A Career in Customer Service and Tech Support


Book Description

This resource provides information for tech-savvy readers about the ins-and-outs of customer service and technical support, including education requirements, job duties and skills, and how to get started in these fields. This practical guide reveals the best educational and experiential paths to a career and emphasizes the importance of professional networking. It also delves into the statistics most relevant to job-seekers in these fields, examining what the career market looks like long-term and what job-seekers must do to land the career that they want.




Jobs to Be Done


Book Description

Why do some innovation projects succeed where others fail? The book reveals the business implications of Jobs Theory and explains how to put Jobs Theory into practice using Outcome-Driven Innovation.




Ask a Manager


Book Description

From the creator of the popular website Ask a Manager and New York’s work-advice columnist comes a witty, practical guide to 200 difficult professional conversations—featuring all-new advice! There’s a reason Alison Green has been called “the Dear Abby of the work world.” Ten years as a workplace-advice columnist have taught her that people avoid awkward conversations in the office because they simply don’t know what to say. Thankfully, Green does—and in this incredibly helpful book, she tackles the tough discussions you may need to have during your career. You’ll learn what to say when • coworkers push their work on you—then take credit for it • you accidentally trash-talk someone in an email then hit “reply all” • you’re being micromanaged—or not being managed at all • you catch a colleague in a lie • your boss seems unhappy with your work • your cubemate’s loud speakerphone is making you homicidal • you got drunk at the holiday party Praise for Ask a Manager “A must-read for anyone who works . . . [Alison Green’s] advice boils down to the idea that you should be professional (even when others are not) and that communicating in a straightforward manner with candor and kindness will get you far, no matter where you work.”—Booklist (starred review) “The author’s friendly, warm, no-nonsense writing is a pleasure to read, and her advice can be widely applied to relationships in all areas of readers’ lives. Ideal for anyone new to the job market or new to management, or anyone hoping to improve their work experience.”—Library Journal (starred review) “I am a huge fan of Alison Green’s Ask a Manager column. This book is even better. It teaches us how to deal with many of the most vexing big and little problems in our workplaces—and to do so with grace, confidence, and a sense of humor.”—Robert Sutton, Stanford professor and author of The No Asshole Rule and The Asshole Survival Guide “Ask a Manager is the ultimate playbook for navigating the traditional workforce in a diplomatic but firm way.”—Erin Lowry, author of Broke Millennial: Stop Scraping By and Get Your Financial Life Together




The Thank You Economy (Enhanced Edition)


Book Description

If this were 1923, this book would have been called "Why Radio Is Going to Change the Game" . . . If it were 1995, it would be "Why Amazon Is Going to Take Over the Retailing World" . . . The Thank You Economy is about something big, something greater than any single revolutionary platform. It isn't some abstract concept or wacky business strategy—it's real, and every one of us is doing business in it every day, whether we choose to recognize it or not. It's the way we communicate, the way we buy and sell, the way businesses and consumers interact online and offline. The Internet, where the Thank You Economy was born, has given consumers back their voice, and the tremendous power of their opinions via social media means that companies and brands have to compete on a whole different level than they used to. Gone are the days when a blizzard of marketing dollars could be used to overwhelm the airwaves, shut out the competition, and grab customer awareness. Now customers' demands for authenticity, originality, creativity, honesty, and good intent have made it necessary for companies and brands to revert to a level of customer service rarely seen since our great-grandparents' day, when business owners often knew their customers personally, and gave them individual attention. Here renowned entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk reveals how companies big and small can scale that kind of personal, one-on-one attention to their entire customer base, no matter how large, using the same social media platforms that carry consumer word of mouth. The Thank You Economy offers compelling, data-driven evidence that we have entered into an entirely new business era, one in which the companies that see the biggest returns won't be the ones that can throw the most money at an advertising campaign, but will be those that can prove they care about their customers more than anyone else. The businesses and brands that harness the word-of-mouth power from social media, those that can shift their culture to be more customer-aware and fan-friendly, will pull away from the pack and profit in today's markets. Filled with Vaynerchuk's irrepressible candor and wit, as well as real-world examples of companies that are profiting by putting Thank You Economy principles into practice, The Thank You Economy reveals how businesses can harness all the changes and challenges inherent in social media and turn them into tremendous opportunities for profit and growth.




