Unleashing Excellence The Book - The Complete Guide to Ultimate Customer Service

Table of Contents
Introduction
Sample Chapter

Two of the world’s foremost authorities reveal the four things world-class customer service organizations consistently do well – then take you step-by-step through the process of designing and implementing your own system for creating ‘walk through fire’ customer loyalty.

Few know this field as thoroughly as Unleashing Excellence authors Dennis Snow and Teri Yanovitch, who have counseled hundreds of companies – including AAA, American Express, Blockbuster, Cummins, Ernst & Young, ExxonMobil, Marriott, Nationwide, Nokia, Radio Shack, Scholastic and Subway. Both also spent years in key positions in the industry. During his 20-year career at the Walt Disney World Company, Snow was the founding head of the Disney Institute division that provides customized customer service training for Fortune 500 companies. As a former vice president at Philip Crosby & Associates, Yanovitch worked directly with the quality assurance legend for almost a decade before serving as a top-rated facilitator and speaker for the Disney Institute.

Originally published in 2003, this quintessential how-to guide has now been expanded and extensively updated to include the latest tools, best practices, and invaluable lessons learned from companies that have actually applied the authors’ comprehensive system for building a first-rate customer service culture from the ground up!

Filled with vital information, this second edition of Unleashing Excellence literally walks you through every aspect of the nine leadership actions required to compete in a global marketplace where products and services are becoming increasingly commoditized and the Internet provides dissatisfied customers with a powerful forum.

Examples of what’s included in Unleashing Excellence…

The step to implementing a winning customer service agenda is establishing your Service Improvement Team. Unleashing Excellence gives you the selection criteria and outlines individual responsibilities, meeting agendas, and ways of maximizing their effectiveness.
A key mistake companies make is failing to define exactly what the customer experience is supposed to be. Unleashing Excellence shows you how to develop the Service Philosophy and Standards that become the non-negotiable service expectations every employee will be expected to follow.
With all of the information bombarding an organization’s employees, it’s hard to know what is a priority and what isn’t. If everything is a priority, then nothing is. Unleashing Excellence describes a clear communication strategy for getting your employees on board, and keeping them informed, involved and engaged in your service initiative.
World-class service organizations treat training as an investment, not an expense. Unleashing Excellence provides a clear strategy for delivering effective service training to every person at every level of your organization.
How do some companies get their people to be so friendly? By selecting the right candidate for the right role. Unleashing Excellence breaks down the best recruitment methods, including interviewing techniques.
Lots of organizations use some kind of customer service measurement tool, such as a satisfaction survey, to gauge their success – but don’t know how to productively apply the data. Unleashing Excellence shows you how to measure those factors that truly matter to customers, then incorporate the results for continuous improvement.
When leaders fail to acknowledge employees who deliver superior service, those employees begin to think; “Why bother?” Unleashing Excellence provides guidelines for implementing three types of recognition to ensure excellence is celebrated and rewarded.
When employees feel set up for failure and believe that no one will listen, they often become emotionally disengaged from the organization (and from the customer). Unleashing Excellence outlines a practical system for identifying and solving service obstacles.
If leaders look the other way when an employee performs in an unacceptable manner, even the best improvement plans begins to collapse. Unleashing Excellence describes the process for revising your accountability tools to include the elements of your service initiative.