Special features -- Acknowledgments -- Foreword / Horst Schulze -- Introduction: Only shop in the marketplace -- 1: Engineer On The Ladder: Reaching For The Highest Level Of Service -- Function versus purpose -- First steps first -- 2: Four Elements Of Customer Satisfaction: Perfect Product, Caring Delivery, Timeliness, And An Effective Problem Resolution Process -- Perfect product -- Delivered by caring people -- In a timely fashion -- With the support of an effective problem resolution process -- 3: Language Engineering: Every-Word-Counts -- Establish a consistent style of speech -- Create a Lexicon of preferred language and phrasing -- Choose language to put customers at ease, not to dominate them -- Concentrate your language efforts on key customer moments: hellos, good-byes, and the times when things fall apart -- Shut up sometimes: the Artie Bucco Principle -- Words have their limits -- Show, don't tell (and don't ever just point) -- Phone and Internet language and communication pointers -- 4: Recovery! Turning Service Failures Around -- Italian mama method -- Four steps to great service recoveries -- Elements of follow-up -- Use your own experience to prepare you -- Who should handle customer complaints? -- Subtle is beautiful: service recovery below the radar -- Write-offs lead to write-offs -- 5: Keeping Track To Bring Them Back: Tracking Customer Roles, Goals, And Preferences -- Principles of noting and sharing -- Principle 1: Keep your systems simple -- Principle 2: If it's important to your customer, it belongs in your system -- Principle 3: Information you gather needs to be available in real time -- Principle 4: Preferences change; assumptions are tricky -- Principle 5: Moods change: track them -- Principle 6: Don't blow it with a wooden delivery -- Principle 7: Using technology to ask for information? It's a fine line between clever and creepy -- Surprises are hazardous-online and off -- Fear not: Don't be deterred from collecting information-thoughtfully.

6: Building Anticipation Into Your Products And Services: Putting Processes To Work For You -- Get your company to think like a customer -- Mr BIV and the art of eliminating defects -- Don't kill Mr BIV's messengers -- Systematically reducing waste to add value-for you and your customers -- Why efficient processes can transform service -- Stamping out waste? Don't crush value by accident -- Process-based anticipation on the Internet -- Using tools to gather information about your customers' experience -- Process-based solutions become people solutions -- 7: Your People: Selection, Orientation, Training, And Reinforcement -- We are already our true selves: select for traits -- Keep the hiring bar high -- Develop selection discipline -- Create a powerful orientation process -- Use orientation to instill new values, attitudes, and beliefs -- Defining an employee's underlying purpose -- Orientation process begins sooner than you think -- On day one, nothing is tangential -- Build a brand ambassador -- Training employees to anticipate-carefully -- Reinforcement: the daily check-in -- 8: Leadership: Guiding The Customer-Centered Organization -- Service leaders matter because people power service -- Five characteristics of great service leaders -- Moral leadership -- 9: What's Worth It, And What's Not? Pointers On Value, Costs, And Pricing -- What does loyalty-enhancing service really cost? -- Gilding the lily -- Compared to what?: value is relative -- Pricing is part of your value proposition -- Don't charge a customer for performing the Heimlich -- Money isn't everything, but money issues matter-especially how you present them -- 10: Building Customer Loyalty Online: Using The Internet's Power To Serve Your Customers And Your Goals -- Internet's double edge -- Opinions: everybody has one; Evangelists: every company needs them -- Internet can promote commoditization; avoid this through individualization -- Long copy/short copy -- Online, the window in which to show you're extraordinary can be small -- Amazon_com: a brilliant company, but not the most realistic model to emulate -- First time online: a nuts-and bolts case study -- 11: Hello/Good-Bye: Two Crucial Moments With A Customer -- Timelessly time-sensitive -- Don't rush your hellos and good-byes on the telephone -- Serving disabled customers is a responsibility and an opportunity, from the moment you welcome them at your door -- Turn your receptionist into a predator (who kills with kindness) -- It's Google-not you-who decides where visitors enter your site-be sure they're greeted properly anyway -- Taking control of good-byes -- Hazards of subcontracting your hellos and good-byes -- Good-bye for now from the authors-with resources and assistance for your journey -- Appendixes -- Appendix A: Oasis disc manufacturing: customer and phone interaction guidelines and Lexicon excerpts -- Appendix B: Carquest standards of service excellence -- Appendix C: Capella Hotels and Resorts "Canon Card": service standards and operating philosophy -- Notes -- Index.