B-A-M!
Delivering Customer Service in a Self-Service World
By: Barry Moltz, Mary Jane Grinstead
Published: September 29, 2009
Format: Paperback, 236 pages
ISBN-10: 1449007945
ISBN-13: 978-1449007942
Publisher: AuthorHouse
"In this increasingly transparent world where so many products and services are viewed by consumers as commodities, providing exceptional customer service becomes the only sustainable competitive advantage for creating customer loyalty", write small business and customer service experts Barry Moltz and Mary Jane Grinstead in their very practical customer service myth breaking book B-A-M!: Delivering Customer Service in a Self-Service World. The authors turn conventional wisdom about customers and customer service upside down, as they describe how the internet and the modern self service economy have created more empowered customers willing to utilize their many available purchasing options.
Barry Moltz and Mary Jane Grinstead dispel many of the twenty most widely believed myths about customer service. The authors describe how these beliefs are not only false, but are perpetuated as fact by both the business and its customers. This belief system is based more on faith than on empirical data, as most people inside and outside of the business are unable to define what constitutes customer service. Indeed, the authors remove the entire concept of bad customer service from the discussion, and describe it more accurately as bad treatment of customers. By recognizing that bad treatment is in no way part of customer service, Mary Jane Grinstead and Barry Moltz are able to move beyond mythology and prescribe some real world solutions.
Barry Moltz (photo left) and Mary Jane Grinstead not only destroy the myths of customer service, they also put an end to the many excuses used to defend bad treatment or lack of any sort of customer service policy. The authors point out how bad treatment is rationalized rather than dealt with by creating a customer service manifesto. Along with recommending a workable customer service approach, the authors stress turning customer service into part of the company DNA. Instead of thinking about customer service, and often finding excuses for bad customer treatment, customer service should become as natural as breathing for the company, its employees, and its customers.
For me, the power of the book is how Mary Jane Grinstead and Barry Moltz combine theory of what is and is not good customer service, with practical, hands on techniques for turning customer service into core company culture. Along with busting the shop worn myths about customer service, the authors provide sound reasons as to why customer service often fails or falls short of expectations. They show the business person how to create an actionable customer service manifesto, and then to measure the results quantitatively. The book also contains a valuable appendix that forms a summary of the book's most important points, turning the book into a handy reusable reference source.
I highly recommend the customer service transformational book B-A-M!: Delivering Customer Service in a Self-Service World by Barry Moltz and Mary Jane Grinstead, to anyone who is serious about understanding why customer service fails in a self service world, and wants to do something to change their own company approach to customer service. This book is a solid primer, and an advanced power tool, for turning customer service into an organizational mandate for success.
Read the indispensable book B-A-M!: Delivering Customer Service in a Self-Service World by Barry Moltz and Mary Jane Grinstead, and rid yourself and your entire organization of the damaging myths that hurt both your company and your customers. Reading this book will provide your company with the ideas and skills necessary to treat your customers well, and to develop a powerful competitive edge over your competition.
