After reading them, I’m sure that you’ll enjoy great insights and inspiration. That’s why I’m glad to share my selection of 10 top customer service books. To each of them you’ll find a brief introduction note and a good reason to read them – because your time values! So, which ones have you read yet? What did you like the most? Let me know in the comments.
1. The Convenience Revolution
Author: Shep Hyken
Focus:
The customer wants to have easy access to information and solutions. This new type of ‘convenience’ prevails over price and Shep Hyken delves into 6 fundamental levers in this must-read.
Why read it:
Making customer’s life easier regardless of the interaction and channel used to leverage customer experience.
2. Crisis Ready
Author: Melissa Agnes
Focus:
Digital, public conversations rapidly spread the words in few minutes. So that incidents that are not being promptly handled can rapidly become crisis affecting negatively brand reputation, thus sales.
Why read it:
Every organization needs to set up a communication for customers ready to be used in case of issues, service outtages or other incidents.
3. Would You Do That To Your Mother?
Author: Jeanne Bliss
Focus:
How would your company behave if every customer were their mother? From this comparison, Jeanne Bliss highlights the contradictions between the good rules of behavior we learn in our family and some bad habits when we communicate with our customers.
Why read it:
A good self-analysis good for any company, even if you think that you already provide good customer service.
4. Getting Service Right
Author: Jeff Toister
Focus:
What obstacles prevent you from providing excellent customer service? Jeff Toister showcases challenges and difficulties that modern customer service managers face in their day-to-day activity.
Why read it:
Case studies and examples from which you can draw ideas to adapt to your organizational reality. Ideal book if you are a customer service manager.
5. The Effortless Experience
Authors: Matthew Dixon, Nicholas Toman, Rick DeLisi
Focus:
By reducing customer efforts into getting what they are looking for, you may increase their propensity to loyalty. Over time.
Why read it:
To review and optimize processes and procedures according to the strategic approach suggested in the book. Today more than ever, it is a winning strategy.
6. Delivering happiness
Author: Tony Hsieh
Focus:
How to combine profits and passion for customer service? This book offers a new vision of customer service as a pillar of every business.
Why read it:
To learn the success story of Zappos, the e-commerce company founded by Tony Hsieh. Also to learn from his mistakes made in this growth path.
7. The Experience Maker
Author: Dan Gingiss
Focus:
By aiming at excellent and engaging customer experiences, you can effectively stand out from competitors. Accordingly, focus the attention on the quality of the relationship rather than battling over the price.
Why read it:
Starting from Dan’s ‘Wyser’ method (Witty, Immersive, Shareable, Extraordinary, Responsive) you can develop your own approach to deliver memorable experiences.
8. Hug your haters
Author: Jay Baer
Focus:
Some customers use public digital channels – aka social media and online reviews – to criticize or denigrate a company after having a bad experience.
Why read it:
Knowing how to tell angry customers from trolls is essential to invest proper time and resources in the most productive way. Icing on the cake: without being intimidated or giving in to useless provocations.
9. Customer Experience Unhearted
Author: Julien Rio
Focus:
We all, as consumers, want to be heard and understood. In fact empathy and proactivity have become key skills when it comes to having digital customer conversations.
Why read it:
Julien Rio provides vivid case examples of major customer experience hiccups and gaps with a constructive goal: showing where most pain points lie to help companies improve.
10. The Power of Digital Conversations
Author: Paolo Fabrizio
Focus:
The book is aimed at smart managers aware that every digital conversation is an opportunity to consolidate the relationship with the customer by:
- Evolving and sharing Customer Culture in every department of the company to offer excellent experiences, consistently.
- Building up ad hoc conversational skills for customer service agents over digital channels (messaging apps, social media, live chat, video chat, online reviews).
Why read it:
It includes case studies of companies with customer managers interviews, examples and self-assessment exercises to put concepts into practice at the end fo each chapter/goal.
What’s your favorite customer service book?
I’m glad to have shared this selection of top customer service books and I’m sure that you’ll find valuable insights from it. So I am curious to know what books you have already read and most of all:
What’s your favorite one? Any other titles to suggest? Let me know here.
Image credit: Unsplash.com
Have great conversations!
