Pay Attention! How to Listen, Respond, and

Make customer feedback work for your business.Customers are speaking loud and clear through a miriad of mediums. Evidence shows that customers will no longer stand for the hurried and complacent service that has become the norm. They are looking for a positive, memorable experience. Organizations that provide that level of service will earn their loyalty. Customers base their decisions on nothing more than a positive or negative review of your product and/or service.Pay Attention! paves the way. Your company wins when you: Understand Customer Expectations Embrace and implement The RATER Factors Define who you are and what you offer Become E.T.D.B.W. (Easy To Do Business With) Connect with your audience in all mediums React appropriately and respond immediately to customer feedback Recover sincerely when things go wrongAll you need is to Pay Attention!

Ann Thomas is coauthor of 101 Activities for Delivering Knock Your Socks Off Service and the senior consultant and lead facilitator with Performance Research Associates (PRA) since 1999. Her work focuses on improving service quality, diversity awareness, generational differences, sales, performance management, and professional development. Ann brings nearly thirty years' experience in consulting and training to each of her clients, including Marriott ExecuStay, Accenture, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and many others. Ann is also a member of the faculty for the American Management Association and is a regular presenter for Progressive Business Conferences.

Jill Applegate is project manager and client coordinator with Performance Research Associates. She served as right hand to the late Ron Zemke for nearly fifteen years and takes seriously the responsibility of wowing customers. Jill works closely with PRA clients to ensure that their efforts hit the mark. She is also a coauthor of 101 Activities for Delivering Knock Your Socks Off Service.

Acknowledgments	p. xi
Introduction	p. xiii
Pay Attention to Today's Customers	p. 1
The Power of Online Megaphones	p. 3
A More Skeptical and Distrustful Customer	p. 5
What Does This All Mean for Your Own Customer Service Strategy?	p. 6
Rising Global Service Expectations	p. 7
The Customer Experience Grid	p. 11
Speed as a Competitive Advantage	p. 14
E-Mail Versus Phone: Which Is Speedier?	p. 15
More Educated Global Customers	p. 16
Five Building Blocks of Service Quality	p. 18
Reliability	p. 18
Assurance	p. 19
Tangibles	p. 20
Empathy	p. 21
Responsive	p. 22
Pay Attention to Your Marketing Message	p. 25
Participating versus Observing	p. 26
Fundamentals Are Still Key	p. 27
Pay Attention to Who You Are	p. 27
Pay Attention to Who Your Audience Is	p. 30
The Power of Customer Stories	p. 33
Pay Attention to Engaging Your Customers	p. 37
Pay Attention to Walking Your Marketing Talk	p. 44
Pay Attention to Preparation	p. 49
The Power of Vision and Purpose	p. 50
Theory to Action: Creating Standards and Norms	p. 53
Hiring Tactics: Select for Attitude, Train for Skill	p. 55
Modeling Star Performers	p. 56
Training and Coaching	p. 58
Internal Social Networks: Cost-Effective Learning Tools	p. 61
Pay Attention to What's Rewarded and Measured	p. 62
Pay Attention to the Customer Experience	p. 65
Make It Personal	p. 66
Social Media Plays a Role at Comcast	p. 70
Taking Problems Seriously	p. 72
Be ETDBW: Easy to Do Business With	p. 73
Being ETDBW Means Considering All Audiences	p. 77
Payoffs of Being ETDBW	p. 78
Responsiveness and Reliability; Keys to the Customer Experience	p. 79
Pay Attention to New Feedback Channels	p. 85
Eleven Ways to Listen to Customers	p. 86
Pay Attention to the Ways Customers Speak	p. 93
Evaluating Feedback	p. 103
Taking a Closer Look: Glossary of Terms	p. 107
Business Analytics Are Vital	p. 109
Managing the Moments of Truth	p. 112
Ten Action Steps	p. 114
Make Your Web Site ETDBW	p. 116
Weighing the Pros and Cons	p. 119
Pay Attention to Your Reaction	p. 121
Ignore at Your Peril	p. 122
Tracking What They're Saying	p. 124
To Engage or Not to Engage?	p. 125
Creating Integrated Response Systems	p. 130
Traditional Listening Posts	p. 131
Three Types of Listening	p. 133
Reacting to Product vs. Service Feedback	p. 135
Pay Attention to Your Response	p. 137
All Eyes on You	p. 138
Creating Digital Embassies	p. 139
Dell Computer: Engaging via Social Media Is "Everyone's Job"	p. 141
Rules of Engagement	p. 143
Responding to Customer Reviews	p. 146
Responding to Negative Reviews	p. 148
Responding to Positive Reviews	p. 152
Responding in Public versus Private	p. 153
Responding to Customer Suggestions and Ideas	p. 154
Customers Helping Other Customers	p. 155
Pay Attention to Recovery	p. 157
The Dollar Impact of Service Breakdown	p. 158
An Implied Covenant	p. 159
What Is Service Recovery?	p. 160
Five Axioms of Effective Service Recovery	p. 161
Customers Have Recovery Expectations	p. 162
Successful Recovery Is Psychological as Well as Physical: Fix the Person, Then the Problem	p. 162
Work in a Spirit of Partnership	p. 166
Customers React More Strongly to "Fairness" Failures Than to "Honest Mistakes"	p. 169
Effective Recovery Is a Planned Process	p. 170
Seeing Complaints as a Gift	p. 173
Fix the Process to Reduce Recovery Needs	p. 174
Service Recovery Process	p. 176
Acknowledge That the Customer Has Been Inconvenienced and Apologize for It	p. 178
Listen, Empathize, and Ask Open-Ended Questions	p. 178
Offer a Fair Fix to the Problem	p. 178
Offer Some Value-Added Atonement for the Inconvenience or Injury	p. 179
Keep Your Promises	p. 180
Follow-Up	p. 180
Key Service Recovery Skills	p. 181
Notes	p. 189
About the Authors	p. 191
Index	p. 193
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.

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Pay Attention! How to Listen, Respond, and Profit from Customer Feedback

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