Customer Focus

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Anton, Jon. Customer Relationship Management: Making Hard Decisions with Soft Numbers, Prentice-Hall (1996). ISBN: 0-13-438474-1

Anton's little book is excellent. But I do hope you have brought your business analysis skills with you. The "fuzzy logic", the general approach, emphasis on collection of data and then its analysis using quantitative methods will give you exceptional tools with which to explore and understand customer service. There are some difficulties however; SPSS - the statistical software which your author recommends that you use - is very expensive, not on the UMUC computer lab basic load of software, and too large (45 MB) in its 30-day free trial version to download from the SPSS web site. So we will use an Excel add-on for regression analysis and I will pass out some templates. Alas, the download file with the USA Electronics example data is not on the PrenHall web site as your author had hoped. Other that these minor inconveniences, this book is a wonderful experience. But sharpen your research and math skills. Big things come in small packages.

Anton, Jon and Natalie L. Petouhoff. Customer Relationship Management: The Bottom Line to Optimizing your ROI, Prentice-Hall (2002). ISBN: 0-13-099069-8.

This is a timely work. It focuses on call centers, the good and the bad, methods to measure and improve performance, and the cost to a firm of poor customer service. After working through Anton's 1996 work, you will recognize Anton's insights as well as the commercial realities which I suspect Petouhoff injects.

Anton, Jon and Debra Perkins. Listening to the Voice of the Customer: 16 Steps to a successful Customer Satisfaction Measurement Program, The Customer Service Group (New York: 1997). ISBN: 0-915910-43-8.

This work represents a more general explanation of Anton's theories. It is not tied so closely to SPSS as a tool of analysis. If you get lost in some of the examples in Anton's 1996 work, jump to this version. I think you will find it much more accessible.

Customer-Driven Project Management: A New Paradigm in Total Quality Implementation

Bruce T. Barkley, James H. Saylor / Hardcover / Published 1994 / Amazon.com: $53.00

The Innovation Edge : Creating Strategic Breakthroughs Using the Voice of the Customer (Executive Breakthrough)

William Barnard, Thomas F. Wallace / Hardcover / Published 1994 / Amazon.com: $20.97 ~ You Save: $8.98 (30%)

Proactive Customer Service by Charles D. Brennan, Jr. AMACOM, 212 pages, $22.95.

Give your customer service representatives an additional job. Selling. The usual role for them has been to solve the customer's problems. Just doing this uncovers opportunities for selling, if they're alert. This summary tells how to open their eyes to these opportunities, and become, as author Charles Brennan calls them, "advanced customer service representatives." Best Business Books, 1997

Customer Integration : The Quality FunctionDeployment (Qfd) Leader's Guide for Decision Making (QFD Leader's Guide for Decision Making)

Doug Daetz, et al / Hardcover / Published 1995 / Amazon.com: $31.50 ~ You Save: $13.50 (30%)

Getting into Your Customer's Head by Kevin Davis. Times Business, 308 pages, $25.

Your customers use an eight-step process to buy, so it makes sense to use an eight-step process to sell. Using Davis's system, you're with buyers every step of the way -- from identifying a need to satisfying it. In clear, simple terms, Davis explains each role you must play to help you get the sale. Best Business Books, 1996

Customer and Market-Driven Quality Management

Johnson A. Edosomwan / Hardcover / Published 1993 / Amazon.com: $20.97 ~ You Save: $8.98 (30%)

The Customer-Driven Company : Managerial Perspectives on Quality Function Deployment

William E. Eureka, Nancy E. Ryan / Hardcover / Published 1994 / Amazon.com: $19.25 ~ You Save: $8.25 (30%)

Harris, Elaine K. Customer Service: A Practical Approach, 3rd Ed., Pearson Education (2002). ISBN: 0-13-097853-1

Harris' work is on a different level and forms a nice complement to Anton's work. She reminds us of some basis skills like problem solving and conflict management that we must exercise and hone to improve our customer care skills. We will take on each of her four challenges as a part of this course.

Harris, Elaine K. Customer Service: A Practical Approach, 2nd Ed., Prentice-Hall (2000). ISBN: 0-13-082665-0

Harris' work is on a different level and forms a nice complement to Anton's work. She reminds us of some basis skills like problem solving and conflict management that we must exercise and hone to improve our customer care skills. Harris also includes some interesting projects. We will take on each of her four challenges as a part of this course.

