and walk away with some good suggestions and pointers.

Great Customer Service Builds Profits
Authors' research proves that those who sell and serve with a smile make more money: successful service organizations had lower marketing costs, fewer upset and complaining customers, and more repeat business.

Customers vote with their feet and beat a path only to doors of companies that serve them well.

How-to implementation that can show rookies and pros enviable customer service comes in 31 short, punchy knock-your-socks-off chapters with anecdotes, cartoons, inspirational pep talks, and concrete examples to make messages clear and fun to learn. ... Read more