A book recommendation from Dan Beaulieu:
Delight Your Customers: 7 Simple Ways to Raise Your Customer Service from Ordinary to Extraordinary
By Steve Curtin
Copyright 2013Amacom
Price $17.95
Pages: 196 with Index
A Great read for Customer Care
Okay so I’m a sucker for books about customer service. I look for and read them every chance I get. And I have to say that this is one of the better ones. Especially when you take into consideration how well written and organized this one is.
Here is something to think about when considering customer service is job function versus job essence. Job function is what it takes to do the job, the words on the page of a job description. Carrying bags for guests is the function of a bell hop for example while the essence of the job is what surrounds the job things like, making the guests welcome, making sure they have everything they need to be comfortable in their room; making sure that you do something special and remarkable for that customer. That is the essence of the job and that is the essence of great customer service.
In the words of the author, “Job essence is indicated in employees’ personality, creativity, enthusiasm, passion and unique flair.”
The author not only gives specific examples of good and poor service but he also does it in a way that inspired and inspired me to not only think about but also develop my own idea for better customer service in my own business.
Here are some of the 7 ways:
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Express genuine interest
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Offer sincere and specific compliments
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Share unique knowledge
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Convey authentic enthusiasm
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Use appropriate humor
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Provide pleasant surprises
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Deliver heroics
Curtin delivers chapters on each of these steps and then caps it off with a final chapter on going from ordinary to extraordinary. My particular favorite chapter where the author states: “With so much poor customer service around great customer service becomes truly outstanding.”
And this final bit of advice, “Exceptional customer service is never a happy accident that a company stumbles into. It is always the result of intention and design.”
And to that I say amen.
