Includes bibliographical references and index

art 1 An Introduction to Customer Care: Service in a competitive environment; The changing nature of customer service; Changing customer behaviour and expectation; Customer retention; What is excellent service?; Personal versus material service; Embracing change; Contact centres; The Internet; Customer Relationship Management (CRM); The service/profit chain; Summary; Action checklist. Part 2 How Managers Need to Drive and Support a Service Strategy: Start from the top; Mission and vision; Values; Objectives; Strategy; Summary; Action checklist. Part 3 Listening to Customers: Barriers to listening; The monitoring of complaints and compliments; The value of listening to customers; Monitoring customer satisfaction; Where and when to measure; Continuous improvement; Involving employees when you measure; Recognising achievement; Involving head office departments in the measurement process; Canvass the view of other stakeholders; Best practice benchmarking; Summary Action checklist. Part 4 Implementing a customer care strategy: Continuous improvement; Marketing a service strategy; Managers lead the way; High or low key?; Summary; Action checklist. Part 5 Empowerment and Ownership: Valued people value customers; Myths about empowerment; What should organisations do to encourage empowerment?; Service recovery and empowerment; Summary; Action checklist. Part 6 The Internal Customer: Everyone has a customer; Developing understanding of internal customer needs; Process improvement; Don't forget suppliers, alliances and partners; Standards and charters; Service-level agreement; Suggestion schemes; Employee care; Summary; Action checklist. Part 7 Training and Development for Customer Service: The growth importance of training and development in customer service; Identifying training and development objectives; Training and development for managers; Managers as trainers; Customer service training for front-line and support staff; The learning organisation; Build customer service into all training and development activities; Review and refresh training and development; Summary; Action checklist. Part 8 Communications: Disseminating the message; Developing a communications strategy; Sell don't tell; Reinforcing the message; Tips on effective internal communication; A communications case study; Summary; Action checklist. Part 9 Recognition and Reward: Motivation; Performance management; Developing a reward and recognition scheme; Review and renew; Summary; Action checklist. Part 10 Sustaining a Customer Focus: Problems in sustaining the focus; Developing a maintenance strategy; Reviewing progress; Reinforcement; Summary.