Uncommon Service : How to Win by Putting Customers at the Core of Your Business.

ISBN:

9781422142363

Title:

Author:

Frei, Frances.

Personal Author:

Frei, Frances.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (261 pages)

Contents:

Intro -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction - If This Is a Service Economy, Why Am I Still on Hold? -- Chapter One - Truth Number 1: You Can't Be Good at Everything -- Chapter Two - Truth Number 2: Someone Has to Pay for It -- Chapter Three - Truth Number 3: It's Not Your Employees' Fault -- Chapter Four - Truth Number 4: You Must Manage Your Customers -- Chapter Five - Now Multiply It All by Culture -- Chapter Six - Getting Bigger -- Conclusion -- Notes -- Index -- About the Authors.

Local Note:

Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2019. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.

Subject Term:

Customer relations..

Customer services..

Service industries-Management.

Added Author:

Morriss, Anne.

Format:

Electronic Resources

Electronic Access:

Click here to view book

Publication Date:

2012

Publication Information:

Boston :

Harvard Business Review Press,

2012.

Available:*

Shelf Number	Material Type	Copy	Shelf Location	Status
658.812	1:E-BOOK	1	1:ON-DEMAND	Searching... Unknown

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

Most companies treat service as a low-priority business operation, keeping it out of the spotlight until a customer complains. Then service gets to make a brief appearance - for as long as it takes to calm the customer down and fix whatever foul-up jeopardized the relationship.

In Uncommon Service , Frances Frei and Anne Morriss show how, in a volatile economy where the old rules of strategic advantage no longer hold true, service must become a competitive weapon, not a damage-control function. That means weaving service tightly into every core decision your company makes.

The authors reveal a transformed view of service, presenting an operating model built on tough choices organizations must make:

* How do customers define "excellence" in your offering? Is it convenience? Friendliness? Flexible choices? Price?

* How will you get paid for that excellence? Will you charge customers more? Get them to handle more service tasks themselves?

* How will you empower your employees to deliver excellence? What will your recruiting, selection, training, and job design practices look like? What about your organizational culture?

* How will you get your customers to behave? For example, what do you need to do to get them to treat your employees with respect? Do you need to make it easier for them to use new technology?

Practical and engaging, Uncommon Service makes a powerful case for a new and systematic approach to service as a means of boosting productivity, profitability, and competitive advantage.

Author Notes

Frances Frei is UPS Foundation Professor of Service Management at Harvard Business School, where she developed the school's successful Managing Service Operations course. Anne Morriss is the Managing Director of the Concire Leadership Institute, a consulting firm that helps leaders to surface and remove performance barriers.

Reviews (1)

Booklist Review

*Starred Review* The customer-at-the-heart-of-service philosophy started with The Service Profit Chain (1997), by Jim Heskett (and coauthors), and has continued to be discussed in the pages of Harvard Business Review and several other books addressing the topic. Yet here a Harvard professor and a consultant shatter the myths behind the philosophy and say, You can't be good at everything. Heresy? Hardly. Frei and Morriss prove their theory again and again as they first review well-known (and not so) companies that have prospered in this arena, from Commerce Bank and Ochsner Health System to Magazine Luiza (Brazil) and LSQ Funding Group. In addition to the key premise, they unfold three more truths: someone has to pay for the service; it's not employees' fault; and you must manage your customers. Plus, they've already anticipated the question, How do we do this? Each chapter includes not only case histories and sidebars but also clear, step-by-step implementation usually within three or four phases. As far as the you can't be good at everything premise goes, Frei and Morriss explain the details of developing internal and external attribute maps, then validating them with customers. In terms of employee support, both heavily emphasize the criticality of the right kinds of job design, training, and performance management in addition to the right script. It all sounds so easy, yet the authors are quick to say that this kind of transformation takes time, dedicated and honest leaders, and a culture that sings.--Jacobs, Barbara Copyright 2010 Booklist