Customer Service Books - Page 3

CustomerCentric Selling

Michael Bosworth, John Holland

Amazon Price: $19.77 List Price: $29.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: McGraw-Hill Amazon Marketplace: 74 new & used starting at $4.07

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 21 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

FROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF SOLUTION SELLING

The program that is revolutionizing highend selling, by showing companies how to "clone" their top sales performers

CEOs would pay anything to replicate their best salespeople; CustomerCentric Selling^TM explains instead how to replicate their skills. It details a repeatable, scalable, and transferable sales process that formats the questions that superior salespeople ask, and then uses the results to influence and enhance the words and behaviors of their colleagues.

CustomerCentric Selling^TM shows salespersons how to differentiate themselves and their offerings by appealing to customer needs, steering away from making one-way presentations and toward having meaningful and goal-oriented conversations. Currently offered in workshops and seminars around the world, its program provides step-by-step directions to help sales professionals:

• Transform sales calls into interactive conversations
• Position their offerings in relation to buyer needs
• Facilitate a more consistent customer experience
• Achieve shorter sales cycles
• Integrate sales and marketing into a cooperative, cross-functional team

CustomerCentric Selling^TM details a trademarked sales process that incorporates dozens of elements, skills, and sequences into a coherent and proven methodology. By teaching a specific yet innovative model for selling big ticket, often-intangible products and services, it shows sales professionals and executives how to make the seller-buyer relationship far less adversarial, and take selling to a higher level.

The Discipline of Market Leaders: Choose Your Customers, Narrow Your Focus, Dominate Your Market

Michael Treacy, Fred Wiersema

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 27 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

This should be a text book 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Best Marketing book I have ever read, I will keep this book forever. This is a must read for anyone in the marketing field. This book provides great examples along with real life examples.

Editorial Review:

Why is it that Casio can sell a calculator more cheaply than Kellogg’s can sell a box of corn flakes? Why can FedEx “absolutely, positively” deliver your package overnight but airlines have trouble keeping track of your bags? What does your company do better than anyone else? What unique value do you provide to your customers? How will you increase that value next year? As customers’ demands for the highest quality products, best services, and lowest prices increase daily, the rules for market leadership are changing. Once powerful companies that haven’t gotten the message are faltering, while others, new and old, are thriving. In disarmingly simple and provocative terms, Treacy and Wiersema show what it takes to become a leader in your market, and stay there, in an ever more sophisticated and demanding world.

The Orange Code: How ING Direct Succeeded by Being a Rebel with a Cause

Arkadi Kuhlmann, Bruce Philp

Amazon Price: $18.45 List Price: $27.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Wiley Amazon Marketplace: 46 new & used starting at $13.40

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

How championing consumers led to ING Direct's revolutionary rise in the banking industry

Since 1996, ING Direct has grown from a mere concept to an ocean-spanning global enterprise, with over 20 million customers and more than $300 billion in assets. From the time this Internet-based direct bank first launched in Canada, it focused on serving ordinary people who felt abandoned by today's money hungry financial institutions and provided its customers with products they actually wanted--like savings accounts with high interest rates. This revolutionary idea was startling in its simplicity. The Orange Code recounts ING Direct's intriguing story, explaining the philosophy of its founder, Arkadi Kuhlmann, the "bad boy of banking," who fervently believes in the power of individuals to control their financial destiny, and his 12-year partnership with Bruce Philp, the branding consultant who helped Kuhlmann make ING Direct a cause to its own people and a household name across North America. In entertaining and inspiring style, Kuhlmann and Philp discuss the unconventional approach to business strategy, leadership, and management that built ING Direct. From refusing to promote credit cards to college students to pointing out frivolous expenses, Kuhlmann and Philp not only address the practical principles that have propelled ING Direct to the top, but they also help readers understand how making a cause of personal financial empowerment made everyone a winner in the ING Direct story. Engaging and informative, The Orange Code offers readers a rare look at this company and provides them with invaluable insights into making more inspired leadership decisions.

Fish! Tales: Real-Life Stories to Help You Transform Your Workplace and Your Life

Stephen C. Lundin, John Christensen, Harry Paul, Phillip Strand

Amazon Price: $13.57 List Price: $19.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Hyperion Amazon Marketplace: 170 new & used starting at $0.20

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 29 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Keep the Spirit Fishy! 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Keep your experience of the Fish Philosophy fresh! This is a great companion to the original book. When you talk to folks about Playing and some of the other important parts of bringing a workplace alive, they often counter with, "What about the kind of job where you can't play. Like a hospital?" This little volume recounts tales of just such venues. Some stories are bite sized morsels, some are more substantial. They all provide nourishment!

Editorial Review:

FISH! told the story of a fictional company which transformed itself by applying lessons learned from Seattles famous Pike Place Fish market. Now, with FISH! TALES, readers can learn how real-life businesses and individuals energized their workplacesand their livesby implementing the lessons from FISH! Best of all, the book stands on its own for newcomers to the FISH! philosophy. FISH! TALES focuses on diverse companies, such as a bustling Sprint regional customer service center, a quiet neuro-surgical unit at a major hospital, and a brilliant car dealership. It features dozens of short takesquick and easy ways to apply the FISH! philosophy right now. And it includes a detailed program with specific steps and action plans.

