The Customer Service Solution: Managing Emotions, Trust, and Control to Win Your Customer’s Business

Understand Consumer Psychology to Drive Profits and GrowthWant to know exactly what’s driving your customer's behavior? NOW YOU CAN! The Customer Service Solution explains how consumers perceive services and shows you how toenhance the customer experience--every time. In this economic climate, the customer service experience is more critical than ever. Most leading service firms advocate the TLC mantra: Think Like a Customer. That's a good practice, but first you have to understand what your customer is thinking and feeling. Today's business leaders cannot afford to neglect the psychological principles that govern customer satisfaction and long-term loyalty. What are the factors that really determine customer satisfaction? Two of the nation's leading authorities on service psychology, Sriram Dasu and Richard Chase, have written this groundbreaking guide that identifies and demystifies the psychological triggers behind customer behavior. You'll go where customer satisfaction surveys, mystery shoppers, and focus groups can't--and learn exactlywhy customers respond and behave the way they do. With findings drawn from behavioral science research, this book provides all the tools you need to evaluate your current service platforms and design future strategies to enhance customer perceptions positively and drive your sales. The Customer Service Solution illustrates whyeven companies with high levels of satisfaction are missing tremendous opportunities by neglecting the emotional elements that govern consumer interactions. This book will show you how to: Shape and manage customer perceptions Understand implicit versus explicit outcomes Develop the roles of control and choiceamong buyers Design emotionally intelligent processes Build trust among customers Whatever your business may be--healthcare, hospitality, financial services, e-commerce, and more--this book is an essential tool to help you increase profits by leveraging your company's customer experience. PRAISE FOR THE CUSTOMER SERVICE SOLUTION: "Harnessing the power of emotions will help to drive an exceptional customer experience creating customers for life to help your business thrive. Finally, a guide tohelp us better understand how to do this." -- James Merlino, MD, Chief Experience Officer, Cleveland Clinic "Required reading for anyone designing a service encounter." -- James Heskett, Professor Emeritus, Harvard Business School, coauthor of The Service Profit Chain and Service Future "I have always known that our customers shop with us because they want to, not because they have to. How to make them want to is the secret that this great bookunlocks." -- Kevin Davis, President and CEO, Bristol Farms "[Dasu and Chase] share easy-to-understand ideas and guidance to operations managers who typically do not think about the psychology of customers in designing their services." -- Mary Jo Bitner, PhD, Professor andExecutive Director, Center for Services Leadership, W. P. Carey School, Arizona State University "Dasu and Chase provide an excellent set of ideas for delivering emotional customer service experiences through systems and operations." -- Rodolfo Medina, Vice President, Marketing & Commercial, Rock in Rio "This book provides valuable insights to managing and molding the customer's emotional journey, leading to ultimate satisfaction and sustainable loyalty." -- Ali V. Kasikci, Regional Managing Director, Orient-Express

Table of Contents:
CONTENTS PREFACE xiii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS xv CHAPTER 1 CUSTOMER SERVICE SOLUTIONS:LEVERAGING CUSTOMER PSYCHOLOGY TO DESIGN SERVICE OPERATIONS 1 Implicit Outcomes Are Importantfor Your Customers 2 Types of Knowledge Needed forDelivering Implicit Outcomes 3 Parsing the Service Encounter 6 It Is All About YourCustomers’ Perceptions 7 Factors That Shape YourCustomers’ Perceptions 8 A Scientific Approach to DeliveringGreat Experiences 20 Beyond the Encounter:Memory Management 21 CHAPTER 2 DESIGNING EMOTIONALLYINTELLIGENT PROCESSES 23 Emotions 101 24 Services Differ in Their Emotional Content 29 Emotions and Emotional Intelligence 31 Factors That Drive Your Customers’ Emotions 31 Tiered Approach for Shaping Emotions 36 Designing Emotional Themes 37 Creating Processes to Deliver theEmotional Theme 44 Blueprints for Tracking YourCustomers’ Emotions 47 Segmenting Your Customers 52 Responding to Your Customers’Transaction History 54 A Limited Approach to Managing Emotions 55 Key Principles for Designingfor Optimal Emotional Impact 56 Conclusion 56 CHAPTER 3 ENGENDERING YOUR CUSTOMERS’ TRUST 59 Market Mechanisms for ReducingRisk for Your Customer 61 Benefits of Trust 62 Components of Trust 63 Whom Does Your Customer Trust:The Firm or the Employee? 65 Moments That Influence Trust 67 Cues to TrustworthinessBefore the Encounter 69 Calculated Versus Blind Trust 72 Cues to TrustworthinessDuring the Encounter 73 Building Your Trust Fund 79 Key Principles forBuilding Trust 87 CHAPTER 4 SHAPING YOUR CUSTOMERS’PERCEPTIONS OF CONTROL 89 Control Matters 90 Components of Control: Behavioraland Cognitive Control 91 Moments That Influence Your Customers’Perception of Control 92 Battles for Control 93 Allocating Control to Your CustomerThrough Choice 96 Allocating Control to Your CustomerThrough Self-Service 99 Framework for Sharing Controlwith Your Customers 102 Enhancing Your Customers’Perceived Control 106 Devise Mistake-Proof Processes 111 Manage Server Behavior 112 Sway with Social Proofing 113 Conclusion 114 CHAPTER 5 SEQUENCING THE EXPERIENCE 117 The Sequence Impacts YourCustomers’ Perceptions 118 Customers’ Preferences for Separatingor Combining Events 125 Sequencing When There AreMultiple Encounters 126 Designing the Sequence 128 Sequence Theory Mattersfor Your Employees 133 Principles for Sequencing the Encounter 134 Self Quiz: DSL Help Desk 135 CHAPTER 6 TIME WARP: DURATION MANAGEMENT 139 Perception Is Everything When ItComes to Time 140 Temporal Distortions 141 Factors That InfluenceDuration Judgments 146 The Value of Time 147 Factors That Alter Your Customers’Valuation of Time 147 Pacing and Cultural Intelligence 149 Reducing Your Customers’ PerceivedDuration of the Wait 150 Build Your Customers’ Anticipationfor Positive Outcomes 162 Enhance Value-Added Activities 164 Conclusion 167 CHAPTER 7 ATTRIBUTION: ENSURING THAT YOUGET YOUR DUE 169 Subjective Perceptions 170 Do Your Customers Recognize a Successor a Failure? 172 How Your Customers May Discern the Cause 173 When Memory Plays Attribution Tricks 177 How Your Customers May AssignResponsibility 179 Feeling the Hurt 182 Channeling Your Customers’ Attribution 184 Principles for Managing Attribution 191 CHAPTER 8 PUTTING THE CONCEPTS TO WORK 193 Identify the RelevantPsychological Factors 195 Develop Service ExperienceImprovement Projects 199 Project Examples 202 Think in Terms of Three Ts and Four Ps 206 ETCs for Employees 207 ENDNOTES 211 INDEX 217

About the Author :
Richard B. Chase is Director of the Center for Operations Management Research and Education at USC. He is widely published in both books and academic journals and is considered one of the top service "gurus" in the field. He is on the Editorial Advisory Board of the Journal of Operations Management, an Advisor to Production and Operations Management journal, and a Fellow of the Decision Sciences Institute.