High-Tech, High-Touch Customer Service

Table of contents

1. Cover Page
2. Title Page
3. Copytight Page
4. Contents
5. Introduction
   1. Forearmed Is Fore warmed
   2. A Light Touch at Just the Right Time
   3. Saying Your Business Is “On the internet” Is Like Saying It’s “On the Power Grid”
   4. All You Need to Know in a Rhyming Nutshell
   5. Homeward Bound
   6. Where Tech Makes Loyalty Easier
   7. How This Book Is Organized
6. Part One Timeliness and Timelessness
   1. Chapter 1 Today’s Changed Customer: Making Lovemaking Difficult
      1. The Most Crucial Customer “Trends” Today Are Individual Changes
      2. Customer Trend #1: Customers Expect Anticipatory Technological Behavior and Aggregated Information—Instantly
      3. Customer Trend #2: Shame Shift and Values-Based Buying
      4. Customer Trend #3: Timelessness over Trendiness
      5. Customer Trend #4: Customer Empowerment
      6. Customer Trend #5: The Greening of the Customer
      7. Customer Trend #6: The Desire for Self-Service
      8. “And Your Point Is?”
   2. Chapter 2 The Customer Remains the Same: Everything That Isn’t New Under the Sun
      1. Providing Value: As Easy as 1, 2 … 4
      2. A Perfect Product or Service
      3. Delivered in a Caring, Friendly Manner
      4. In a Timely Fashion
      5. … Backed Up by an Effective Problem-Resolution Process
      6. “And Your Point Is?”
   3. chapter 3 Timeless Customer Service Done Right—and Wrong: Mastery Versus Catastrophe
      1. The Masterful Company
      2. A Cameo of Catastrophe: Timeless Service Done Tragically Wrong
      3. “And Your Point Is?”
7. Part Two High-Tech, High-Touch Anticipatory Customer Service
   1. Chapter 4 A Google of Apples a Day: The Art of Anticipation in the Modern World of Customer Service
      1. The Apple Store Experience
      2. From Cradle to Credit Card
      3. A Tale of Two Installs
      4. Bringing It All Back Home
      5. “Attaching” Yourself to Customers: Gmail and More
      6. “And Your Point Is?”
   2. Chapter 5: Anticipatory Customer Service: Your Culture
      1. The Curse of the Short-Term Focus
      2. Consciously Building a Company Culture: Why Bother?
      3. You Can’t Out-Pixar Pixar—But Here’s What You Can Do
      4. Cultural Friends with Benefits
      5. Cultural Fit, Oddballs, and When Not to Hire
      6. Positive Peer Pressure: The Double Significance of Every Hiring Decision
      7. Vendors: Partners, Not Poison
      8. Spelling Out How You Treat Customers, Vendors, and Employees
      9. How to Get Started Building Your Core
      10. The Best Time to Start? Now.
      11. Buy-in or Highwayin’
      12. Your Core Values Are Just the Start—But They Are a Start
      13. Culture Meets the Larger World
      14. How This Plays Out in a Pinch: Southwest’s Culture Saves a Service Dog
      15. “And Your Point Is?”
   3. Chapter 6 Anticipatory Customer Service: Your People
      1. A Wet Dog at Petco
      2. Supernatural Selection
      3. Trial by Hire
      4. “Fit” and Its Pitfalls
      5. “And Your Point Is?”
   4. Chapter 7 Sangria, Sippy Cups, and Jesse Ventura: Autonomy Versus Standards
      1. Patting Down Jesse Ventura
      2. The Case for Autonomy in Customer Service Work
      3. The Need for Standards
      4. Standards and Autonomy: The Hybrid Path
      5. Pour Lion and PEPI
      6. Conveying Standards—And Maintaining Autonomy
      7. “And Your Point Is?”
8. Part Three: The Rise of Self-Service and Social Media—And Other Seismic Shifts
   1. Chapter 8 The Rise of Self-Service: A Boon to Your Customers—But Only If You Do It Right
      1. Awarding Myself the Mobile Prize
      2. Principles of Successful Self-Service
      3. “And Your Point Is?”
   2. Chapter 9 Technological Change and Disabled Customers: A True Opportunity, If You Avoid the Missteps
      1. There’s More to Ramping Up than Putting Ramps Up: A Variety of Issues and Solutions
      2. Wynn Some
      3. “And Your Point Is?”
   3. Chapter 10 Shoulder Your Customer’s Burden (and Make Sure You’re Not Adding to It!)
      1. Stupid Stuff
      2. Stupid Is as … I Forget
      3. Get to Them First
      4. Where Are the Opportunities to Get to Them First?
      5. Permission to Anticipate
      6. The Specific Medium Is the Message—And Its Only Chance of Getting Through
      7. “And Your Point Is?”
   4. Chapter 11 Anti-Social Media: Fears and Hazards of the New Landscape
      1. Bicycle Pumps and Veterinarians
      2. Regime Change in 140 Characters
      3. Ouch: The First Time They Talk About You
      4. Nobody Uses Twitter to Tell a Friend His Fly’s Undone
      5. Social Media Is Not a Disease
      6. A Story That Almost Became a Viral Tweet
      7. “And Your Point Is?”
   5. Chapter 12 Social Service: Principles for Social Media Customer Service
      1. Principle #1: Avoid the Fiasco Formula: A Digital Stitch in Time Saves Nine (Million)
      2. Principle #2: Lie Back and Think of England: Digital Arguments with Customers Are an Exponentially Losing Proposition
      3. Principle #3: Turn Twankers into Thankers: Reach Out Directly to Online Complainers
      4. Principle #4: Consider Getting a Complainer on the Telephone (with Permission)—Even if the Relationship Started in Social Media Land
      5. Principle #5: Get Happy Outcomes into the Public Eye
      6. Principle #6: Use Social Media and Personal Email to Make Your Customers Feel Important
      7. Principle #7: Monitor
      8. Principle #8: If Your Social Media Responses Are Inferior to—Or Not Integrated with—Your Other Channels, They’re Hurting Your Brand
      9. “And Your Point Is?”
   6. Chapter 13 Listening: Your Ears Are Your Most Important Technology
      1. Only One Perspective That Matters
      2. Sanctuary Much: The S.M.A.R.T. Approach to the Human Force Field
      3. Using Electronic Systems to Enhance Your Listening
      4. It’s All About Listening—And It Starts by Opening Yourself to Hearing
      5. The Maytag Repairman Lets You Slap Him in the Facebook
      6. Break It to Ourselves More Gently
      7. Surveying the Landscape
      8. “And Your Point Is?”
9. Notes
10. Index