Service America!: Doing Business in the New Economy [Hardcover]

Karl Albrecht (Author), Ron Zemke (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1985

This classic service primer shows how to make service quality an imperative in the organization and increase profits with customer loyalty.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Predicting a massive employment shift from heavy industry to a service economy, Albrecht and Zemke trace a major business trend toward customer-oriented competition. In 1981, they note, SAS, like other airlines, lost money. The line's incoming president, Jan Carlson, perceived that all planes fly the same sky and that the only competitive edge lay in customers' recollections of their travel experiences. Carlson enforced a program to assure customers of services they expectedon-time performance, courteous treatment, in-flight comfortas a primary management concern. Big profits ensued, and "service management" became a new by-word, in Europe and worldwide. The authors view each personnel-customer contact as a "moment of truth," a cliche too often repeated as they delineate by anecdote, statistic, service "blueprint" and case history an increasing acknowledgment of customer satisfaction as a basic business requirement. 25,000 first printing; 50,000 ad/promo; author tour. November 14
Copyright 1985 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Readers will find Service America a useful guide for introducing a true customer orientation into the management of businesses whose focus is on a service rather than a more traditional physical product. In some respects the authors update and extend the ideas inherent in the marketing concept which is now some 20 years old. The work is reasonably concrete in providing managerial guidelines and is liberally sprinkled with short case studies as working examples of the concepts being discussed. Highly recommended to people engaged in the growing service sectors of the American economy. J. Holton Wilson, Sch. of Business, Central Michigan Univ., Mt. Pleasant
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 203 pages
• Publisher: Irwin Professional Pub; 2nd ptg edition (September 1985)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0870946595
• ISBN-13: 978-0870946592
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,990,400 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Grab the note pad and cancel your appointments........., April 23, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Service America!: Doing Business in the New Economy (Paperback)

Pick this book up, grab your pen, and start taking notes. Albrecht and Zemke have tapped the fountain of proven total customer service strategies. No touchy-feely management fluff here, but rather a proven service strategy aligning customers, employees, and systems along a common plane. As with any product, we try to improve it. These two authors get it right: Service is a product - Let's improve it until our customers say its perfect. Then make it better.

From customer moment-of-truths to the importance of out-focused organizational structures, Service America provides insight into the mind of the customer and why they flock to companies offering stellar customer service. This book exposes the truth we often overlook: Service is the Competitive Edge.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Start Managing Your Customer Service, March 13, 1999

By 

F. Bayley "kiteline" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Service America!: Doing Business in the New Economy (Hardcover)

Tired of all of those "smile and be friendly" customer service approaches? As a leader this book was instrumental in getting me started in knowing what to do within my division to improve customer service.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Insightful!, May 7, 2001

By 

Rolf Dobelli "getAbstract" (Switzerland) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Service America!: Doing Business in the New Economy (Paperback)

This often-quoted classic still has a lot to say about the service frenzy of today's market, a phenomena that it predicted in its first edition more than fifteen years ago. Karl Albrecht and Ron Zemke have written a powerful, no-nonsense book filled with illustrative examples. If many of their insights seem to be common sense by now, it is only because so many of them have become a part of our collective business unconscious. If this volume was prophetic then (1985), it is indispensable now. We from getAbstract recommend this book to managers and executives throughout the corporate hierarchy.