The Customer Service Solution: Managing Emotions, Trust, and Control to Win Your Customer's Business

Understand Consumer Psychology to Drive Profits and Growth

Want to know exactly what’s driving your customer's behavior?
NOW YOU CAN!

The Customer Service Solution explains how consumers perceive services and shows you how toenhance the customer experience—every time.

In this economic climate, the customer service experience is more critical than ever. Most leading service firms advocate the TLC mantra: Think Like a Customer. That's a good practice, but first you have to understand what your customer is thinking and feeling. Today's business leaders cannot afford to neglect the psychological principles that govern customer satisfaction and long-term loyalty.

What are the factors that really determine customer satisfaction? Two of the nation's leading authorities on service psychology, Sriram Dasu and Richard Chase, have written this groundbreaking guide that identifies and demystifies the psychological triggers behind customer behavior. You'll go where customer satisfaction surveys, mystery shoppers, and focus groups can't—and learn exactlywhy customers respond and behave the way they do.

With findings drawn from behavioral science research, this book provides all the tools you need to evaluate your current service platforms and design future strategies to enhance customer perceptions positively and drive your sales.

The Customer Service Solution illustrates whyeven companies with high levels of satisfaction are missing tremendous opportunities by neglecting the emotional elements that govern consumer interactions.

This book will show you how to:

  • Shape and manage customer perceptions
  • Understand implicit versus explicit outcomes
  • Develop the roles of control and choiceamong buyers
  • Design emotionally intelligent processes
  • Build trust among customers

Whatever your business may be—healthcare, hospitality, financial services, e-commerce, and more—this book is an essential tool to help you increase profits by leveraging your company's customer experience.

PRAISE FOR THE CUSTOMER SERVICE SOLUTION:

"Harnessing the power of emotions will help to drive an exceptional customer experience creating customers for life to help your business thrive. Finally, a guide tohelp us better understand how to do this." — James Merlino, MD, Chief Experience Officer, Cleveland Clinic

"Required reading for anyone designing a service encounter." — James Heskett, Professor Emeritus, Harvard Business School, coauthor of The Service Profit Chain and Service Future

"I have always known that our customers shop with us because they want to, not because they have to. How to make them want to is the secret that this great bookunlocks." — Kevin Davis, President and CEO, Bristol Farms

"[Dasu and Chase] share easy-to-understand ideas and guidance to operations managers who typically do not think about the psychology of customers in designing their services." — Mary Jo Bitner, PhD, Professor andExecutive Director, Center for Services Leadership, W. P. Carey School, Arizona State University

"Dasu and Chase provide an excellent set of ideas for delivering emotional customer service experiences through systems and operations." — Rodolfo Medina, Vice President, Marketing & Commercial, Rock in Rio

"This book provides valuable insights to managing and molding the customer's emotional journey, leading to ultimate satisfaction and sustainable loyalty." — Ali V. Kasikci, Regional Managing Director, Orient-Express

1113863640
The Customer Service Solution: Managing Emotions, Trust, and Control to Win Your Customer's Business

Understand Consumer Psychology to Drive Profits and Growth

Want to know exactly what’s driving your customer's behavior?
NOW YOU CAN!

The Customer Service Solution explains how consumers perceive services and shows you how toenhance the customer experience—every time.

In this economic climate, the customer service experience is more critical than ever. Most leading service firms advocate the TLC mantra: Think Like a Customer. That's a good practice, but first you have to understand what your customer is thinking and feeling. Today's business leaders cannot afford to neglect the psychological principles that govern customer satisfaction and long-term loyalty.

What are the factors that really determine customer satisfaction? Two of the nation's leading authorities on service psychology, Sriram Dasu and Richard Chase, have written this groundbreaking guide that identifies and demystifies the psychological triggers behind customer behavior. You'll go where customer satisfaction surveys, mystery shoppers, and focus groups can't—and learn exactlywhy customers respond and behave the way they do.

With findings drawn from behavioral science research, this book provides all the tools you need to evaluate your current service platforms and design future strategies to enhance customer perceptions positively and drive your sales.

The Customer Service Solution illustrates whyeven companies with high levels of satisfaction are missing tremendous opportunities by neglecting the emotional elements that govern consumer interactions.

This book will show you how to:

  • Shape and manage customer perceptions
  • Understand implicit versus explicit outcomes
  • Develop the roles of control and choiceamong buyers
  • Design emotionally intelligent processes
  • Build trust among customers

Whatever your business may be—healthcare, hospitality, financial services, e-commerce, and more—this book is an essential tool to help you increase profits by leveraging your company's customer experience.

