Overview
Most companies treat service as a low-priority business operation, keeping it out of the spotlight until a customer complains. Then service gets to make a brief appearance ? for as long as it takes to calm the customer down and fix whatever foul-up jeopardized the relationship.
In?Uncommon Service, Frances Frei and Anne Morriss show how, in a volatile economy where the old rules of strategic advantage no longer hold true, service must become a competitive weapon, not a damage-control function. That means weaving service tightly into every core decision your company makes.
The authors reveal a transformed view of service, presenting an operating model built on tough choices organizations must make:
??How do customers define ?excellence? in your offering??Is it convenience? Friendliness? Flexible choices? Price?
??How will you get paid for that excellence??Will you charge customers more? Get them to handle more service tasks themselves?
??How will you empower your employees to deliver excellence??What will your recruiting, selection, training, and job design practices look like? What about your organizational culture?
??How will you get your customers to behave??For example, what do you need to do to get them to treat your employees with respect? Do you need to make it easier for them to use new technology?
Practical and engaging,?Uncommon Service?makes a powerful case for a new and systematic approach to service as a means of boosting productivity, profitability, and competitive advantage.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781422142363 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Harvard Business Review Press |
| Publication date: | 01/17/2012 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | NOOK Book |
| Pages: | 256 |
| Sales rank: | 912,095 |
| File size: | 1 MB |
About the Author
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction If This is a Service Economy, Why am I Still on Hold? 1
Chapter 1 Truth Number 1: You Can’t be Good at Everything 13
Chapter 2 Truth Number 2: Someone has to Pay for it 55
Chapter 3 Truth Number 3: It’s Not your Employees’ Fault 87
Chapter 4 Truth Number 4: You Must Manage your Customers 119
Chapter 5 Now Multiply it all by Culture 157
Chapter 6 Getting Bigger 187
Conclusion 223
Notes 227
Index 233
About the Authors 245
What People are Saying About This
?Anne Morriss and Harvard Business School Professor Frances Frei make the counterintuitive, but compelling argument that true success for service businesses requires that you give up on being perfect; that you make some tradeoffs.? ??Business Insider (businessinsider.com)
?Morriss and Frei have a powerful and surprising answer?? ??Forbes.com
?The book was uncommonly excellent. Very straightforward and to the point. Frei and Morriss uncover four basic truths about customer service, discuss the important ingredient of culture and provide guidance on how companies can scale to get bigger.? ??CustomerThink (customerthink.com)
?In this upbeat and highly readable book, the authors isolate four ?service truths? that companies must understand?? ??BizEd?magazine
?The book is full of case studies showing how companies have harnessed their strengths but cut corners elsewhere, in pursuit of the ultimate goal: excellent service.? ??South Africa Financial Mail
?I found?Uncommon Service?to be a refreshing, frank and honest look at how any organization can increase profitability, satisfaction and competitive advantage by delivering consistently outstanding service.? ??American Express Open Forum
