High-Tech, High-Touch Customer Service: Inspire Timeless Loyalty in the Demanding New World of Social Commerce
AMACOM , May 2012
Are you finding customers more and more fickle, less and less loyal, and ever ready to jump off the handle and on to Twitter? Are you starting to sense that the way you've always done customer service simply isn't working anymore? You're right to be alarmed. Terrified, even. Social media, self-service technologies, and smartphones have created a disorienting new landscape for businesses that were chugging along just fine as recently as last month.
You now hold the solution to those concerns in your hands. High- Tech, High- Touch Customer Service is the guide that teaches you to harness the power of technology to build emotional connections with your customers -- and generate fierce loyalty as a result.
You'll learn how to bulletproof your business against the increasingly challenging world of customer interactions, both online and off. This book is the tool you need to regain your balance in a world where socially empowered customers pound companies with ever-escalating expectations and where complaints can quickly go viral, with devastating results.
However, this isn't a book that throws the baby out with the digital bathwater. Everything in these pages is grounded in decades of experience and proven methodology. High-Tech, High-Touch Customer Service gives you a clearheaded analysis of what's new in our digitally connected world and what remains unchanged, along with strategies for capturing a customer's business again and again. Packed with brilliant examples of anticipatory customer service, as well as some hilariously cautionary examples of customer service done disastrously wrong, this essential book explains how to:
- Implement the eight unbreakable rules of social media customer service
- Effectively address online customer complaints on Yelp, Twitter, TripAdvisor, and other forums
- Build a powerful culture that's nearly immune to competitive copycats
- Design compelling self-service options for today's customers
- Bind your customers to you closely through technologically informed anticipatory customer service
- Deliver best-of-class customer service in person, on the Web,
via social media, and by use of the old-fashioned (but very
effective) telephone call
This is the book you've been waiting for: eyeopening insights, real-life disaster stories, and a sweeping perspective to help you make sense of the seismic changes in customer service delivery. It will help you fully grasp the crucial new rules that dictate who will survive and thrive in the years ahead.
Hardcover | ISBN: 9780814417904 | Publication Date: May 2012
Reviews:
"Micah Solomon conveys an up-to-the-minute and deeply practical
take on customer service,
business success, and the twin importance of people and
technology."
-- Steve Wozniak, co-founder, Apple
"Micah Solomon takes on one of the stickiest questions in
business today -- how to navigate the ever-changing landscape of
technology without losing the soul of the customer experience
-- and explains it with great savvy. High-Tech, High-Touch
Customer Service is a must read for anyone serious about
great service in the digital age."
-- Jay Coldren, Vice President, Lifestyle Brands, Marriott
International
"To create a personal connection in today's fast-paced
environment businesses must listen and respond at the speed of
light -- and create a culture built on service. Solomon
illustrates how to anticipate customer expectations and deliver a
memorable experience every time."
-- Ray Davis, President and CEO, Umpqua Bank
"Clearly the best book on customer service management written in
the last decade."
-- Professor Frank Allen Philpot, George Mason University
School of Management
"Micah Solomon's brilliantly written and often belly-laugh
humorous High-Tech, High-Touch Customer Service will show
you how to embrace the new era of round the clock customer
feedback and thrive in business for years to come."
-- Brian Schoenbaechler, President and Managing Partner,
Integracore
"In my world of not-for-profits, there is almost nothing more
important than building constituent loyalty and retention of
donors. Micah Solomon's methodology and wisdom are the true expert
guidance that's needed to make this a reality."
-- Jann Schultz, Director of Donor Relations, Operation
Smile
"Micah Solomon's pedigree as an entrepreneur, marketer, and
customer service strategist is clear. In High-Tech, High-Touch
Customer Service, Solomon, better than anybody else I've
seen, illustrates how to achieve a level of customer engagement
that makes an organization thrive in our era of tech enabled
business success."
-- Jonathan Feldman, Contributing Editor, Information
Week
