Unleashing Excellence
by Dennis Snow and Teri Yanovitch
Published by DC Press
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Reviewed by Muhammed Hassanali
Subtitled: The Complete Guide to Ultimate Customer Service
As the title Unleashing Excellence suggests, this book is directed at senior executives. It starts with the premise that customer service is a corporate strategy (just as technical competence is) and needs to be cultivated from the top.
Companies that build customer service as a vital part of their business model also build customer loyalty and strengthen their bottom lines. Those that don't, end up limiting their potential in the marketplace. The first chapter develops a framework to understand the essential ingredients of customer service, and the second chapter outlines the rest of the book. The remaining chapters focus on making customer service part of the "corporate DNA."
These remaining chapters go through the steps of institutionalizing customer service as part of corporate strategy. Topics range from setting up a service improvement team, and also setting service philosophy and standards, communication, training, measuring program effectiveness, recognition, and accountability.
The clean layout without footnotes, endnotes or a bibliography is clearly aimed not at the academician but at the practitioner. The fluid writing style makes the book easy to read.
The numerous anecdotes from a wide variety of settings peppered throughout the text help bring the concepts to life. The ideas and thought-provoking discussions in the chapters are supplemented with shaded call-out boxes, Action Steps, and Pitfalls to Avoid. The book's concluding chapter presents nine leadership actions to help readers strengthen customer service delivery.
While reading this book is the first step, the authors' intent is for readers to implement their ideas and suggestions. To evaluate "success" by this criterion, I need to ask if I would now implement the ideas and suggestions presented. In all honesty, I would not implement all the suggestion presented. However, I will consider all the overarching ideas presented and strive to make improvements where needed, within the context of my organizational culture. In this sense, I have bought into the authors' intent of writing this book.
This customer service book stands out as it sharply focuses on the nuts and bolts of implementing customer service company wide and truly making it part of corporate strategy.
Armchair Interviews says: Customer service--what a unique concept!