Build Loyalty and Customers... UP Your Service!
I have a "yearning for learning" more on customer loyalty and customers service. Recently I've been reading the highly acclaimed UP Your Service! series by customer service guru and professional keynote speaker par excellence, Ron Kaufman.
I must say that UP Your Service! is one of the best introductions on great customer service I have ever read! Mr. Kaufman has a very pleasant and active writing style. More importantly, he has a strong focus on what great service is, and how to give it.
But great service can only be achieved with the right mind set. If you need to be convinced that great service builds loyalty and customers, or you need to convince your staff, these are must reads!
Kaufman describes a cycle for the delivery of service, that can easily be applied to any number of business and non-business processes. He even provides a sample on tasks totally unrelated to customer service, such as planning your wedding, and upgrading your computer! Here's a graphic of the cycle:
I thought it to be a nice idea to see how this may apply to the UP Your Service! books:
- Explore: He has 20+ years of experience in customer service improvement, training and coaching. Throughout the years, he's collected many real-life examples of the good, the bad and the ugly in customer service.
- Agree: Clear goals are articulated in clear, short sentences at the beginning of each chapter, clearly conveying the purpose and intend of that chapter.
- Deliver: Then he works through many examples to illustrate his points, and really drive them home. All in an easy-to-read, easy-to-take-in style.
- Assure: At the end of each chapter, Kaufman asks questions that makes you really think about the stuff you just read. Mind you, he doesn't provide the answers! It's about you applying what you just learned to your situation.
The other two books in the series ("UP Your Service! Insights" and "UP Your Service! Great Ideas") are collections of short stories with many, many examples of mostly memorable customer service experiences, many first hand from Mr. Kaufman himself. Each story is ended with specific action steps you can take to enhance your customer's service experience.
Great books. Read them!
Read more about Ron Kaufman and get Customer Service Training Tips by subscribing to his wonderful newsletter.
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