All companies want to give good to great customer service, don’t they?
Well experience would suggest not.
Bad Customer Service Is All Too Common
Go to a supermarket and you face long lines at the check-outs. Even the do-it-yourself check-outs.
Ring your bank, electricity provider for mobile phone company and you could be stuck in a queue, endlessly listening to a lady with a soothing voice saying “Your business is important to us. Please hand on.”
Or you may face one of those automated phone systems designed to make sure that you never speak to a human being because somewhere or other you drop out of the logic chain.
Or your insurance company charging you 20% more as an existing customer than they would charge someone switching to them.
If this is an endemic problem with big companies, surely the smaller, owner-managed businesses will do better.
Again perhaps not, as anyone who has waited in for a plumber, electrician or central heating engineer can testify.
Things don’t have to be like this in your business.
It even makes economic sense when you can extend to lifetime of the customer relationship.
Too many customers let the big companies get away with it, partly because of the perception they are all as bad as each other and partly because of customer inertia – it takes effort to switch from an automatic service supplier where business rolls on year after year.
The Best Customer Service Books
You will only see the books I’ve rated at Four Stars (meaning good and well worth reading) and Five Stars (excellent and very highly recommended). Reviews of lower rated books appear on Amazon.co.uk but I haven’t brought the reviews across to my own website.
If you read my reviews, you’ll see I try to explain why I like them but also to identify any weaknesses. My job as a reviewer is to help you to find the most appropriate books rather than to help sell more books.
On that note, if you do decide to buy, I’d appreciate it if you could click through to Amazon on my links as (hopefully) I’ll earn a small referral commission.
Some of these books can be very expensive so, if you’re happy with a hard back or paperback book, take a look at the second hand options on Amazon. Personally I only buy if the condition is described as “As New” or “Very Good” unless I’m really keen and forced to drop down to “Good”.
Five Star Customer Service Books
I haven’t found any yet. That’s ironic.
Four Star Customer Service Books
Raving Fans by Ken Blanchard and Sheldon Bowles
The One Minute Apology by Ken Blanchard and Margaret McBride
Moments of Truth by Jan Carlzon
The Six Things That All Customers Want by Nigel Greenwood
All Business is Show Business by Scott McKain
Customers for Life by Carl Sewell and Paul Brown
Other Categories of Business Books Which May Interest You
Business Novels – Business Planning – Differentiation Strategy – Economics – Getting Unstuck – Inner Game – Internet Marketing – KPI & Performance Measurement – Leading Your Team – Marketing – Profit Improvement – Project Management – Retail Business – Sales Training – Social Media – Specific Niche Markets – Systems – Theory Of Constraints – Understanding Buyers
Paul Simister is a business coach who helps business owners who are stuck, get unstuck. If your business is based in the UK, you can have a free Business SOS consultation with me to help you get unstuck.
