This Fourth Edition of Customer Care recognises these trends and demonstrates, in a clear, practical way, how to develop and sustain a customer-service focus. The book places a great emphasis on the importance of strategic aspects of customer care -- gaining commitment, listening to customers, developing a customer-care ethos and staff motivation -- in ensuring successful results. It also explains how to deliver an excellent service at the front line, covering personal service, speed of delivery and service recovery. The book takes a refreshing and unique approach, and is important reading for anyone in business looking to improve their customer care, and consequently improve profits, staff morale, standing and reputation.

Preface
Acknowledgements

1. An Introduction to Customer Care
Service in a competitive environment
The changing nature of customer service
Changing customer behaviour and expectation
Customer retention
What is excellent service?
Personal versus material service
Embracing change
Contact centres
The Internet
Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
The service/profit chain
Summary
Action checklist

2. How Managers Need to Drive and Support a Service Strategy
Start from the top
Mission and vision
Values
Objectives
Strategy Summary
Action checklist

3. Listening to Customers
Barriers to listening
The monitoring of complaints and compliments
The value of listening to customers
Monitoring customer satisfaction
Where and when to measure
Continuous improvement
Involving employees when you measure
Recognising achievement
Involving head office departments in the measurement process
Canvass the view of other stakeholders
Best practice benchmarking
Summary
Action checklist

4. Implementing a customer care strategy
Continuous improvement
Marketing a service strategy
Managers lead the way
High or low key?
Summary
Action checklist

5. Empowerment and Ownership
Valued people value customers
Myths about empowerment
What should organisations do to encourage empowerment?
Service recovery and empowerment
Summary
Action checklist

6. The Internal Customer
Everyone has a customer
Developing understanding of internal customer needs
Process improvement
Don’t forget suppliers, alliances and partners
Standards and charters
Service-level agreement
Suggestion schemes
Employee care
Summary
Action checklist

7. Training and Development for Customer Service
The growth importance of training and development in customer service
Identifying training and development objectives
Training and development for managers
Managers as trainers
Customer service training for front-line and support staff
The learning organisation
Build customer service into all training and development activities
Review and refresh training and development
Summary
Action checklist

8. Communications
Disseminating the message
Developing a communications strategy
Sell don’t tell
Reinforcing the message
Tips on effective internal communication
A communications case study
Summary
Action checklist

9. Recognition and Reward
Motivation
Performance management
Developing a reward and recognition scheme
Review and renew
Summary
Action checklist

10. Sustaining a Customer Focus
Problems in sustaining the focus
Developing a maintenance strategy
Reviewing progress
Reinforcement
Summary

Additional Sources of Information
References
Index