Managing Service Excellence


Book Description

What is the one thing that all businesses depend on? Customers. What could be more important, then, to your organization's enduring success than a solid, well-planned and executed customer service strategy--a philosophy and culture that show customers that they are the reason you are in business in the first place? As this book reveals, we are all in the business of serving customers, whether they be external or internal to your organization. It therefore behooves each of us to understand and practice the principles of service excellence. Managing Service Excellence is a comprehensive guidebook for creating and maintaining a customer-centric organization. Through chapters focusing on specific skill sets, real-world examples, and review questions, this book details how to create a satisfied customer and keep them for life. In clear, accessible language, Crutcher covers every aspect of service--from effective planning, communication, teaming, and coaching strategies, to managing change, strengthening critical thinking and problem-solving skills, and leveraging customer feedback to drive business improvement and innovation. With extensive experience in C-level and higher education roles, Crutcher helps us understand what customers really want and need, what drives their individual behavior, and how to best customize our service approach accordingly. In a world where technology is constantly changing the business landscape, this book serves as a timeless resource on the fundamentals of customer service. There will never be a substitute for the competitive advantage that integrity, competence, and relationship-building provide. As Crutcher writes, "If you build it, they will come" may work in the movies, but in real life, success requires a consistent effort in the field of customer service. Managing Service Excellence provides the keys.




Service Excellence


Book Description

The Customer Experience is the sensory, cognitive, emotional, social and behavioral dimensions of all activities that connect the customer and the organization over time across touch points and channels. It encompasses all activities involving the customer where the organization is the focal object, including pre-purchase activities (such as exposure to a website ad), and purchase, consumption, and engagement behaviors (blogging, sharing photos). This book analyzes the challenges of creating excellent customer experiences, including the management of technology and new media. It describes how customers co-produce and co-create their experiences, and how these activities influence business revenues and costs. The book takes a deep dive into the psychology of customers, revealing the conceptual building blocks of customer experiences and how they build relationships over time. These ideas provide a business perspective on how to manage relationships with customers to generate cash flows and profitability, including the role of pricing.




Achieving Service Excellence


Book Description

As the service sectors play an increasingly important role in all economies worldwide, service executives and professionals are well advised to recognize two main pathways to achieving sustainable success in services. The first path requires enhancing the strategic differentiation and operational excellence of their service enterprises; the second requires that these executives and their employees develop the knowledge and skills needed to achieve such success. Specifically, this book discusses actionable methodologies needed to generate creative ideas, including deciding on which ones to pursue; on how to justify projects financially; on how to manage the development projects for innovative services; and on how to reach out to customers and offer them superior service support.




Business Success Through Service Excellence


Book Description

The text is aimed at CEOs and all executive management, however the scope of the material will engage the entire organization. The authors identify the key ingredients of service excellence and show how leading companies have achieved success. Each chapter begins with a review of the key components of service excellence followed by two mini exemplar case studies that highlight how those companies have achieved success in that particular area. An introductory chapter proposes a framework based on the Unisys model that shows how companies can become customer centric, and a final chapter takes an integrative approach and features a case study from the overall winners of the Awards to highlight how this company has achieved success. An additional feature of the book is the service excellence questionnaire. Purchasers of the book are able to go online to complete the questionnaire and submit it to establish their competitive benchmark against other companies in both the same sector and across different sectors. A web site accompanies the book where updates on the category winners are featured to ensure that current information is always available.




Achieving Service Excellence


Book Description

Information about customer service hits and misses is now more accessible to healthcare consumers. Outstanding healthcare organizations set the bar at a high level for both clinical and service excellence. Customers who are armed with information and aware of their options are choosing providers they believe are ready, willing, and able to provide the superior experience they expect. This book offers a blueprint for successfully competing in today's competitive healthcare marketplace. It presents the theories, methods, and techniques behind delivering an excellent healthcare experience through strategy, staffing, and systems. Each chapter explores a service principle and provides numerous real-world examples and current research findings. Among the many topics discussed are creating a patient-centered environment; building a culture in which customers are treated like guests; training, motivating, and empowering staff; measuring service quality; managing service waits; and recovering from a service failure. This second edition has been completely updated. Concepts have been expanded to include information on: Significance of aligning strategy, staffing, and systems Evidence-based service management and design principles Customer relationship management Internet-based opportunities for various purposes, including communication, information, marketing, recruitment, feedback, and training Retail clinics, concierge medicine, telemedicine, and other new customer-driven innovations Instructor Resources: Discussion questions and case studies with talking points. To see a sample, click the link in the right-hand navigation bar.




