Customer Culture: How Fedex and Other Great Companies Put the Customer First Every Day - Hardcover

Basch, Michael D.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0130353310 ISBN 13: 9780130353313

Publisher: Financial Times Management, 2002

Synopsis

A former management team member at FedEx and other innovative firms uses the FedEx start-up story as a model of the theory, application, and results of his CustomerCulture process of creating values-driven, customer-oriented organizational culture. Chapter titles include "the Phoenix dog piss theory" (referring to new managers marking their territories). Lacks exercises and references. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

About this title

From the Back Cover:

Customers. By now, you know how important they are. So do your competitors. But most companies simply haven't delivered on the promise of customer focus. That gives you an immense opportunity—if only you can grab it. CustomerCulture shows you how.

Author Michael Basch created FedEx's legendary sales and service organization, founded its Business Logistics Division, and built its $100 million SuperHub. Since then, companies worldwide have called upon his unparalleled insight into customer service. Now, he's distilled that insight into a hands-on roadmap for every company, regardless of size or industry.

No more lectures. No more "happy talk." No more mission statements. This is a detailed, start-to-finish plan for building a customer-centric culture—and systems that let good people deliver outstanding service.

Talk won't do the job—it will take hard work, and the specific techniques, solutions, and insights you'll find in only one place: CustomerCulture.

* Good people + great systems = extraordinary results Why great systems are your #1 customer differentiator-and how to build them * Real examples, real solutions, real life Specific case studies and techniques from one of the world's leading customer service experts * The six elements of a winning customer culture Vision, values, goals, relevance, feedback, and actions * Inculcating and strengthening a customer-centric business culture Beyond meaningless "happy talk" and mission statements * Why customer systems fail, and how to fix them Identifying systemic causes, ensuring goal clarity, and maximizing feedback * Moving your business up the value curve Meeting customer needs that transcend "mere" products and services

Customer focus: Beyond "happy talk"... to action!

• "Walking the walk": ensuring performance and accountability, from the corner office to the front lines
• Building customer-focused systems that ensure urgency, focus, and reward
• Avoiding "customer cancer": organizational systems run amuck
• Vision, values, goals, relevance, feedback-but above all, action
• Endorsed by Fred Smith, Founder and CEO of FedEx

Everyone talks about creating a "customer-centered culture." In CustomerCulture, the executive who pioneered FedEx's legendary customer culture shows exactly how to go beyond talk and make it happen-for real! Michael Basch identifies the key cultural obstacles and leadership failures that dilute customer focus, and demonstrates exactly how to build systems and structures that help good people deliver outstanding customer service.

Drawing on lessons learned at FedEx—and at companies ranging from UPS to Cisco to the newest startups-Basch shows how to inculcate customer-focused cultures with the vision, values, goals, relevance, feedback, and actions needed to succeed. Step by step, he identifies the crucial decisions companies must make—and the hard work they can't avoid if they're going to "walk the walk" instead of just talking a good game about customer focus.

"Mike Basch was a key member of the early FedEx team that instilled the extreme dedication to customer service which revolutionized the transportation industry."

—Fred Smith,
Founder and Chairman,
FedEx

About the Author:

MICHAEL BASCH was a founding officer of FedEx, where he spent 10 years as Senior Vice President. He was part of the explosively creative management team that took Fed Ex from 0 to $1 billion, as it built a company cited by Fortune as one of the decade's most well-managed companies. Basch led the teams that invented Fedex's bar code tracing system, built its SuperHub, and founded the FedEx Logistics Division.

Before joining FedEx, Basch spent eight years with UPS in Sales, Personnel, Operations, and Industrial Engineering. After leaving FedEx, he founded and served as President of Service Impact, a firm specializing in advancing the art, science, and practice of leadership.

He is currently Chief Information Officer at Enalasys Corporation, a company based in Calexico, CA that develops advanced energy management system solutions that enable governments and utilities to manage energy usage in homes and small businesses.

About this edition

• Publisher: Financial Times Management
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0130353310
• ISBN 13: 9780130353313
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 274