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eCustomerServiceWorld.com recommended reads
(NB Check out our Top Ten and our New Books as well!)Browse through and click on a title for a review. 
 | | Customer Winback: How to Recapture Lost Customers and Keep Them Loyal
Author: Jill Griffin & Michael Lowenstein
UK Publisher: Jossey Bass Wiley
ISBN: 0787946672
Quick Review: A comprehensive approach to building great customer service that outlines the concept of "procovery"-proactive efforts that prevent customer loss Studies show that it is more expensive to bring a new customer on board than it is to hold onto an existing one. Yet every customer has the potential to jump ship at any time. How can a company entice a lost customer back to its fold? Better yet, how can it provide such great customer service that customers never leave to begin with? Customer Winback shows both service-and product-oriented companies how to win back lost customers, to spot problems, and to change business procedures before customers leave. The authors cover training, staffing, team development and other issues critical to creating the structures necessary to regain and retain customers. buy UK() buy US($)
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| | Customer.Community Unleashing the Power of Your Customer Base
Author: Drew Banks and Kim Daus
UK Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 078795621X
Quick Review: The Internet is the world's largest marketplace and provides businesses with the ability to interact with their market in a much more direct and tailored way than ever before. Customer.Community takes a new look at online communities as a source of value for both customers and businesses; it shows how to build an online "customer community" that gives customers a reason to stay loyal. Drew Banks and Kim Daus explain exactly what the customer community is and then reveal the tenets that will make it strong: sustainability, size and scalability, social connectivity, and soul. The authors show how to "communitize" commerce, build a solid base of repeat customers, and create value for the customer, and they explain how to manage a site in a cost-effective way. buy UK() buy US($)
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| | Customers Are People - the Human Touch
Author: J. McKean
UK Publisher: John Wiley and Sons Ltd
ISBN: 0470848898
Quick Review: Although 70% of the customer's decision to buy is based on how they are treated as people, few ornganizations have recognized its importance as well as understanding how to implement the "human touch" art as a science. John McKean provides a practical guide to implementing this art as consistent, business-wide, technology-enabled science drawn form proven approaches from world-class human touch practitioners. buy UK() buy US($)
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| | Customers As Partners: Building Relationships That Last
Author: Chip Bell
UK Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publisher's
ISBN: 1881052540
Quick Review: Astute managers and entrepreneurs know that customer loyalty is a necessity for profitable businesses in the '90s and beyond. In "Customers as Partners", Chip Bell shows how long-term success depends on replacing superficial transaction-oriented approaches with the deeper commitment of partnership. This book provides examples from the corporate world, small service businesses and personal experience. Illustrating each key principle with anecdotes and stories, Bell shows how all lasting business relationships are: grounded in an attitude of generosity; bolstered by a sense of trust; propelled by a joint purpose or shared vision; served by honesty; characterized by a sense of balance; and infused with an element of familiarity and ease. This book provides insights on how to keep the quality of these relationships central in every interaction. It offers a model of partnership where customers offer feedback, support your business by recommending you to others, and forgive mistakes because they feel a reciprocal long-term commitment. Links:
Performance Research Associates (PRA) in the Consultancy Services Section of the eProducts & Services Store buy UK() buy US($)
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| | Customers Rule! Why the E-Commerce Honeymoon is over and where Winning Businesses Go From Here
Author: Roger Blackwell, Kristina Stephan
UK Publisher: Crown Pub
ISBN: 0609608657
Quick Review: Customers Rule!, by Roger Blackwell and Kristina Stephan, is a back-to-earth management guide for the 21st century that emphasizes traditional business strategies incorporated with--but never overshadowed by--the Internet. Blackwell, an Ohio State University marketing professor, and Stephan, vice president of a consulting firm that bears her coauthor's name, note that even after the dot-com shakeout, many firms still place too much emphasis on the "e" side of e-commerce, giving short shrift to basics that connect them with consumers and suppliers. Dissecting companies that failed because of this (like Boo.com, the erstwhile sportswear e-tailer), along with those appearing to prosper by recognizing it (including Victoria's Secret and L.L. Bean, which both learned the ropes through conventional catalog operations), the authors emphasize that business fundamentals remain the key to success. Adding value for customers, establishing vendor relationships, controlling costs, and conserving cash are all important elements. They discuss specifics that combine traditional and New Economy ideas in original ways, like using omnipresent bricks-and-mortar establishments such as Kinko's for third-party distribution of online orders. No matter the business, the authors contend, the optimal result is a "blended strategy" that enhances customer and supply-chain relationships, decreases inventory and expenses, increases efficiencies, and reaches new customers.--Howard Rothman buy UK() buy US($)
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| | Customers.com
Author: Patricia B Seybold
UK Publisher: Century/Arrow
ISBN: 0712680713
US Publisher: Times Books
ISBN: 0812930371
Soundbite: “This is a must-read for anyone who wants to prosper in the next generation of business." Irving Wladawsky-Berger, general manager, Internet Division, IBMOne sentence summary: Five steps to success in eCommerce, plus eight critical success factors, plus sixteen case studies add up to a hell of an effective book. What’s so special? Famous for her organization’s ‘Seybold Reports’ on technology trends, Patricia Seybold’s Customers.com can help you map your business onto the web in a way that won’t confound your customers. Seybold defines The Five Steps to Success in Electronic Commerce as:
1. Make it easy for customers to do business with you.
2. Focus on the end customer for your products and services.
3. Redesign your customer-facing processes from the end customer's point of view.
4. Wire your company for profit: Design a comprehensive, evolving electronic commerce architecture.
5. Foster customer loyalty, the key to profitability in electronic commerce. As well as clearly outlining the five areas you need to tackle to keep your customers coming back, Seybold runs through eight critical success factors as a checklist and sixteen case studies of organizations that are getting it right. The mix of business-to-business and business to consumer companies makes this section of the book relevant for managers from both types of company. The third section of the book explains the technology you need to deploy to emulate the success stories featured in the book. Quote we like: We like her “Five Things Web Customers Want: 1. Don’t waste my time. : 2. Remember who I am. : 3. Make it easy for me to order and procure service. : 4. Make sure your service delights me. : 5. Customize your products and service for me.” Links:
Mini-profile of Patricia Seybold in the Who’s Who of Customer Service buy UK() buy US($)
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| | Customize the Brand: Make It More Desirable and Profitable
Author: Torsten Nilson
UK Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
ISBN: 0470848227
Quick Review: This text explores the increasingly important topic of brand building within the one-to-one concept. It explains how to achieve what all marketers dream about: a product or service customized for each individual customer that is both a good value for the customer and a profitable venture for the producer. It uses practical tools and case studies to show how a company can optimize its brand marketing resources.
All customers prefer a brand that is appropriate to their needs. So far, most brand offers have been based on a compromise between what is efficient for the supplier and what is acceptable to the customer. These compromises are no longer necessary as suppliers can now cost-effectively deliver a customized brand proposition. But very few do, as the strategies and techniques to do so have not entered mainstream marketing theory and practice.
buy UK() buy US($)
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| | Daily Reflections for Highly Effective People
Author: Stephen R. Covey
UK Publisher: Simon & Schuster
ISBN: 0671887173
Quick Review: Provides a daily reading program that keys on the author's guidelines to personal fulfillment and success and offers inspiration, insights, and motivational guidance. buy UK() buy US($)
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| | Dear James: Secrets of Success from a Management Maverick
Author: John Timpson
UK Publisher: Caspian Publishing Ltd
ISBN: 190184420X
US Publisher:
ISBN:
Quick Review: 'Dear
James' is written as a letter to his son summing up what John has learnt about running the family business.
Extracts:
“Big decisions that have a significant effect on the future very seldom happen. Only eight decisions have made a difference to my career in 38 years and only one of them had to be made in a hurry.”
”We should always be grateful to customers who take the trouble to tell us about their complaint. Each year I say thank you to everybody who’s complained by sending them a Christmas card which contains a bar of chocolate and a voucher to encourage them to give our shops another try. Some customer have sent me a Christmas card back!”
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| | Deliver Outstanding Customer Service
Author: Susan Nash & Derek Nash
UK Publisher: How To Books
ISBN: 1857037839
US Publisher:
ISBN:
Quick Review: This guide to customer service introduces a service management model that saves time and money by providing information, skills and techniques to raise competency in customer care. buy UK() buy US($)
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