The Art of Selling to the Affluent: How to Attract, Service, and Retain Wealthy Customers & Clients for Life

Matt Oechsli

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 10 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Ritz-Carlton Service With FedEx Efficiency 5 out of 5 stars.
5 of 5 people found this review helpful.

If I were to follow the rules of a savvy, demanding reader, as suggested in the book, "How to Read a Book," I would have casually read this book, without trying to absorb as much as I can; and opted for the second read to be when I choose to be "one with the author," and act like we are truly havng a conversation.

But this 215-page book has more information in it that anybody, or at least myself could expect, that there's no way I would lightly read it. Besides writing throughout the margins, I took t least 8 full pages of copious notes on this first read.

And I am sure that I not only will re-read this book, I will become one with the affluent, as a direct result of applying the lessons in this book.

Here's some of the many quotes that I appreciated:

"If you or your company is targeting major purchase decision makers, regardless of the products or services involved, your income depends upon your ability to get in sync with the major decision-making process of your ideal affluent clientele."

"When selling to the affluent, you don't simply manage the sale; you manage the relationship."

"Offering the lowest price has the least influence on whether the affluent will conduct future business with you."

"Face-to-face communication is .. the richest medium of communication possible. It engages all five senses and includes everything about your appearance, mannerisms, and speech matters."

"...move beyond believing that the affluent are bigger than life or that you need them a lot more than they need you. The relationship you seek is one where you need them and they need you."

"It has been said that,'You can tell whether a man is clever by his answers. You can tell whether a man is wise by his questions.'"

"There's an old saying that 'price is only a consideration in the absence of value.'"

"Solving a client problem is obvious. Resolve it quickly and to the client's satisfaction, and it directly impacts repeat business and referrals."

There are three elements in this book that I was surprised by:

1. Although the Ritz-Carlton Service credo was mentioned many times, as the standard by which the affluent make their purchases, I had to surf the net to find out what that credo actually says. I was surprised that the credo was not as in the chapter that discusses how to design your own business credo.

2. Perhaps because this book was published in 2005, I was surprised by the suggestion to send so many emails. This has now been replaced with sending SendOut Cards.

3. While I was so "stoked" by Chapter 8, "Becoming Even More Magnetc: Internet Savvy," it was interesting to note that the guidance in this book, on page 132, about "Google Local" is out of date. And, by the time I read this chapter, I thought, "Wow! Could Oechsli possibly offer more gems in the pages left?" The answer is, a resounding, "Absolutely!"

Editorial Review:

This insightful book shows salespeople how to meet the needs of affluent clients—from the initial contact, to the sales presentation, to providing the level of service and quality they expect, to securing them as long-term customers. Based on extensive research of the buying patterns and expectations of the wealthy, this step-by-step sales guide reveals the secrets of attracting and keeping wealthy clients for life, boosting sales and repeat business. The Art of Selling to the Affluent is also a crash course in the world of the wealthy, giving you the understanding you need to satisfy and retain these profitable top-dollar clients.

The Southwest Airlines Way: Using the Power of Relationships to Achieve High Performance

Jody Hoffer Gittell

Amazon Price: $21.28 List Price: $28.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: American Media International Amazon Marketplace: 16 new & used starting at $13.80

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 23 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

A little heavy on the chest beating 3 out of 5 stars.
1 of 3 people found this review helpful.

The first part of the Audio CD was a turn-off. The title begins by trumpeting the virtues of Southwest. Not only was that not necessary, it gets old very quickly. Once that is over, the discussion is quite a bit more interesting. The philosophy that Southwest operates under is presented in a "top ten list" format. In addition, the author discusses how each of the ten items is necessary for the formula to work, and thus why many companies have failed to improve when trying to use only some of Southwest's techniques.

I would recommend this title only after reading other business titles. Two in particular are "From Good to Great" by Jim Collins and "First, Break all the Rules" / "Now, Discover your Strengths" by Marcus Buckingham. I feel this book doesn't stand well by itself; rather it is a case study of these two works, and probably a few others I haven't read yet.

I recommend the former because Jim Collins notes long term successful businesses all figure out their key performance metric and subordinate all business processes to it. The first part of "The Southwest Airlines Way" speaks right to this point. Aircraft turn around is Southwest Airline's key metric, they do it better than their competitors, and all of the 10 points support minimizing the metric.

The latter references by Buckingham theorize that people's talents are fixed, not learned. Thus, Buckingham recommends hire for the talents you need, as it is a waste of resources to try and train the untalented. This goes hand-in-hand with Southwest Airlines interviewing for, and only accepting, applicants with natural aptitude in people skills. Southwest Airlines ten points to success follow many of Buckingham's observations (recommendations) on how to successfully manage employee talent.