Designing Service Excellence


Book Description

The moment of truth-that instant when consumers experience and judge service quality-is often a deciding factor in business success. Designing Service Excellence: People and Technology provides practical information on the design, management, and organization of many different types of service industries, such as hotels, restaurants, banks and fina




Unleashing Excellence


Book Description

A step-by-step guide to designing and implementing an amazing customer service culture In today's competitive business environment, keeping customers happy is the key to long-term success. But some businesses provide much better customer service than others. It's not always clear what works and what doesn't, and implementing new customer service practices midstream can be a difficult, chaotic task. Business leaders who want to transform their business culture into one of customer service excellence need reliable, proven guidance. Unleashing Excellence gives you practical tools and step-by-step guidance tailored to your company's individual customer service needs. It shows you how to navigate your teams through every step of the implementation process to achieve true customer service excellence. The book covers the training and education of your group, how to measure the quality of your service, how to build a culture of personal accountability, and how to recognize excellence and reward it. Fully revised to include updated information on the latest tools and best practices, as well as the stories and lessons learned from those organizations that have used the process described in the book. Offers proven best practices for designing and implementing an excellent customer service culture Simple format divides content into nine "leadership actions" that guide you through a step-by-step process Shows you how to build a common customer service vision for your entire organization Customer service is vital to the survival of your business. If you want to move your organization's customer service practices from good to great, Unleashing Excellence is the key.




Achieving Customer Experience Excellence through a Quality Management System


Book Description

We are in what many call “The Age of the Customer.” Customers are empowered more than ever before and demand a high level of customer attention and service. Their increasing expectations and demands worldwide have forced organizations to transform themselves and prepare for the customer experience (CX) battlefield. This landmark book addresses: What customer experience really means Why it matters Whether it has any substantial business impact What your organization can do to deliver and sustain your CX efforts, and How we got to this particular point in CX history This book is the result of exhaustive research conducted to incorporate various components that affect customer experience. Based on the research results, the authors make a case for seeing CX and associated transformations as the next natural evolution of the quality management system (QMS) already in place in most companies. Using an existing QMS as the foundation for CX not only creates a more sustainable platform, but it allows for a faster and more cost effective way to enable an organization to attain world-class CX.




Managing Fixed Assets in the Public Sector


Book Description

This text is the foremost compilation of information about managing the public sector fixed assets function. No two-fixed assets management functions are alike and there is no real collective information bank for the managers to use. Not only are management principles provided, but also definitions of some key settings in managing fixed assets from defining fixed assets to accountability for those assets. This text was written to help better operate the day-to-day affairs of the public sector fixed assets management function. The information presented here is not new; however, the information is not contained in one concise location. The concepts and principles presented here are of interest to all-public sector administrators. However, those individuals working in the day-to-day operations are those who will find this text most interesting. It should be used to stimulate conversation and communication on the subject of personal property management. In so doing, the expectation is that these conversations and communications will increase the effectiveness and efficiency of personal property management. The public sector is an area that relies on sound management practices and the management on those assets entrusted to us is no exception. Within the confines of this text will be found sound management practices to further the overall effectiveness of fixed assets management.




The Toyota Way to Service Excellence: Lean Transformation in Service Organizations


Book Description

The world’s bestselling Lean expert shows service-based organizations how to go Lean, gain value, and get results—The Toyota Way. A must-read for service professionals of every level, this essential book takes the proven Lean principles of the bestselling Toyota Way series and applies them directly to the industries where quality of service is crucial for success. Jeff Liker and Karyn Ross show you how to develop Lean practices throughout your organization using the famous 4P model. Whether you are an executive, manager, consultant, or frontline worker who deals with customers every day, you’ll learn how take advantage of all Lean has to offer. With this book as your guide, you’ll gain a clear understanding of Lean and discover the principles, practices and tools needed to develop people and processes that surprise and delight each of your customers. These ground-tested techniques are designed to help you make continuous improvements in your services, streamline your operations, and add ever-increasing value to your customers. Fascinating case studies of Lean-driven success in a range of service industries, including healthcare, insurance, financial services, and telecommunications, illustrate that Lean principles and practices work as well in services as they do in manufacturing. Drawn from original research and real-world examples, The Toyota Way to Service Excellence will help you make the leap to Lean.