Exceptional Service, Exceptional Profit: The Secrets of Building a Five-Star Customer Service Organization

Exceptional Service,

Exceptional Profit

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Exceptional Service,

Exceptional Profit

The Secrets of Building a Five-Star

Customer Service Organization

Leonardo Inghilleri

and Micah Solomon

Foreword by Horst Schulze

American Management Association

New York • Atlanta • Brussels • Chicago • Mexico City • San Francisco Shanghai • Tokyo • Toronto • Washington, D.C.

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understanding that neither the publisher nor the authors are engaged in
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professional person should be sought.

In a few instances the authors have concealed identifying characteristics of individuals and businesses,
especially in less-than-laudatory examples. Also, the fictitious brand names DinoFuels, TapasTree,
L&M Stagers, Kiddie Carousel, Stutterfly, and Swirly Goo and the Goners are used only for humor
and should not be confused with similarly named or configured companies.

Copyrights for Appendices are as follows:

Appendix A:

Four Aces Inc., courtesy of Micah Solomon, All Rights Reserved
Appendix B:

General Parts, Inc., All Rights Reserved
Appendix C:

West Paces Hotel Group, All Rights Reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Inghilleri, Leonardo.

Exceptional service, exceptional profit : the secrets of building a five-star customer service
organization / Leonardo Inghilleri and Micah Solomon.

p.

cm.

Includes index.

ISBN-13: 978-0-8144-1538-2

ISBN-10: 0-8144-1538-5

1. Customer service.

2. Consumer satisfaction.

3. Customer loyalty.

I. Solomon,

Micah.

II. Title.

HF5415.5.I543

2010

658.8
Ј
12—dc22

2009031674


2010 Leonardo Inghilleri and Micah Solomon

All rights reserved.

Printed in the United States of America.

This publication may not be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in whole or in part,
in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without
the prior written permission of AMACOM, a division of American Management Association, 1601

Broadway, New York, NY 10019.

Printing number

10

9

8

7

6

5

4

3

2

1

Contents

Special Features xi

Acknowledgments xiii

Foreword by Horst Schulze xv

Introduction:

The Only Shop in the Marketplace 1

Chapter One:

The Engineer on the Ladder: Reaching for the Highest

Level of Service 4

Function Versus Purpose 5

First Steps First 6

Chapter Two:

The Four Elements of Customer Satisfaction:

Perfect Product, Caring Delivery, Timeliness, and an

Effective Problem Resolution Process 7

A Perfect Product 8

Delivered by Caring People 9

In a Timely Fashion 11

With the Support of an Effective Problem Resolution

Process 12

Chapter Three:

Language Engineering: Every. Word. Counts. 14

Establish a Consistent Style of Speech 15

Create a Lexicon of Preferred Language and Phrasing 15

v

vi

Contents

Choose Language to Put Customers at Ease, Not to Dominate

Them 17

Concentrate Your Language Efforts on the Key Customer

Moments: Hellos, Good-Byes, and the Times When Things Fall

Apart 18

Shut Up Sometimes: The Artie Bucco Principle 20

Words Have Their Limits 20

Show, Don’t Tell (And Don’t Ever Just Point) 21

Phone and Internet Language and Communication Pointers 21

Chapter Four:

Recovery! Turning Service Failures Around 26

The Italian Mama Method 26

The Four Steps to Great Service Recoveries 27

The Elements of Follow-Up 32

Use Your Own Experience to Prepare You 36

Who Should Handle Customer Complaints? 39

Subtle is Beautiful: Service Recovery Below the Radar 41

Write-Offs Lead to Write-Offs 43

Chapter Five:

Keeping Track to Bring Them Back: Tracking Customer

Roles, Goals, and Preferences 45

Principles of Noting and Sharing 46

Principle 1: Keep Your Systems Simple 46

Principle 2: If It’s Important to Your Customer, It Belongs in

Your System 48

Principle 3: The Information You Gather Needs to be Available

in Real Time 51

Principle 4: Preferences Change; Assumptions are Tricky 52

Principle 5: Moods Change: Track Them 53

Principle 6: Don’t Blow It with a Wooden Delivery 53

Contents

vii

Principle 7: Using Technology to Ask for Information? It’s a Fine

Line between Clever and Creepy 54

Surprises Are Hazardous—Online and Off 56

Fear Not: Don’t Be Deterred from Collecting

Information—Thoughtfully 58

Chapter Six:

