What's the Secret?

What's the Secret? gives you an inside look at the world-class customer service strategies of some of today's best companies. You'll learn how companies like Disney, Nordstrom, and The Ritz-Carlton get 50,000 employees to deliver world-class customer service on a consistent basis- and how your company can too. Packed with insider knowledge and a wealth of proven best practices, author John DiJulius will show you how your company can emulate the world's best customer service providers.

Preface vii

Secret Service Terminology xiii

Acknowledgments xv

Part I: The Customer Service Crisis 1

1 The Smoking Gun 3
Definitive proof of the return on investment in providing superior service

2 The State of Service 25
Is your company part of the customer service crisis or customer service revolution?

3 World-Class Service Sins 45
What prevents companies from being world class?

4 Service Aptitude Level 57
What level is your company?

Part II: The Customer Service Revolution 75

5 Commandment I: Service Vision 87
A clear purpose of why the business exists

6 Commandment II: Creating a World-Class Internal Culture 111
Attract, hire, and retain only the people who have the Service DNA

7 Commandment III: Nonnegotiable Experiential Standards 133
Experience standards everyone must follow

8 Commandment IV: Secret Service Systems 149
Utilizing Customer Intelligence to personalize their experience and engage and anticipate
their needs

9 Commandment V: Training to Provide a World-Class Customer Experience 181
Systems and processes that remove variation and provide a consistent customer experience

10 Commandment VI: Implementation and Execution 205
How to go from ideas on paper to consistently executed concepts

11 Commandment VII: Zero Risk 219
Anticipating your service defects and having protocols in place to make it right

12 Commandment VIII: Creating an Above-and Beyond Culture 243
Constant awareness and branding of how to be a hero

13 Commandment IX: Measuring Your Customer’s Experience 271
What gets measured gets managed

14 Commandment X: World-Class Leadership 295
Walking the talk

Index 315

JOHN R. DIJULIUS III is considered the authority on customer service and President of The DiJulius Group, a consulting firm that helps companies differentiate themselves through superior customer service. He is also the owner of the John Robert’s Spa, a chain of high-end salons and spas repeatedly selected among the top twenty in America. For more information, visit www.thedijuliusgroup.com.

Business has never been tougher than it is today. Are you competing on price or service? The only companies surviving with long-term sustainability are the ones fanatical about differentiating themselves through the customer experience they deliver.

The companies that focus on delivering a world-class customer experience not only have higher sales growth, a stronger bottom line, and lower employee turnover, they also have a distinct competitive advantage in their marketplace. What’s the Secret? presents an in-depth, inside look at the world-class customer service strategies employed by the world’s most customer-friendly companies.

Top customer service consultant John DiJulius has spent his entire career cracking the code to learn how organizations can deliver world-class service. Now he reveals the proven strategies and principles of world-class service companies like Disney, Nordstrom, and The Ritz-Carlton. While even small companies often struggle to deliver adequate customer service on a regular basis, these companies manage to align tens of thousands of employees to deliver consistent top-class care and service to every customer.

No matter how small or large your business—even if you only manage yourself or a small department—the best practices you’ll find in What’s the Secret? will change the way you serve customers and lead to long-term excellence. You’ll find the proven steps, best practices, and service standards that you need to build a customer service machine that delivers day-in and day-out. You’ll learn how to attract and retain a high-quality customer service workforce, measure customer satisfaction, and create a culture that routinely finds ways to go above and beyond for your customer.

No matter what you do, customer service excellence is the indisputable key to long-term business success and the only way to make price less relevant to your customers. Provide a world-class customer experience and dominate your market.