Be Your Customer's Hero: Real-World Tips & Techniques for the Service Front Lines

by Adam Toporek

On the front lines of customer service, every day presents new and unexpected challenges--and even the most dedicated employees can be caught unprepared. They need confidence. They need training. They need help.

Be Your Customer's Hero answers the call. The book provides customer-facing professionals with short, simple, actionable advice designed to transform them into heroes in the eyes of the customers they serve. Quick chapters show readers how to:

• Achieve the mindset required for Hero-Class™ service
• Understand the customer's expectations—and exceed them
• Develop powerful communication skills
• Avoid the seven triggers guaranteed to set customers off
• Handle difficult and even irrational customers with ease
• Become an indispensable part of any frontline team

Armed with the tools and techniques in this book, readers will start each workday knowing they can conquer whatever problem comes their way.

Genres: Business

256 pages, Paperback

First published April 22, 2015

About the author

Adam Toporek is an internationally-recognized customer experience expert, keynote speaker, and customer service trainer who helps organizations transform their relationships with their customers through better strategy, training, and communication. A third-generation entrepreneur with extensive experience in retail, wholesale, franchising, and small business, Adam understands the impact that customer experience can have on the bottom line.

Adam is the author of Be Your Customer's Hero, the founder of the popular Customers That Stick® blog, and the co-host of the Crack the Customer Code podcast, as well as the creator of multiple virtual training courses on customer service and experience. Adam is regularly ranked as a top customer experience thought leader and has been cited in Entrepreneur, Forbes, and over 200 other media.

Reviews

[Henrique Carvalho · Rating 4 out of 5]

Targeted to front-line reps, but helpful to anyone working with sales. Very practical.

[J Crossley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Your attitude will determine how you serve your customers. Modern life has so many hassles, and customers don’t like companies that create additional hassles for them. Instead of viewing customers as ‘transaction’ based, view them as you are building a relationship.

There are seven triggers that create a negative customer service. These are: being ignored; being abandoned; being hassled; being faced with incompetence; being shuffled; being powerless; and being disrespected.

For a customer, the difference between being disappointed and upset is when they believe that violated a rule, and you think you just failed to meet an expectation. This can begin an escalation of the issue.

There are ten power words that impact your communication with customers. Make sure that you ‘appreciate’ and ‘respect’ the customer. Take ‘accountability’ and let the customer know that you ‘understand’ the issue and that you are ‘committed’ to solving it. use ‘absolutely’ rather than the weaker ‘yes.’ Use ‘suggest’ when the customer needs to do something to assist with solving the issue. Give the customer ‘options’ and call your mutual problem a ‘challenge.’ To assure your customer that all is well, make your ‘solution’ known.

I found this book helpful because sometimes what you think is being helpful may not be interpreted that way. Knowing that certain words help bring a resolution helps make the interaction stronger.

[Michal · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found it quite good , a must read for anybody working in front line retail. It paints a good picture of interaction with customer and a gives lot of practical advice. I feel that some chapters could be more compact as they start feeling to long and yet talking About the exact same issue making the book artificially longer than it should be. My advice is threat this book like a chocolate box. Eat some skip some and you will be just fine.

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

A great resource for front-line reps. I especially like how the concepts discussed in this book dont revolve around the popular saying "the customer is always right."

Simply written, to the point, gets the job done.