Seven Secrets of Service Strategy - Hardcover

Horovitz, Jacques

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0273635778 ISBN 13: 9780273635772

Publisher: Ft Pr, 2000

Synopsis

(Pearson Education) Reveals how to compete through service differentiation by concentrating on the creation of valuable service culture and customer loyalty programs that improve customer satisfaction. Provides a systematic approach on work achieved with over 100 companies.

About this title

From the Back Cover

Business has drastically shifted its vision to a service-oriented perspective, moving from sales to customer satisfaction. And now service—an element not even mentioned in the marketing "4 Ps" (product, price, place, and promotion)—is today the most sustainable source of differentiation and advantage.

This book is a reference guide for senior managers and executives who believe that a sound service strategy is the best way to develop a sustainable competitive advantage.

Each of the seven chapters represents a key issue for working towards achieving a world-class service edge. The continued growth of the Internet and e-commerce are having a profound effect on service. E-businesses need to learn how to interact with their customers, while it is essential for conventional commerce to strive to be even better in the world of ever-increasing competition.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Introduction

I wrote Quality of Service more than ten years ago; the book became a success and was translated into ten languages, probably because it was among the first published on the subject. In the United States as in Western Europe, companies were realizing that quality of product was not enough to differentiate. Japan in the 1970s and early 1980s had caught up with and surpassed the Western world in quality, requiring a fundamental change. Industry was shrinking while the service sector was expanding (and still is). Most of the work on quality and ideas in this area was geared to industry and production.

Yet in the past decade, many companies, but not most, have realized they are not serving a market but customers. The personal computer industry is beginning to appreciate this now, because prices are falling and growth is slowing. Thus we have witnessed the multiplication of "customer orientation" and "customer satisfaction" programs.

In many sectors companies have gone a step farther. Not only do they see themselves as serving customers rather than a market, they view holding on to current customers as cheaper, easier and perhaps more profitable than attracting new ones. This was especially true of the early 1990s when growth in the Western world was minimal, thus reinforcing the need for customer orientation, service orientation, and customer satisfaction.

As a result, many books and articles have been published on the topic. Gurus have emerged, starting with Tom Peters, making offerings on excellence that are almost religious in their fervour.

Even the big six (or five) management consulting firms have started consulting on customer satisfaction. This would have seemed utterly outrageous to them five years ago, when most of their work was on efficiency, from the inside out! So why another book on the topic? There are several reasons which, I hope, will entice, the reader to proceed farther. After ten years, there are still many companies which pay only lip-service to the concept of customer service. Only 30 percent of the Fortune 500 know whether their customers are satisfied. Only one in ten knows whether increased satisfaction brings higher profits. There is still a need to evangelize! New sectors of the economy are developing an interest in the topic. They were indifferent to it ten years ago. One could cite financial services, telecoms, IT companies. Microsoft launched its first customer satisfaction survey in January 1999; public services and industry in general can be expected to follow. This book can help by providing an up-to-date systematic approach based on the work done with over 100 companies. As the Internet and e-commerce begin to grow, e-business will have to learn how to conduct a dialogue with customers without ever seeing them. This will require the use of innovative ideas to serve customers well. Technology will push conventional commerce to become even better at developing a service strategy, in order to stay competitive. Most books to date have been over-prescriptive. You read declarations such as "put your employees first" or "put your customers first." Considering how progress is made by companies—often by trial and error—it is easier today to present a more contingent approach, that is, to identify under which conditions and circumstances a particular approach will work best. For example, Chapter One deals with segmentation, Chapter Three looks at measurement, Chapter Five is devoted to loyalty and people; each chapter discusses the conditions and circumstances governing what will work best, and will, I hope, help you define which route to take. The book is divided into seven chapters. Each represents one of the "secrets" that I believe are key to becoming a world class player with respect to customer orientation, customer service, customer satisfaction and loyalty—the techniques for gaining a sustainable edge.

Each chapter introduces a step-by-step approach which you can easily use in your business. I have also tried to visualize the approach, so that it is easier to follow. Finally, drawing on personal experience of working with many companies in a number of sectors, I have outlined the "don'ts," observed mistakes made over and over again by many companies. Also outlined are the "do's"—the questions one should ask in order to achieve a good self-diagnosis and get started.

This book is for practicing senior managers and executives who think that a good service strategy is the best way to develop a sustainable competitive advantage. It distills over ten years of observation, interactions, real-life tests and project work with many companies in different sectors. I have tried to be concise, giving examples to illustrate a concept, an approach or a tool. I have simplified as much as possible in the belief that what matters is not so much the complexity of the ideas you manipulate, but the systematic and intense execution of a simple approach. Use this book as reference guide for the systematic execution of your service strategy.

Have a good read.

Edition details

• Publisher: Ft Pr
• Publication date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0273635778
• ISBN 13: 9780273635772
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 140