The Startup's Guide to Customer Success


Book Description

Are you looking to start or grow a customer success team? Customer success is no longer just for companies with large teams and resources. It's a company mindset that can unlock the biggest opportunities in business. Customer success can help streamline experiences, grow product engagement and loyalty, and more importantly - retain business.In The Startup's Guide to Customer Success, Jennifer Chiang presents a guide on how to plan, execute, and grow your own customer success team and the actionable steps that you can take to champion the customer at your company.Learn insights such as: * The four attributes Shreesha Ramdas, CEO and Co-Founder of Strikedeck, says are must-haves when hiring your first customer success team* How Jamey Jeff, Managing Director of Customer Success Solutions at Coastal Cloud, reevaluated QBRs to derive more value for his customers with less work* How Maranda Dziekonski, VP of Customer Success at Pared, manages her time wisely to not only get everything done, but fight fires and plan aheadThis book is for everyone from new customer success leaders, CEOs and VPs who want their company to be more customer-centric, to start-ups who are starting their own customer success teams




Customer Experience 3.0


Book Description

Customer Experience 3.0 provides firsthand guidance on what works, what doesn't--and the revenue and word-of-mouth payoff of getting it right. Between smartphones, social media, mobile connectivity, and a plethora of other technological innovations changing the way we do almost everything these days, your customers are expecting you to be taking advantage of it all to enhance their customer service experience far beyond the meeting-the-minimum experiences of days past. Unfortunately, many companies are failing to take advantage of and properly manage these service-enhancing tools that now exist, and in return they deliver a series of frustrating, disjointed transactions that end up driving people away and into the pockets of businesses getting it right. Having managed more than 1,000 separate customer service studies, author John A. Goodman has created an innovative customer-experience framework and step-by-step roadmap that shows you how to: Design and deliver flawless services and products while setting honest customer expectations Create and implement an effective customer access strategy Capture and leverage the voice of the customer to set priorities and improve products, services and marketing Use CRM systems, cutting-edge metrics, and other tools to deliver customer satisfaction Companies who get customer service right can regularly provide seamless experiences, seeming to know what customers want even before they know it themselves…while others end up staying generic, take stabs in the dark to try and fix the problem, and end up dropping the ball. Customer Experience 3.0 reveals how to delight customers using all the technological tools at their disposal.




The Unwritten Rules of the Highly Effective Job Search: The Proven Program Used by the World’s Leading Career Services Company


Book Description

The Proven Program Used by 600,000 Job Hunters! You put hours and hours of hard work into your job search and the companies you've contacted never call. It's a story all too common in the fast-paced, highly competitive world of job hunting. Nothing is more discouraging than sending one resumé after another into the job-hunting void. Eventually, you expect silence from the other end. The Unwritten Rules of the Highly Effective Job Search was written so this never happens to you again. These techniques, developed by author Orville Pierson, have been used successfully for ten years by Lee Hecht Harrison (LHH), the world's premier career services company. Here, Pierson provides you with the job-search techniques that up to now have been limited to the LHH consultants he trains. Orville Pierson has helped thousands of job hunters during his career, taking note of the characteristics that have led to success as well as failure. In The Unwritten Rules of the Highly Effective Job Search, he supplies key information on how professional job search consultants structure the job search project so you can apply the same winning strategies to your own search. You'll also be privy to inside information on how decision makers operate, enabling you to get the inside track on job openings before they are announced. This insider's guide covers every phase of the job search, leading you step by step through the process of creating a clear-cut plan-essential to every job search. Using the Pierson Method, you'll learn how to Develop a Target List (the key ingredient to every job search) Measure your progress Create a “core message” about yourself that decision makers won't forget Present yourself in the best possible light to prospective employers Using these strategies, Orville Pierson and LHH have helped 600,000 people land great new jobs. Employ the Pierson Method in your hunt for employment and you'll soon be doing what you love in the company that's right for you.




The Good Jobs Strategy


Book Description

A research-backed clarion call to CEOs and managers, making the controversial case that good, well-paying jobs are not only good for workers and for society--they're good for business, too.




The New Rules of Work


Book Description

"In this definitive guide to the ever-changing modern workplace, Kathryn Minshew and Alexandra Cavoulacos, the co-founders of popular career website TheMuse.com, show how to play the game by the New Rules. The Muse is known for sharp, relevant, and get-to-the-point advice on how to figure out exactly what your values and your skills are and how they best play out in the marketplace. Now Kathryn and Alex have gathered all of that advice and more in The New Rules of Work. Through quick exercises and structured tips, the authors will guide you as you sort through your countless options; communicate who you are and why you are valuable; and stand out from the crowd. The New Rules of Work shows how to choose a perfect career path, land the best job, and wake up feeling excited to go to work every day-- whether you are starting out in your career, looking to move ahead, navigating a mid-career shift, or anywhere in between"--




Building America's Skilled Technical Workforce


Book Description

Skilled technical occupationsâ€"defined as occupations that require a high level of knowledge in a technical domain but do not require a bachelor's degree for entryâ€"are a key component of the U.S. economy. In response to globalization and advances in science and technology, American firms are demanding workers with greater proficiency in literacy and numeracy, as well as strong interpersonal, technical, and problem-solving skills. However, employer surveys and industry and government reports have raised concerns that the nation may not have an adequate supply of skilled technical workers to achieve its competitiveness and economic growth objectives. In response to the broader need for policy information and advice, Building America's Skilled Technical Workforce examines the coverage, effectiveness, flexibility, and coordination of the policies and various programs that prepare Americans for skilled technical jobs. This report provides action-oriented recommendations for improving the American system of technical education, training, and certification.