Delight Your Customers: 7 Simple Ways to Raise Your Customer Service from Ordinary to Extraordinary

From years of experience in the hospitality industry, Curtin clearly knows his stuff. There are lots of people that "know their stuff" but many of them cannot communicate it in a manner that allows you to know it too. Curtin communicates clearly and concisely. A smaller group of professionals can do that and, even then, often their material is dry. Curtin includes humor that makes you know that he understands your job too. The examples are so vivid that you feel like you can see them happening in front of you. It makes you want to read on and to share it with everyone in your company. I bought 15 copies for colleagues. Caution: If "good enough" is your goal, don't buy this book. It will make you change your goal or live with the discomfort of knowing that delighting your customers comes free of charge and the return on investment is exponential.Does this guy do training? This book plus customized training could change entire companies, even industries. Give one to your boss. Give another to that burned out colleague that thinks that customers are annoying and exhausting. It will change their life!

A Great read for Customer CareOkay so I’m a sucker for books about customer service. I look for and read them every chance I get. And I have to say that this is one of the better ones. Especially when you take into consideration how well written and organized this one is.Here is something to think about when considering customer service is job function versus job essence. Job function is what it takes to do the job, the words on the page of a job description. Carrying bags for guests is the function of a bell hop for example while the essence of the job is what surrounds the job things like, making the guests welcome, making sure they have everything they need to be comfortable in their room; making sure that you do something special and remarkable for that customer. That is the essence of the job and that is the essence of great customer service.In the words of the author, “Job essence is indicated in employees’ personality, creativity, enthusiasm, passion and unique flair.”The author not only gives specific examples of good and poor service but he also does it in a way that inspired and inspired me to not only think about but also develop my own idea for better customer service in my own business.Here are some of the 7 ways:1. Express genuine interest2. Offer sincere and specific compliments3. Share unique knowledge4. Convey authentic enthusiasm5. Use appropriate humor6. Provide pleasant surprises7. Deliver heroicsCurtin delivers chapters on each of these steps and then caps it off with a final chapter on going from ordinary to extraordinary. My particular favorite chapter where the author states: “With so much poor customer service around great customer service becomes truly outstanding.”And this final bit of advice, “Exceptional customer service is never a happy accident that a company stumbles into. It is always the result of intention and design.”And to that I say amen.

At times obvious but good to read about the basics. I recommend the book to anyone who wants to improve customer service in their organization.

Being in the car wash industry I came across Steve Curtin's blog a few years back when running into his posting about an experience he had at a car wash facility in our area, while I was google-ing our company and competitors. I have since been a devoted follower of his blog however there have been plenty that I have missed. Once he announced that he was releasing this book, I was intent on getting it for myself and all of our staff at both the car wash facility we operate and our new restaurant we just recently started. I have always given Steve's blog postings which we would have employee meetings based on at times to the car washes success in its outstanding customer service that has been described in our online reviews and by our customers. The car wash industry's main association lacks training in customer service and seems to not identify customer service as playing a crucial roll in the success of a car wash operation. As I learn more about the restaurant business and hospitality industry it is unmistakeably clear that customer service is the centrifuge any one restaurant or other facets of the industry. There are plethora of other blogs and literature that emphasize its importance, however I have found Steve's simplistic step by step approach in breaking down the key aspects of delivery extraordinary customer service to be the most beneficial to the development of all of our teams hospitality skills. This is a must read for anyone in the retail, restaurant and/or any other business where there is customer staff interaction.Thank you Steve.