Editorial Review:

Learn from this rich story and adapt the lessons.---Thomas A. Kochan

BE OUR GUEST

Disney Institute

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 15 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Service Excellence 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Great book with actionable ideas that I have implemented in my company and they are making a possitive difference. Even if you are not in a "leadership" position, by sharing these processes with your boss or even testing them on a small scale and letting others see the possitive impact, you will look like a star. Disney is not a huge success by accident.
Bottom line: it all comes back to customer service. You want to keep customers or get more customers; get this book and don't be afraid to try what is in it.

Editorial Review:

Whether they are called clients, customers, constituents, or, in Disney-speak, guests, all organizations must best serve the people who purchase their products and services or risk losing them. Now, for the first time, one critical element of the methods behind the magic that is the Walt Disney World Resort-quality service-is revealed in Be Our Guest. Even before Tom Peters and Bob Waterman profiled Walt Disney World Resort in their groundbreaking book In Search of Excellence, the most popular resort destination in the world enjoyed a reputation as a company that sets the benchmark for best business practices. Be Our Guest outlines proven Disney principles and processes for helping your organization focus its vision and align its people and infrastructure into a cohesive strategy that delivers on the promise of exceptional customer service.

Naked Conversations: How Blogs are Changing the Way Businesses Talk with Customers

Robert Scoble, Shel Israel

Amazon Price: $16.47 List Price: $24.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Wiley Amazon Marketplace: 78 new & used starting at $8.56

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Total reviews: 49 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

From the creator of the number one business blog comes a powerful exploration of how, and why, businesses had better be blogging: Naked Conversations.

According to experts Robert Scoble and Shel Israel, blogs offer businesses something that has long been lacking in their communication with customers -- meaningful dialogue. Devoid of corporate-speak and empty promises, business blogs can humanize communication, bringing companies and their constituencies together in a way that improves both image and bottom line.

The authors use more than 50 case histories to explain why blogging is an efficient and credible method of business communication. You'll find yourself excited about the possibilities blogs present after reading just a few pages. Discover how:

• Prominent business leaders, including Mark Cuban of the Dallas Mavericks, Bob Lutz from General Motors, and Jonathan Schwartz of Sun Microsystems, are beginning to use blogs to connect with their customers in new ways.
• Blogging has changed the rules of communication and competition.
• You can launch an effective blogging strategy and the reasons why you should.

Featuring a foreword by Tom Peters, this is a resource you and your business can't do without.

Customers For Life: How To Turn That One-Time Buyer Into a Lifetime Customer

Carl Sewell, Paul B. Brown

Amazon Price: $10.17 List Price: $14.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Doubleday Business Amazon Marketplace: 77 new & used starting at $0.99

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 34 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

In this completely revised and updated edition of the customer service classic (more than 600,000 copies sold), Carl Sewell enhances his time-tested advice with fresh ideas and new examples and explains how the groundbreaking “Ten Commandments of Customer Service” apply to today’s world.

Drawing on his incredible success in transforming his Dallas Cadillac dealership into the second largest in America, Carl Sewell revealed the secret of getting customers to return again and again in the original Customers for Life. A lively, down-to-earth narrative, it set the standard for customer service excellence and became a perennial bestseller. Building on that solid foundation, this expanded edition features five completely new chapters, as well as significant additions to the original material, based on the lessons Sewell has learned over the last ten years.

Sewell focuses on the expectations and demands of contemporary consumers and employees, showing that businesses can remain committed to quality service in the fast-paced new millennium by sticking to his time-proven approach: Figure out what customers want and make sure they get it. His “Ten Commandants” provide the essential guidelines, including:

• Underpromise, overdeliver: Never disappoint your customers by charging them more than they planned. Always beat your
estimate or throw in an extra service free of charge

• No complaints? Something’s wrong: If you never ask your customers what else they want, how are you going to give it to them?

• Measure everything: Telling your employees to do their best won’t work if you don’t know how they can improve

• Borrow, borrow, borrow: Sewell, for example, learned about hospitality from Japanese culture, cleanliness from Disney, and
politeness from his mother.

Microsoft® Dynamics(TM) CRM 4.0 Step by Step

Mike Snyder, Jim Steger, Kara O'Brien, Brendan Landers

Amazon Price: $19.79 List Price: $29.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Microsoft Press Amazon Marketplace: 39 new & used starting at $16.80

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Editorial Review:

The smart way to learn Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 and Microsoft Dynamics Live CRM one step at a time! Work at your own pace through the easy numbered steps, practice files on CD, helpful hints, and troubleshooting tips to master the fundamentals of working with the latest version of Microsoft Dynamics CRM. You ll learn the specifics of tracking customer communications, how to use e-mail templates for mass communication, the ins and outs of reporting and data analysis, and other essential tasks. With Step by Step, you can take just the lessons you need or work from cover to cover. Either way, you drive the instruction, building and practicing the skills you need, just when you need them! Includes a companion CD with hands-on practice files. Key Book Benefits:
Lets you take just the lessons you need or work from cover to cover you set the pace Covers all the fundamentals, from tracking customer communication to reporting and data analysis Features easy-to-follow lessons and hands-on skill-building exercises Includes a companion CD with skill-building exercises