Exercises:

Determinants of
Service Quality

Service Excellence

Serving the Nightmare Customer by Debra Kahn Schofield, The Weekly Guerilla. How to handle difficult scenarios to the customer's satisfaction:

• Presenting price increases.
  Example: Explaining why prices have risen.
• Announcing change.
  Example: Asking the customer to try the new approach and report back on how well it worked.
• Establishing credibility.
  Example: explaining your credentials to build customer confidence in what you offer.
• When the customer isn't right.
  Example: Find out how the misunderstanding might have occurred, instead of just proving the customer wrong.
• When the customer is right.
  Example: Admit it and take the responsibility for the error.
• When the customer won't pay.
  Example: Keep collecting debt impersonal, such as "The account is overdue" versus "You owe us money."

The Truth About Customers by Jay Conrad Levinson, The Weekly Guerilla. A long list of reasons why customers buy, with an emphasis on the benefits they receive. A few examples:

• "They buy your credibility or don't buy if you lack it."
• "They buy the consistency they've seen you exhibit."
• "They buy the confidence you display in your own business."