Command Performance by The Harvard Business Review. Harvard Business School Press, 260 pages, $27.95.

Customer service, you'll learn from these Harvard Business Review articles, must be much more than a program. It starts with an organization's structure and systems -- and ends with higher revenues and customer satisfaction. This raises service to the strategic level, where it belongs. Best Business Books, 1995

Customer-Focused Quality : What to Do on Monday Morning

Thomas Hinton, Wini Schaeffer / Hardcover / Published 1993 / Amazon.com: $15.37 ~ You Save: $6.58 (30%)

Measuring Customer Satisfaction: Survey Design, Use, and Statistical Analysis Methods. 2nd Edition.

Bob E. Hayes. ASQ Quality Press (Milwaukee, WI USA:1998) 0-87389-362-X

Designing Products and Services That Customers Want (Management Master Series)

Bob King, Robert King / Paperback / Published 1996 / Amazon.com: $10.36 ~ You Save: $2.59 (20%)

Creating a Customer-Centered Culture : Leadership in Quality, Innovation, and Speed

Robin L. Lawton / Hardcover / Published 1993 / Amazon.com: $24.00

The Loyalty Link by Dennis G. McCarthy. John Wiley & Sons, 198 pages, $19.95.

The idea is simple: Satisfy your employees and they'll satisfy your customers. And satisfying those customers, by this author's definition, means exceeding their expectations. Here's an excellent way to hold your old customers while gaining new ones. Best Business Books, 1997

Customer Focused Quality by Neil Mowery, Patricia Reavis and Sheila R Poling

This book describes a systematic approach to making the customer the most important part of your business. It is aimed at organisations, both big and small, and product or service orientated. It provides a practical, simple and flexible framework for achieving customer-focused quality. Peter Scholtes describes this book as offering sensible, practical, down-to-earth guidance. 177pp 1994 / ISBN 0 945320 47 7 ; Ref.No. B75 £14.00 PB Reading Class C

Keeping the Edge by Dick Schaaf. Dutton, 320 pages, $24.95.

Schaaf revisited the companies he first profiled in The Service Edge to see how they were doing. His research showed that the most innovative and successful service firms, like Marriott, Merck, Home Depot, and dozens of others, are pushing the customer service "envelope" in surprising ways: They know their customers to a degree never before seen, they are increasing the ways people can do business with them (like via the Internet), they are offering superior value for the prices they charge, and they are inviting customers to take part in transactions in many ways. One of the top two or three business books of the year. Best Business Books, 1995

Schaaf, author of 1989's landmark book The Service Edge , shows how the best companies grapple daily with what he calls "Edgeseek Factors." Edgeseek factors include customer knowledge (who buys and why), the price/value equation (how much will people pay and what can you deliver at that price), and customer empowerment (the role customers want to play in the business relationship).

Customer-service texts are often full of whizz-bang phrases and ideas such as "knock your socks off," "raving fans," and so forth. This comprehensive, in-depth look at customer-service issues has quite a bit more meat to it. One of the best books of the year. Best Business Books

Customer Inspired Quality : Looking Backward Through the Telescope (Warren Bennis Executive Briefing Series)

James G. Shaw / Hardcover / Published 1996 / Amazon.com: $19.95

Customer-Centered Growth by Richard Whiteley and Diane Hessan. Addison-Wesley, 324 pages, $25.

Have you ever encountered a company that didn't proclaim the customer king? Most such companies practice advanced lip service when it comes to their focus on the customer. But according to Whiteley and Hessan, truly customer-centered companies focus like a laser beam on customers; "hardwire" the voice of the customer; overcome "teamitis"; know how to turn customer satisfaction into enthusiasm; and practice contact leadership. This book explains what all that means in a way that will convince you you're not even halfway to satisfying those who really pay the bills -- your customers. Best Business Books, 1996

Stop Selling, Start Partnering by Larry Wilson with Hersch Wilson . Omneo, 294 pages, $22.

Master salesman Wilson, founder of the Pecos River Learning Center, shows how to become so intertwined with your customers that you begin to wonder whom you're working for -- your firm or that of the customer. This one will shatter many of your notions on selling. Best Business Books, 1995

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