Providing superior customer service is a goal widely shared by organizations of all sizes and sectors. Yet, most executives tend to view the service function of their business as a strictly tactical operation and cost to be minimized. As a result, companies that continually invest in building their brands, leveraging their technologies, and using other strategic moves to gain competitive advantages often skimp on strengthening the final, crucial link in their revenue chain.
 
A leading authority on measuring and improving the customer experience, John A. Goodman sees customer service as the central catalyst for growing and sustaining a successful business. In STRATEGIC CUSTOMER SERVICE: Managing the Customer Experience to Increase Positive Word of Mouth, Build Loyalty, and Maximize Profits (AMACOM; May 19, 2009; $24.95 Hardcover), he sheds light on the role of customer service in every organizational function—from product development to marketing and sales to billing—and its impact on bottom-line performance. Drawing on over thirty years of research for companies such as 3M, American Express, Chik-Fil-A, Coca-Cola, FedEx, GE, Harley-Davidson, Neiman Marcus, Procter & Gamble, and Toyota, he makes a compelling case for the economic imperative of approaching service strategically. What’s more, he shows senior managers how to estimate the value of each vital customer, in hard numbers, and earn money for their business by investing in preventing and resolving customer problems.
 
Challenging prevalent myths about customer service, as well as radically changing the standard business perspective, STRATEGIC CUSTOMER SERVICE arms senior managers with the critical insights, key concepts, operational models, and step-by-step formulas to:
 
Ø Increase customer satisfaction by setting customers’ expectations about product uses, requirements, and quirks, precisely. Place a priority on delivering no unpleasant surprises.
 
Ø Make it easy for customers to complain. Welcome complaints as an opportunity to identify and fix problems and to convert dissatisfied customers into satisfied, loyal customers.
 
Ø Educate, empower, and motivate service reps to respond to customer requests for help and successfully resolve customer issues, at least 90 percent of the time.
 
Ø Systematically feed data on customer problems—whether misleading sales messages or misfires in product design—to the right internal people to diagnose and remedy the cause.
 
“This book directly challenges small-minded managers who think it is wise to reduce expenses by under-serving customers,” as David E. Gonier, CEO, TARP Worldwide, aptly observes in his Foreword. “STRATEGIC CUSTOMER SERVICE is a port in this economic storm—an intellectual reminder that nothing in one’s bag of tricks is more powerful than a positive customer experience.”
 
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
 
John A. Goodman is a nationally recognized thought leader in the customer experience industry. He currently serves as Vice Chairman of TARP Worldwide, “America’s premier customer service research firm,” to quote Tom Peters, which he co-founded in 1971. Mr. Goodman earned his MBA from the Harvard Business School. He lives in Arlington, Virginia.