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Institute associates are available to deliver in-depth leading-edge keynote presentations at conferences and company meetings on a variety of Customer Care topics.
Best Practices
Hug Your Customers: The Proven Way to Personalize Sales and Achieve Astounding Results
by Jack Mitchell — June 2003

This is a proven theory -- hugging works! Mitchells/Richards achieves among the highest margins in its industry, as well as amazing customer loyalty. Complete with anecdotes that exemplify outstanding customer service, Hug Your Customers shows how any business can adapt this hugging philosophy to attract great staff, lower marketing costs, and maintain higher gross margins and long-term revenues. At a time when customer service has become the difference between success and failure, Hug Your Customers shows how Jack's one-of-a-kind philosophy brings the results you're looking for.

The Customer Care & Contact Center Handbook
by Garry Schultz — November 2002

Customer satisfaction is essential to the success of any and all businesses. At a time in which technological advances, cultural changes, and escalating customer expectations have rendered post-sale customer support more demanding than ever, the need for exemplary post-sale services is greater than ever. Ensuring all customer interactions result in satisfaction is the core target of the customer contact center. The Customer Care and Contact Center Handbook was written to help executives and managers define, create, and sustain a world-class customer contact center. This book explores the many challenges inherent in implementing a world-class contact center and introduces methodologies, technologies, and techniques to get-it-right the first time.This guide is ideal for anyone who wishes to understand the parameters of the creation and maintenance of a world-class customer care center, especially those responsible for the formation or overhaul of a contact center.

Best Practices In Customer Service
by Ron Zemke and John A. Woods — January 1999

A one-stop resource that brings together the wisdom of dozens of customer service experts who explain and demonstrate how to implement the best practices available in customer service. It covers everything from the classic issues like customer retention and service recovery to contemporary concerns like providing customer service on the Internet.

Customer Service: Extraordinary Results at Southwest Airlines, Charles Schwab, Lands' End, American Express, Staples, and USAA
by Frederik D. Wiersema — September 1998

No business can thrive without loyal, repeat customers. Now anyone can learn the cutting-edge strategies of American Express, Lands' End, Charles Schwab, Southwest Airlines, and other top companies. This definitive source on the subject by noted customer-service expert and New York Times best-selling author Fred Wiersema offers advice based on years of experience. With this short, accessible book, executives and entrepreneurs alike will glean the tools and insights needed to create a successful customer-oriented culture that is defined by service excellence.

Tales of Knock Your Socks Off Service
by Kristin Anderson and Ron Zemke — November 1997

The 10th book in the "Knock Your Socks Off Service" series tells tales (101 of them) of memorable customer service, customer service heroes, and service providers who have gone "above and beyond" for their customers. With its humor, pragmatic observations, and stories, anyone at any service level will get a kick out this book.


301 Great Customer Services Ideas: From America's Most Innovative Small Companies
by Nancy Artez, Harvey MacKay — November 1997

301 Great Customer Service Ideas cuts past the cumbersome "reinventing the wheel" arguments of marketing theory and zeros in on 301 ingenious, inexpensive and easily applied marketing ideas culled from the pages of Inc. and Inc. Technology magazines and the Positive Performer Awards presented by Inc. Covering every aspect of customer service from focus groups and quality assurance to service audits and complaint management, every idea in this book can have an immediate impact on a company's bottom line.