Customer service has been on my mind lately. I’ve just had an awful experience with my web hosting company (Hostway, argh…) and it got me thinking. That’s why reading Barry Moltz and Mary Jane Grinstead’s new book, BAM! Delivering Customer Service in a Self-Service World was so timely for me. It’s helping me dissect how Hostway is losing their edge while I deal with my very real emotions about how I’ve been treated. But enough about those…people right now, let’s talk about BAM!
Let me say straight away this is a great book on the topic. It’s direct, readable, and elegant with a lot of keen and fresh insight into customer service. I’d say much of it is “common sense” — but as we know common sense isn’t so common — particularly when it comes to customer service. If your job at all involves customer service, or, you’re an innovator/entrepreneur who thinks they already understand it, I’d suggest you read this book. You’ll learn something new. It challenges a lot of conventional wisdom, and more importantly, it ultimately has a bottom line business perspective.
Innovation isn’t just about invention. Innovation is holistic and it involves all aspects of a business, including what happens after you make a sale. In fact, customer service is a huge opportunity to innovate, and BAM! can help you identify exactly where those gems are buried.
The book revolves around busting many commonly held myths about customer service. For example, the classic “The Customer is always right.” How many times have we heard that? To many times to count. And it has become a sort of truth. Yet, clearly, it can’t be so, and we’ve all experienced that as well. When you re-examine all the cliches about customer service and look at them with fresh eyes, insights about the “attitudes and actions” a company should take, follow.
Kudos to Moltz and Grinstead for putting together a no-nonsense, well researched and written book. It’s one of those books you can read quickly. The examples they use, many of which are personal, are apropos, short, memorable, and instructive. This book contains results of original research to test assumptions, it’s not just a laundry list of opinions. I’m confident in saying BAM! breaks new ground in the customer service domain.
On a personal note, it’s interesting to see that Mary Jane continues to be an innovator. Back in the 80’s I was with a small firm called Business Partner Solutions — a partner with ARDIS — where she was a senior manager. It dawned on me that the author was “that Mary Jane” when the text spoke of her ARDIS experience in a case study. Once a technology leader — now a cutting-edge business author, nice progression MJ. As for Barry, this book further solidifies his already rock solid credentials as a nationally recognized small business expert. If you need a speaker to talk about customer service or entrepreneurship, Barry is The Man.
Speaking of customer service, stay tuned to this channel for a case study of how Not to treat a customer of 10 years.