James L. Heskett, W. Earl Sasser Jr., Leonard A. Schlesinger
First edition
viii, 275 pages :
illustrations ;
24 cm
A BK business book
Includes bibliographical references (pages 247-258) and index
1. Leading a breakthrough service is different -- What great service leaders know: leading a breakthrough service is different -- What great service leaders do: they take steps to ensure repeated memorable service encounters -- 2. Shaping service strategies that deliver results -- What great service leaders know: customers buy results and values, not services or products -- What great service leaders do: they focus on results and value, as well as on the employee and customer value equations that produce them -- 3. Designing operating strategies that support the service vision -- What great service leaders know: the best service operating strategies don't require trade-offs -- What great service leaders do: they foster both/and thinking in designing winning operating strategies -- 4. Creating and capitalizing on internal quality -- "A great place to work" -- What great service leaders know: great service starts with the frontline employee -- What great service leaders do: they hire for attitude, train for skills -- 5. The nuts and bolts of breakthrough service operations -- What great service leaders know: effective service operating strategies have to create value for employees, customers, and investors -- What great service leaders do: they ensure the achievement of the leverage and edge that produces win-win-win results -- the service trifecta -- 6. Develop winning support systems -- What great service leaders know: the best uses of technology and other support systems create frontline service heroes and heroines -- What great service leaders do: they use support systems to elevate important service jobs and eliminate the worst ones -- 7. Services marketing: Foster customer ownership -- What great service leaders know: satisfying customers is not enough -- What great service leaders do: they take steps to develop a core of customers who are owners -- 8. Leading for the future of services -- What great service leaders know: their current beliefs about the future of services are wrong -- What great service leaders do: they build agile service organizations that learn, innovate, and adapt
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Entire service businesses have been built around the ideas of Heskett, Sasser, and Schlesinger, pioneers in the world of service. Now they test their ideas against the actual experiences of successful and unsuccessful practitioners, as well as against demands of the future, in a book service leaders around the world will use as a guide for years to come. The authors cover every aspect of optimal service leadership: the best hiring, training, and workplace organization practices; the creation of operating strategies around areas such as facility design, capacity planning, queue management, and more; the use - and misuse - of technology in delivering top-level service; and practices that can transform loyal customers into "owners." Looking ahead, the authors describe the world of great service leaders in which "both/and" thinking replaces trade-offs. It's a world in which new ideas will be tested against the sine qua non of the "service trifecta" - wins for employees, customers, and investors. And it's a world in which the best leaders admit that they don't have the answers and create organizations that learn, innovate, "sense and respond," operate with fluid boundaries, and seek and achieve repeated strategic success. Using examples of dozens of companies in a wide variety of industries, such as Apollo Hospitals, Châteauform, Starbucks, Amazon, Disney, Progressive Insurance, the Dallas Mavericks, Whole Foods, IKEA, and many others, the authors present a narrative of remarkable successes, unnecessary failures, and future promise. -- from dust jacket