Building Anticipation
Into
Your Products and Services:

Putting Processes to Work for You 59

Get Your Company to Think Like a Customer 60

Mr. BIV and the Art of Eliminating Defects 62

Don’t Kill Mr. BIV’s Messengers 64

Systematically Reducing Waste to Add Value—For You
and

Your Customers 66

Why Efficient Processes Can Transform Service 68

Stamping Out Waste? Don’t Crush Value by Accident 70

Process-Based Anticipation on the Internet 73

Using Tools to Gather Information About Your Customers’

Experience 75

Process-Based Solutions Become People Solutions 79

Chapter Seven:

Your People: Selection, Orientation, Training, and

Reinforcement 84

We Are Already Our True Selves: Select for Traits 84

Keep the Hiring Bar High 88

Develop Selection Discipline 89

Create a Powerful Orientation Process 90

Use Orientation to Instill New Values, Attitudes, and Beliefs 90

Defining an Employee’s Underlying Purpose 91

The Orientation Process Begins Sooner Than You Think 92

On Day One, Nothing Is Tangential 92

viii

Contents

Build a Brand Ambassador 93

Training Employees to Anticipate—
Carefully
94

Reinforcement: The Daily Check-In 98

Chapter Eight:

Leadership: Guiding the Customer-Centered

Organization 101

Service Leaders Matter Because People Power Service 101

Five Characteristics of Great Service Leaders 103

Moral Leadership 105

Chapter Nine:

What’s Worth it, and What’s Not? Pointers on Value,

Costs, and Pricing 108

What Does Loyalty-Enhancing Service Really Cost? 108

Gilding the Lily 110

‘‘Compared to What?’’: Value Is Relative 111

Pricing Is Part of Your Value Proposition 112

Don’t Charge a Customer for Performing the Heimlich 113

Money Isn’t Everything, But Money Issues Matter—Especially

How You Present Them 114

Chapter Ten:

Building Customer Loyalty Online: Using the Internet’s

Power to Serve Your Customers and Your Goals 115

The Internet’s Double Edge 115

Opinions: Everybody Has One. Evangelists: Every Company

Needs Them. 118

The Internet Can Promote Commoditization. Avoid This

Through Individualization. 119

Long Copy/Short Copy 119

Online, the Window in Which to Show You’re Extraordinary

Can Be Small 120

Contents

ix

Amazon.com: A Brilliant Company, but Not the Most Realistic

Model to Emulate 125

First Time Online: A Nuts-and-Bolts Case Study 127

Chapter Eleven:

Hello/Good-Bye: Two Crucial Moments with a

Customer 131

Timelessly Time-Sensitive 132

Don’t Rush Your Hellos and Good-Byes on the Telephone 135

Serving Disabled Customers Is a Responsibility
and
an

Opportunity, from the Moment You Welcome Them at Your

Door 135

Turn Your Receptionist into a Predator (Who Kills with

Kindness) 138

It’s Google—Not You—Who Decides Where Visitors Enter

Your Site. Be Sure They’re Greeted Properly Anyway 139

Taking Control of Good-Byes 141

The Hazards of Subcontracting Hellos and Good-Byes 142

Good-Bye for Now from the Authors—With Resources and

Assistance for Your Journey 144

Appendixes 145

Appendix A:

Oasis Disc Manufacturing: Customer and Phone

Interaction Guidelines and Lexicon Excerpts 147

Appendix B:

CARQUEST Standards of Service Excellence 153

Appendix C:

Capella Hotels and Resorts ‘‘Canon Card’’: Service

Standards and Operating Philosophy 155

Notes 159

Index 162

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Special Features

Designing the Defects In 9

Reset Customer Expectations You Can’t Meet 12

It’s Not You. It’s Them,
Plus
Their Background,
Plus
You 19

Adding a Real Human Touch to a Mass Email Takes Less Time Than You’d Think 25

Preemptively Unwad Your Staff ’s Shorts 28

The Language of Service Recovery 30

How Should You Compensate a Customer for a Service or Product Failure? 34

Setting Up the Ritz 46

How to Track Customer Preferences on the Internet—Without Intruding 57

Eliminating Defects by Reducing Handoffs: Learning from Lexus 64

Why Benchmark
Manufacturing
Companies? 67

Borrowing from Xerox 69

Service Alfresco 73

Six Survey Blunders: How to Alienate Customers Fast 77

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