What's the Secret?: To Providing a World-Class Customer Experience

Preface vii

Secret Service Terminology xiii

Acknowledgments xv

Part I: The Customer Service Crisis 1

1 The Smoking Gun 3

Definitive proof of the return on investment in providing superior service

2 The State of Service 25

Is your company part of the customer service crisis or customer service revolution?

3 World-Class Service Sins 45

What prevents companies from being world class?

4 Service Aptitude Level 57

What level is your company?

Part II: The Customer Service Revolution 75

5 Commandment I: Service Vision 87

A clear purpose of why the business exists

6 Commandment II: Creating a World-Class Internal Culture 111

Attract, hire, and retain only the people who have the Service DNA

7 Commandment III: Nonnegotiable Experiential Standards 133

Experience standards everyone must follow

8 Commandment IV: Secret Service Systems 149

Utilizing Customer Intelligence to personalize their experience and engage and anticipate their needs

9 Commandment V: Training to Provide a World-Class Customer Experience 181

Systems and processes that remove variation and provide a consistent customer experience

10 Commandment V I: Implementation and Execution 205

How to go from ideas on paper to consistently executed concepts

11 Commandment V II: Zero Risk 219

Anticipating your service defects and having protocols in place to make it right

12 Commandment V III: Creating an Above-and-Beyond Culture 243

Constant awareness and branding of how to be a hero

13 Commandment IX: Measuring Your Customer’s Experience 271

What gets measured gets managed

14 Commandment X: World-Class Leadership 295

Walking the talk

Index 315