CONTENTS
Our Thanks
Introduction: About This Book
SECTION ONE
The Fundamentals of Knock Your Socks Off Service
1 What Customers Want, What Customers Expect
2 Who's Your Customer?
3 Knock Your Socks Off Service
4 Customers' Ever-Changing Needs
5 The RATER Factors
6 How Do I RATE?
7 The Value of Reliability
8 Reliability: Promises, Promises
9 Reliability: Secret Shopper
10 Assurance: The Language of Competence
11 Assurance: The Knowledge Game
12 Assurance: Secret Shopper
13 Tangibles: Take a Field Trip
14 Tangibles: Sensory Perception
15 Tangibles: Customer Feedback
16 Tangibles: Secret Shopper
17 Empathy vs. Sympathy
18 Empathy: Building a Statement
19 Empathy: Scripting Tough Situations
20 Empathy: Partnering for Practice
21 Responsiveness: Identifying the Barriers
22 Responsiveness: Proactive vs. Reactive
23 Responsiveness: Role-Play
24 RATER Self-Assessment
25 The Ten Deadly Sins of Service
26 The Customer Is Always.. . the Customer
27 Educating Your Customer
28 Filling the Knowledge Gap
SECTION TWO
The How-To's of Knock Your Socks Off Service
29 Good Question: Honesty
30 Identify the Rules: Red Rules/Blue Rules
31 Making Exceptions
32 Why Customers Don't Trust
33 Create an Environment of Trust
34 Barriers to Effective Listening
35 Go Ahead, I'm Listening
36 Follow My Lead
37 Listening: Taking a Mental Detour
38 Crafting the Best Questions
39 The Name Game
40 Who Knows?
41 How Did I Do?
42 When Questions Go Wrong
43 Winning Words and Soothing Phrases
44 Scripting Better Responses
45 Give a Nonverbal Cue!
46 Face-to-Face Charades
47 Receiving Nonverbal Cues
48 Telephone Checklist
49 Be a Standout on the Phone
50 Just Phone Home!
51 Telephone Etiquette: Secret Shopper
52 Tongue Twisters with a Twist
53 E-Mail vs.Telephone
54 Written Communication Review
55 Practice E-Mail Communications
56 E-Mail Etiquette
57 Communication Sensitivity
58 It's a Small World
59 The Generational Divide
60 Generations at Work
61 Saying "No," Positively
SECTION THREE
Seamless Knock Your Socks Off Service
62 Communicating Across Functions
63 Hitting the Target
64 Visit an Internal Customer
65 It's Not My Job
66 Mindbenders
67 It's All About Kindness
68 Details, Details, Details
69 Creating a Cycle of Service
70 Analyzing Moments of Truth
71 Details That Make a Difference
72 Value-Added Service
73 Good Selling Is Good Service
74 So Many People to Thank
75 Making "Thank You" Personal
76 Thank-You Round Robin
SECTION FOUR
The Problem-Solving Side of Knock Your Socks Off Service
77 The Service Recovery Process
78 How Ready Are You to Recover?
79 Using the Well-Placed "I'm Sorry"
80 Finding the Right Fix
81 Putting Recovery Knowledge into Action
82 Tell Me a Story
83 Make Customers Your Partners in Problem Solving
84 Maximize Your Web Site Impact
85 Matching Atonement to the Error
86 Fix the Customer First, Then the Problem
87 Fix the Customer Role-Play
88 Calming Obnoxious Customers
89 Customers From Hell (R) Hall of Shame
90 Difficult Customer Match Game
91 A Question of Control
SECTION FIVE
Knock Your Socks Off Fitness
92 Stress Reducers
93 Create a Stress Log
94 Coping with Change
95 The Web of Support
96 The Power of Positive Talk
97 Keep It Professional
98 Learning Assessment
99 The Power of Curiosity
100 For All You Do, This Note's For You
101 What's Important to Me?
Credits
Index
About the Authors
