This timely book presents the results of the latest global research on Customer Management. The research -- funded by QCi, IBM, and OgilvyOne -- applied the unique diagnostic tool CMAT, the Customer Management Assessment Tool, developed by Qci and recognized as "the" global CRM scorecard and benchmark "best practice" standard for assessing how well organizations manage their customers. As a bonus, the accompanying CD-ROM includes a mini version of CMAT.

Customer Care Excellence: How to Create an Effective Customer Focus
by Sarah Cook — August 2002

Today’s consumers are sophisticated, well informed and have high expectations of the services they want to received. Companies that do not face up to these changes will lose market share.

This fourth edition of this refreshing and unique title recognizes these trends and demonstrates, in a clear and practical way, how to develop and sustain a customer-service focus. Great emphasis is placed on the importance of the strategic aspects of customer care-- gaining commitment, listening to customers, developing a customer-care ethos and staff motivation--in ensuring successful results. Customer Care also explains how to deliver an excellent service at the front line, covering personal service, speed of delivery and service recovery.

The Leadership Engine
by Noel Tishy — August 2002

"There is a multibillion-dollar consulting industry in the world today," Tichy notes (in this reprint of his 1997 BusinessWeek Book of the Year, written with freelancer Cohen) "that thrives largely on the fact that most managers don't want to lead." It's an insight Tichy, a professor at the Univ. of Michigan School of Business, has observed firsthand when trying to determine why some companies succeed and others fail or just limp along. His conclusion: the winners have "good leaders who nurture the development of other leaders at all levels of the organization." These leaders urge their workers to see reality and mobilize the appropriate responses. Repeatedly, the authors single out the heads of successful companies such as General Electric and Allied Signal to discuss how much time their chief executives spend "formally and informally" on teaching. They conclude that those firms' success is a direct result of everyone's pulling in the same direction.

Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap…and Others Don’t
by Jim Collins — October 2001

Five years ago, Jim Collins asked the question, "Can a good company become a great company and if so, how?" In Good to Great Collins, the author of Built to Last, concludes that it is possible, but finds there are no silver bullets. Collins and his team of researchers began their quest by sorting through a list of 1,435 companies, looking for those that made substantial improvements in their performance over time. They finally settled on 11--including Fannie Mae, Gillette, Walgreens, and Wells Fargo--and discovered common traits that challenged many of the conventional notions of corporate success. Making the transition from good to great doesn't require a high-profile CEO, the latest technology, innovative change management, or even a fine-tuned business strategy. At the heart of those rare and truly great companies was a corporate culture that rigorously found and promoted disciplined people to think and act in a disciplined manner.

Secrets of Customer Relationship Management: It's All About How You Make Them Feel
by James G. Barnes — September 2000

"Relationship marketing" has been a buzzword for years, but is it anything more than that? Who really knows what it means? This work aims to provide readers with a complete overview to understanding the concept of customer relationships and how to apply it in today's world of ever-increasing competition. The long-term success of any organization lies in its ability to develop solid, genuine relationships with customers and keep them coming back, and telling their friends, family and associates. Through experience, Barnes has found that it is not loyalty marketing, frequency marketing or preferred customer plans that constitute a relationship. Instead, an approach is offered that helps managers to understand what the customer means by, and wants in a genuine relationship.

The Mission Statement Book: 301 Corporate Mission Statements from America's Top Companies
by Jeffrey Abrahams — September 1999

Excellent collection of corporate mission statements, vision statements, core values, goals and guiding principles of 301 leading companies. Insightful guide that is packed with useful examples to help you create your own mission statement. The book starts with a five-chapter discussion of what mission statements are, how to write one, why they are important, and then presents 301 of the best, extracted from the author's collection.

The Experience Economy
by James H. Gilmore and B. Joseph Pine II — April 1999

Sometime during the last 30 years, the service economy emerged as the dominant engine of economic activity. At first, critics who were uncomfortable with the intangible nature of services bemoaned the decline of the goods-based economy, which, thanks to many factors, had increasingly become commoditized. Successful companies, such as Nordstrom, Starbucks, Saturn, and IBM, discovered that the best way to differentiate one product from another--clothes, food, cars, computers--was to add service.

But, according to Joseph Pine and James Gilmore, the bar of economic offerings is being raised again. In The Experience Economy, the authors argue that the service economy is about to be superseded with something that critics will find even more ephemeral (and controversial) than services ever were: experiences. In part because of technology and the increasing expectations of consumers, services today are starting to look like commodities. The authors write that "Those businesses that relegate themselves to the diminishing world of goods and services will be rendered irrelevant. To avoid this fate, you must learn to stage a rich, compelling experience."

Discovering the Soul of Service: The Nine Drivers of Sustainable Business Success
by Leonard Berry — February 1999

Leonard L. Berry examines some of America's great service companies and finds "nine drivers of excellence" that are behind them all. Discovering the Soul of Service looks at 14 diverse businesses, including the St. Paul Saints minor-league baseball team, Dial-A-Mattress, Midwest Express Airlines, and two of the world's fastest-growing service companies--Charles Schwab and Enterprise Rent-A-Car. "The lessons they teach are clear indeed," writes Berry, a marketing professor and director of the Center for Retailing Studies at Texas A & M University. "Although the companies differ on the outside--the nature, size and structure of their businesses--to a remarkable degree they are the same on the inside, sharing the drivers of their ongoing success." The "nine drivers" that Berry uncovers are the following: Leading with Values, Strategic Focus, Executional Excellence, Control of Destiny, Trust-Based Relationships, Investment in Employee Success, Acting Small, Brand Cultivation, and Generosity.

Customer Focus: A Strategy for Success
by Roger Langevin and Bill Christopher — October 1998

As strategic concepts, customer driven quality and service have moved to the top of the list for most managers. A day does not go by without some reminder of how important these factors have become. The tools that this book uses to examine and develop these topics are both familiar and critical. Market research, quality systems and performance measures are an essential part of a sound strategy to deliver the best that can be achieved for any customer.

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

Customer Service: Extraordinary Results at Southwest Airlines, Charles Schwab, Lands' End, American Express, Staples, and USAA begins with the obvious (but nonetheless truthful) observation that businesses today cannot survive without loyal customers, and then shows how these six firms are masterfully going about the process of obtaining and retaining them. Each is the subject of a chapter that opens with a brief profile and concludes with expert analysis by business strategist and lecturer Fred Wiersema. "At a time when it often seems harder than ever to find a company that truly connects with its customers as individuals, these organizations are dramatic exceptions to the rule," he writes of the selections overall. "We chose them for inclusion here because their practices transcend platitudes and lip service. Simply put, service defines their business and sets them apart from competitors."