Book description
Improving service quality has finally become a top priority of
management today, yet according to service quality expert Leonard Berry
only a handful of companies have managed to determine exactly what to
improve and how to improve it. For the past two years, Berry studied
dozens of companies of all sizes renowned for their capacity to deliver
what they promise and more. From his on-site observation of the
strategies and practices of such companies as Mary Kay Cosmetics,
Tattered Cover Book Store, Longo Toyota & Lexus, Lakeland Regional
Medical Center, and Hard Rock Cafe, Berry has constructed a dynamic new
framework for improving service.
This framework provides a roadmap for implementation found nowhere
else in the service quality literature. In every chapter Berry draws
on his twelve years of research in service quality to explain each
part of the framework in detail. He provides rich insights and
inspiring examples of great service -- including numerous examples
unique to this book as well as the classic success stories of USAA,
Taco Bell, and many more. Berry shows that a company must (1) develop
service leadership skills and values -- a concept substantially
different from developing general leadership; (2) build a service
quality information system; and (3) create a comprehensive service
strategy based on the four principles of great service: reliability,
surprise, recovery, and fairness. He demonstrates how these four
principles, when adopted by the leadership and infused into the
systems of a service company, are the building blocks of the framework
and form the anchor for implementation.
Berry shows how the "artistry" of great service can be
systematically created from this foundation through a company's
organizational structure, technology, and often under utilized human
resources assets. He challenges service managers to set their service
quality aspirations higher, and his innovative, practical ideas will
help them achieve those higher standards. Linking service excellence
to value creation, Berry provides solid financial reasons for the
necessity of great service. Here, at last, is the book for which
managers in every service industry have waited: Leonard Berry's
"operating manual" for turning plans for great service into
action.
Carl Sewell President, Sewell Motor Company The
definitive guidebook to great customer service.
Leonard Berry holds the JCPenney Chair of Retailing
Studies at Texas A&M University, where he is also Professor of
Marketing. A former national president of the American Marketing
Association, he is coauthor of Delivering Quality Service (Free
Press, 1990) and Marketing Services (Free Press, 1991). Dr.
Berry and his colleagues are creators of the service quality gaps
model used throughout the world.