PRAISE FOR THE CUSTOMER SERVICE SOLUTION:

"Harnessing the power of emotions will help to drive an exceptional customer experience creating customers for life to help your business thrive. Finally, a guide tohelp us better understand how to do this." — James Merlino, MD, Chief Experience Officer, Cleveland Clinic

"Required reading for anyone designing a service encounter." — James Heskett, Professor Emeritus, Harvard Business School, coauthor of The Service Profit Chain and Service Future

"I have always known that our customers shop with us because they want to, not because they have to. How to make them want to is the secret that this great bookunlocks." — Kevin Davis, President and CEO, Bristol Farms

"[Dasu and Chase] share easy-to-understand ideas and guidance to operations managers who typically do not think about the psychology of customers in designing their services." — Mary Jo Bitner, PhD, Professor andExecutive Director, Center for Services Leadership, W. P. Carey School, Arizona State University

"Dasu and Chase provide an excellent set of ideas for delivering emotional customer service experiences through systems and operations." — Rodolfo Medina, Vice President, Marketing & Commercial, Rock in Rio

"This book provides valuable insights to managing and molding the customer's emotional journey, leading to ultimate satisfaction and sustainable loyalty." — Ali V. Kasikci, Regional Managing Director, Orient-Express

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The Customer Service Solution: Managing Emotions, Trust, and Control to Win Your Customer's Business

The Customer Service Solution: Managing Emotions, Trust, and Control to Win Your Customer's Business

The Customer Service Solution: Managing Emotions, Trust, and Control to Win Your Customer's Business

The Customer Service Solution: Managing Emotions, Trust, and Control to Win Your Customer's Business

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Overview

Understand Consumer Psychology to Drive Profits and Growth

Want to know exactly what’s driving your customer's behavior?
NOW YOU CAN!

The Customer Service Solution explains how consumers perceive services and shows you how toenhance the customer experience—every time.

In this economic climate, the customer service experience is more critical than ever. Most leading service firms advocate the TLC mantra: Think Like a Customer. That's a good practice, but first you have to understand what your customer is thinking and feeling. Today's business leaders cannot afford to neglect the psychological principles that govern customer satisfaction and long-term loyalty.

What are the factors that really determine customer satisfaction? Two of the nation's leading authorities on service psychology, Sriram Dasu and Richard Chase, have written this groundbreaking guide that identifies and demystifies the psychological triggers behind customer behavior. You'll go where customer satisfaction surveys, mystery shoppers, and focus groups can't—and learn exactlywhy customers respond and behave the way they do.

With findings drawn from behavioral science research, this book provides all the tools you need to evaluate your current service platforms and design future strategies to enhance customer perceptions positively and drive your sales.

The Customer Service Solution illustrates whyeven companies with high levels of satisfaction are missing tremendous opportunities by neglecting the emotional elements that govern consumer interactions.

This book will show you how to:

  • Shape and manage customer perceptions
  • Understand implicit versus explicit outcomes
  • Develop the roles of control and choiceamong buyers
  • Design emotionally intelligent processes
  • Build trust among customers

Whatever your business may be—healthcare, hospitality, financial services, e-commerce, and more—this book is an essential tool to help you increase profits by leveraging your company's customer experience.

PRAISE FOR THE CUSTOMER SERVICE SOLUTION:

"Harnessing the power of emotions will help to drive an exceptional customer experience creating customers for life to help your business thrive. Finally, a guide tohelp us better understand how to do this." — James Merlino, MD, Chief Experience Officer, Cleveland Clinic

"Required reading for anyone designing a service encounter." — James Heskett, Professor Emeritus, Harvard Business School, coauthor of The Service Profit Chain and Service Future

"I have always known that our customers shop with us because they want to, not because they have to. How to make them want to is the secret that this great bookunlocks." — Kevin Davis, President and CEO, Bristol Farms

"[Dasu and Chase] share easy-to-understand ideas and guidance to operations managers who typically do not think about the psychology of customers in designing their services." — Mary Jo Bitner, PhD, Professor andExecutive Director, Center for Services Leadership, W. P. Carey School, Arizona State University

"Dasu and Chase provide an excellent set of ideas for delivering emotional customer service experiences through systems and operations." — Rodolfo Medina, Vice President, Marketing & Commercial, Rock in Rio

"This book provides valuable insights to managing and molding the customer's emotional journey, leading to ultimate satisfaction and sustainable loyalty." — Ali V. Kasikci, Regional Managing Director, Orient-Express


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780071809931
Publisher: McGraw Hill LLC
Publication date: 07/19/2013
Edition description: New Edition
Pages: 288
Product dimensions: 6.30(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Sriram Dasu, associate professor at the Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California, haswritten numerous articles on operations management andcontinues to publish in leading academic and professionaljournals nationwide.

