Delivering Knock Your Socks Off Service: Fourth Edition (Unabridged) [Audio Download]

The book is organized in Four Parts:

1. The Fundamental Principles of Knock Your Socks Off Service - includes the RATER factors: Reliability, Assurance, Tangibles, Empathy, Responsiveness.
2. The How To's of Knock Your Socks Off Service - honesty, rules, doing the right thing, listening, asking questions, winning words and soothing phrases, telephone tips, writing skills, details, thank-yous.
3. The Problem-Solving Side of Knock Your Socks Off Service - how to fix problems, fix the person, apologize, and handling nasty customers.
4. Knock Your Socks Off Service Fitness - Taking Care of You - how to stay calm, professional, and competent and how to have fun doing it

Whether you're new to the business of providing customer service or a seasoned pro, this book will give lots of great advice and a positive perspective on the challenges of providing good customer service. I plan on using the book to help set goals and establish metrics for improving service at my company.

In the service game, the results are clear -- organizations that empower their employees to provide top quality customer service are considerably more successful than organizations that don't. And it is not enough just to meet customers minimum expectations. In order to sustain a competitive advantage, organizations have to find ways to exceed customers' expectations or, as the authors say, to provide "knock your socks off" service. Knock your socks off service is defined as:

Reliable - delivering on promises

Responsive - providing service in a timely fashion

Reassuring - building trust through competence and confidence

Empathetic - recognizing customers emotional state and responding accordingly

Tangibles - taking pride in the quality of the materials that you produce

Failing at even one of these key service elements could lead customers to look elsewhere for service. According to the authors' research, as many as 25% of your customers are currently dissatisfied enough to consider doing business with someone else. Imagine the impact that failing to deliver on service promises or being unresponsive to customer concerns would have on that number. However, even small factors, such as the cleanliness of your service area, can have big effects on a customer's willingness to do business with your organization.

The wealth of the book is that it is jam-packed with tips that you can use to become "knock your sock off" service providers. The book provides great ideas for improving your customer interactions, whether your interactions are face-to-face, telephone, or email/mail. You will also learn proven techniques for becoming a "fantastic fixer" able to solve even the toughest service problems. For example, while most people focus on fixing the problem, "knock your socks off" employees focus on fixing the person as well. The authors even provide helpful tips on taking care of yourself by managing stress and becoming a continuous learner.

Especially helpful are the specific sections on customer service attitude, understanding the customer, and dealing with difficult customers. The tips and techniques recommended here actually work in practice, and are easy to learn. I have found this book to be an effective source of insights into why great customer service seems so rare, and how people can improve the way they deliver service to others.

The book itself is an easy read, with plenty of pictures and anecdotes to help make its points. It took me about four hours to read, and it is also easy to read a section at a time on the bus or over a short lunch period.

Congratulations to the authors! I can see why this book has been around and appreciated for so long.