Breakthrough Customer Service

Praise for Mike Russill, Vice-President, Retail, Sunoco Inc. Catherine Neville, President, Quality Management Institute Dan Plashkes, President, S&P Data Philip C. Brown, Senior Vice-President, Telebanking and Alternate Channels, Bank of Montreal Brenda Anderson, Executive Director, International Customer Service Association J.A. Sinex, III, Manager, Global Integrated Services Team, External Affairs, DuPont Breakthrough Customer Service Best Practices of Leaders in Customer Support "An impressive array of experts and industry winners provide a virtual road map through the major changes necessary to achieve real breakthrough customer service. A must-read for those determined to make great customer service a competitive edge!" "Breakthrough Customer Service scores a direct hit on how to differentiate a business through strategic customer service." "If companies implemented just a few of the great ideas found in this book, they would enjoy world-class leadership positions not only in their own industry, but across all industries." "A stimulating look across industries and channels, the way customers actually experience service, and a very useful way to identify breakthrough opportunities." "A great management tool, it provides real-world examples and effective solutions that can be applied to your business." "This book is must reading for companies that want to be more competitive. It provides businesses with thought-provoking solutions to consider in their quest for superior results."Dieses Buch mit Beitragen fuhrender Unternehmen im Servicebereich wie IBM und Xerox zeigt Ihnen den Weg zu bestem Kundenservice und -support. Aus erster Hand erfahren Sie, wie man eine serviceorientierte Unternehmenskultur schafft, die richtigen Standards und Vorgaben einfuhrt, strategisch plant, und wohin man sich bei weiterem Informationsbedarf wenden kann. (03/98) Partial table of contents:

BEST PRACTICES IN CREATING A STRATEGIC APPROACH TO CUSTOMER SERVICE.

Customer Service as a Basis for a Breakthrough Business Strategy (M. Hanley).

Why Take a Best Practices Approach?: Creating Added Value for Customers (H. Bolton).

A Leader's Perspective on Becoming Customer-Driven (E. Kahn).

BEST PRACTICES IN CREATING AND USING MEASUREMENTS AND STANDARDS TO ACHIEVE EXCELLENCE IN CUSTOMER SERVICE.

Measuring Customer Satisfaction Effectively (D. Wilkerson).

Customer Complaints: Are You Getting Enough?

(J. Rosen).

BEST PRACTICES IN ACHIEVING PROCESS IMPROVEMENT.

Laying the Groundwork for Successfully Implementing Process Improvement (S. Patel).

The Benefits of ISO Certification (L. Brandt).

BEST PRACTICES IN USING TECHNOLOGY TO ACHIEVE BREAKTHROUGH CUSTOMER SERVICE.

Why Fewer Customer Support Centres Are Better: KeyCorp Case Study (J. Berish, et al.).

Are You Ready for Electronic Commerce?

(S. Brown & D. MacCallum).

BEST PRACTICES IN WORKPLACE MANAGEMENT: THE IMPORTANCE OF THE PEOPLE FACTOR.

Leading a Customer-Focused Organization (J. Daly).

The Role of the Knowledge Worker in Customer Care (S. Patel).

BRINGING IT ALL TOGETHER: BEST PRACTICES OF INDUSTRY LEADERS.

Best Practices of Leaders in Financial Services: Tomorrow's Leading Retail Banks (B. Bound & R. Taylor).

Best Practices of Leaders in the Public Sector (I. Littman).

Appendices.

ABOUT THE EDITOR

STANLEY A. BROWN is the Partner in Charge of Coopers & Lybrand’s International Centre of Excellence in Customer Satisfaction. The Centre works with organizations to enhance revenue and improve profitability through a focus on processes that touch the customer. He is a frequent speaker on the topic of customer service, and writes regularly for newsletters and magazines, including Sales and Marketing Management and ICSA News. He is the author of three previous books: What Customers Value Most: How to Achieve Business Transformation by Focusing on Processes That Touch Your Customers (Wiley, 1995), Total Quality Service, and Creating the Service Culture.

In today’s intensely competitive business environment, breakthrough customer service gives your organization the last strategic edge. Selling more product or providing the lowest price are quick-fixes, easily copied by competitors. But breakthrough customer service is not a quick-fix program. It changes the rules of the way your company (or even your industry) does business. And it can differentiate your business from the competition in a lasting way.

Breakthrough Customer Service: Best Practices of Leaders in Customer Support assembles an outstanding group of contributors. In thirty-six chapters, the best of the best provide real-life, anecdotal proof that outstanding customer support really is possible and describe how they are doing it in their own, or their clients’, organizations. Divided into six parts, Breakthrough Customer Service covers the entire range of practices your organization needs to excel at:

• Developing strategy
• Establishing meaningful standards and measurements
• Improving processes that touch the customer
• Using state-of-the-art technology
• Managing the workforce (including empowerment, cross-functional teams, training, and leadership)
• Case studies of companies in several industry segments, showing how leading organizations pull together several of the concepts described in this book.

Best practices organizations don’t excel in only one area; no single thing distinguishes them. It’s the combination of practices—enabled by technology, with a pinch of organizational culture thrown in—that together create their uniqueness, and their leading position. If you want to grow and improve your business, learn from the best practices of others. With some minor adaptation, they will work within your organization’s culture to create breakthrough customer service.

Breakthrough Customer Service: Practices of Leaders in Customer Support enables you to learn from the very best. This book brings together an outstanding group of contributors—the leading individuals and companies that practise, provide, and teach the best practices in customer support including:

• Companies in North America and the United Kingdom, such as Eastman Kodak, British Airways, and AlliedSignal.
• First-hand stories of award-winners such as Ritz-Carlton and AMP, and advice from people who have judged these awards.
• Organizations that use the latest technology to support their customers (mbanx, Travelers Insurance) and other that are just beginning to climb the technology ladder.
• Leading consultants and thinkers from Coopers & Lybrand in Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
• Suppliers, academics, associations, and industry magazines that have their pulse on selected industries and relevant practices.

Praise for Mike Russill, Vice-President, Retail, Sunoco Inc. Catherine Neville, President, Quality Management Institute Dan Plashkes, President, S P Data Philip C. Brown, Senior Vice-President, Telebanking and Alternate Channels, Bank of Montreal Brenda Anderson, Executive Director, International Customer Service Association J.A. Sinex, III, Manager, Global Integrated Services Team, External Affairs, DuPont Breakthrough Customer Service Best Practices of Leaders in Customer Support An impressive array of experts and industry winners provide a virtual road map through the major changes necessary to achieve real breakthrough customer service. A must-read for those determined to make great customer service a competitive edge! Breakthrough Customer Service scores a direct hit on how to differentiate a business through strategic customer service. If companies implemented just a few of the great ideas found in this book, they would enjoy world-class leadership positions not only in their own industry, but across all industries. A stimulating look across industries and channels, the way customers actually experience service, and a very useful way to identify breakthrough opportunities. A great management tool, it provides real-world examples and effective solutions that can be applied to your business. This book is must reading for companies that want to be more competitive. It provides businesses with thought-provoking solutions to consider in their quest for superior results.