Richard B. Chase, Justin Dart Professor Emeritus,Marshall School of Business, University of SouthernCalifornia, is the coauthor of Operations and Supply Chain Management, which sold over a million copies and is now in its thirteenth edition, having been translated into 12 languages. He's widely acknowledged as one of the founders of the Service Operations Management field.



Richard B. Chase is Director of the Center for Operations Management Research and Education at USC. He is widely published in both books and academic journals and is considered one of the top service "gurus" in the field. He is on the Editorial Advisory Board of the Journal of Operations Management, an Advisor to Production and Operations Management journal, and a Fellow of the Decision Sciences Institute.

Table of Contents

Preface xiii

Acknowledgments xv

Chapter 1 Customer Service Solutions: Leveraging Customer Psychology to Design Service Operations 1

Implicit Outcomes Are Important for Your Customers 2

Types of Knowledge Needed for Delivering Implicit Outcomes 3

Parsing the Service Encounter 6

It Is All About Your Customers' Perceptions 7

Factors That Shape Your Customers' Perceptions 8

A Scientific Approach to Delivering Great Experiences 20

Beyond the Encounter: Memory Management 21

Chapter 2 Designing Emotionally Intelligent Processes 23

Emotions 101 24

Services Differ in Their Emotional Content 29

Emotions and Emotional Intelligence 31

Factors That Drive Your Customers' Emotions 31

Tiered Approach for Shaping Emotions 36

Designing Emotional Themes 37

Creating Processes to Deliver the Emotional Theme 44

Blueprints for Tracking Your Customers' Emotions 47

Segmenting Your Customers 52

Responding to Your Customers' Transaction History 54

A Limited Approach to Managing Emotions 55

Key Principles for Designing for Optimal Emotional Impact 56

Conclusion 56

Chapter 3 Engendering Your Customers' Trust 59

Market Mechanisms for Reducing Risk for Your Customer 61

Benefits of Trust 62

Components of Trust 63

Whom Does Your Customer Trust: The Firm or the Employee? 65

Moments That Influence Trust 67

Cues to Trustworthiness Before the Encounter 69

Calculated Versus Blind Trust 72

Cues to Trustworthiness During the Encounter 73

Building Your Trust Fund 79

Key Principles for Building Trust 87

Chapter 4 Shaping Your Customers' Perceptions of Control 89

Control Matters 90

Components of Control: Behavioral and Cognitive Control 91

Moments That Influence Your Customers' Perception of Control 92

Battles for Control 93

Allocating Control to Your Customer Through Choice 96

Allocating Control to Your Customer Through Self-Service 99

Framework for Sharing Control with Your Customers 102

Enhancing Your Customers' Perceived Control 106

Devise Mistake-Proof Processes 111

Manage Server Behavior 112

Sway with Social Proofing 113

Conclusion 114

Chapter 5 Sequencing the Experience 117

The Sequence Impacts Your Customers' Perceptions 118

Customers' Preferences for Separating or Combining Events 125

Sequencing When There Are Multiple Encounters 126

Designing the Sequence 128

Sequence Theory Matters for Your Employees 133

Principles for Sequencing the Encounter 134

Self Quiz: DSL Help Desk 135

Chapter 6 Time Warp: Duration Management 139

Perception Is Everything When It Comes to Time 140

Temporal Distortions 141

Factors That Influence Duration Judgments 146

The Value of Time 147

Factors That Alter Your Customers' Valuation of Time 147

Pacing and Cultural Intelligence 149

Reducing Your Customers' Perceived Duration of the Wait 150

Build Your Customers' Anticipation for Positive Outcomes 162

Enhance Value-Added Activities 164

Conclusion 167

Chapter 7 Attribution: Ensuring that You Get Your Due 169

Subjective Perceptions 170

Do Your Customers Recognize a Success or a Failure? 172

How Your Customers May Discern the Cause 173

When Memory Plays Attribution Tricks 177

How Your Customers May Assign Responsibility 179

Feeling the Hurt 182

Channeling Your Customers' Attribution 184

Principles for Managing Attribution 191

Chapter 8 Putting the Concepts to Work 193

Identify the Relevant Psychological Factors 195

Develop Service Experience Improvement Projects 199

Project Examples 202

Think in Terms of Three Ts and Four Ps 206

ETCs for Employees 207

Endnotes 211

Index 217

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