Customer Reviews

Zingerman's Guide to Giving Great Service

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

If you're an uptight and resistant to change person, this is probably not going to be the best guide for you. Zingerman's is a liberal, "do the right thing" kind of environment. Their staff is respectful of each other and their customers without seeming militaryish or goofy. You can tell they love what they do and they are good at it.

I want the same environment for my staff. While we have terrific people in our Group, they just need serious help in the correct way to deliver customer service. This guide provides easy to understand concepts and examples.

The only thing I wish was different would be less food focus type advice. (Yes, I know Zingerman's is a food operation) If you're going to write a book on customer service, it would be helpful if it was easier to directly apply examples like "x-tra mile" ideas to general business.

If you're ever in Ann Arbor, be sure to visit Zingermans for the full experience -- it's so worth it!

After purchasing Zingerman's Guide to Good Eating, a wonderfully informative book about cheese, bread, olive oil, chocolate and many other artisan foods, I had high hopes for this book. On the positive side, it contains many excellent ideas on providing truly distinguished customer service, which are presented in a succinct, easy-to-read style. However, this book would have been more compelling if the author had illustrated these ideas with specific examples of how Zingerman's staff have provided superior service to customers or how they have handled difficult or unusual situations with customers. On the very last page of the book, Mr. Weinzweig writes: "Tell service stories. The knowledge of things that staffers do to provide guests with great service needs to be shared. People like to hear stories." Too bad that he didn't take his own advice when putting this book together.

Zingerman's guide is an outstanding primer on a businesses approach to service. Zingerman's philosophy is quite simple: Customer's should be treated like royalty and it is my responsibility to implement this standard. Ari Weinzweig takes you through the steps that he uses to teach outstanding service principles to his employees and in workshops for other companies. Although service is not always easy it is a noble goal in itself and should be diligently pursued by every team member of a business.

Zingerman's Guide to Giving Great Service by Ari Weinzweig is based on the experiences of the author in taking his tiny, hole-in-the-wall Ann Arbor, Michigan deli and turning it into a $25 million enterprise. He attributes his success to vastly superior customer service and wrote this guide to help teach others his "secrets."



Zingerman's is a hugely popular place to go and when you come to visit this area, that's where you go! It's always packed, the service is impeccable, and the experience is always positive for the customers. Nobody ever has anything bad to say about it. So, it makes sense that Weinzweig, the engine behind this fabulous institution, would be sought-after training on customer service.



Though I found the book itself to be a little slow going, the message is one that I think is right on the money. You can't deny him the credit for taking his 1,300-square-feet deli and growing it into this huge business - without turning it into a chain and remaining solely in Ann Arbor! This is an incredible story and there is something there. Anyone interested in learning more about how a small company can accomplish extraordinary things will really enjoy this book.



The book could have benefited from some more specific examples - service stories, if you will - but Weinzwig did provide very specific and practical advice on how to deliver better service. The book teaches the keys to better in-person experiences with your clients and that can be useful in all industries. The tips even drill down to such basics as how to be polite, how close to stand to someone when speaking with them in different service situations, and how to answer the phone professionally.



One thing I really appreciated, as a business owner, was being reminded that measuring your service performance is really important. How do we measure up today? This week? This month? This year? Did we do better than yesterday? Without measurements, it can be hard to track progress and recognize where you might be dropping the ball.



Overall, I thought the book was repetitive, but that's mainly because Weinzwig is so passionate about service he really wants to reinforce the lessons. He loves what he does so much that it just hops off the page to you. It's undeniable...and that's what I ended up taking away from the book.



Even more than his commitment to service and the endless hours he's spent studying it, teaching about it, and guaranteeing that his business is run to that higher standard, his passion is what has led to his success. He hasn't written a book about passion, but that is the lasting message of his story.



Loving what you do will make you more successful and make you feel more successful and people - employees and customers - will want to be around that! That enthusiasm is probably an even bigger factor in Zingerman's success than the service. And we could all use more lessons in that!

A refreshing approach to running a business and how to provide top-notch customer service. This is a quick read and well worth it. Whether you are in the restaurant business or any other trade, this book gives great advice. I look forward to eating at Zingermans when I visit Ann Arbor.

Great book on how to give great service. Zingerman's is an instititution in Ann Arbor and this book gives us the secrets behind the success -- great service.

After reading this book, I can see exactly where other businesses fail -- lack of eye contact, slow service, not being open to suggestions.

I hope Zingerman's comes to Boston (where I live now), and I hope all the business in my area, buy and read this book.

Sincerely,

Terry Burnham

I am an unabashed Zingerman's devotee. A friend of mine introduced me to the Deli more than twenty years ago and it immediately became my standard by which all other Deli's are judged. It is a very high bar.

Over the years, the Deli has done ever more interesting things. Making its own bread, improving the meats and cheeses as well the best of the world's artisan vinegars and olive oils. What was once just the Deli has grown into a community of businesses. You can read all about them and all they offer at www.zingermans.com.

This book tells the story of one of the three Zingerman's bottom lines (Great Food, Great Service, Great Finance) and how it relates to the other two. If you are interested in business and how it works this is a fascinating book because the story it tells is so clear that it is a wonder so many miss it. The answer has something to do with the fact that this is not a recipe book about how to do this and that with a pinch of something else to succeed. This is very much a book of principles, beliefs, and how they translate into action. Ari and Paul declare affirmatively that the experience their companies provide for their employees is the kind of experience their employees will provide the customers.

How many businesses are willing to live up to that? I wish more would.

If you have ever been to a Zingerman's company you likely had a great time. While the food was great, just being there was even better. If you have gone enough times, you probably experienced a time where something didn't go as well as you had hoped. Maybe it was a terrible experience. If you let anyone know you were unhappy, you probably experienced an overwhelming effort to make it a great experience and they let you know, many times, how grateful they were you spoke up.

They were serious. They want you to tell them if your experience was great or less than you had hoped. They want you so happy that you can't wait to get back to one of their stores or eateries. Go ahead, take them up on it!

And that is the kind of spirit that fills every Zingerman's company. Their service level is asymmetrical. That is, no matter how much you give as a customer, the service level makes you feel so appreciated and special that you feel like it is gift. It works.

So, read the book. Think about it and challenge yourself and your company to do better.

Oh, and I also recommend taking the ZingTrain classes. They are quite a bargain for what you get and this book will come alive for you.

http://www.zingtrain.com/

I listened to the audiobook and I wasn't really impressed. I was expecting a new approach to customer service but much of the advice was common sense: Be nice to customers, exceed their expectations, etc, etc. I guess the unique thing about their approach was they took a lot of time to put their plan in writing and execute it.

I also thought the audiobook was extremely boring without any life or excitement. The author, who did the reading, seemed like he wasn't very excited by his approach. I felt like I was in a college classroom being taught by a uninterested professor. I got the impression that the audiobook was just another way to generate revenue for the Zingerman brand. I suspect Zingerman's has a unique product niche and great customer service is a by product of it. Now they're presenting great customer service as if that's why they are so successful. They should have skipped the audiobook because there are charts and other illustrations that couldn't be captured in the audiobook and the author who did the reading did a poor job.

Easy to read with good examples. Aftr reading I bought additional copies for all my managers.

This book is short and packed with great information. This is a great guide that teaches any business how to interact with their "customer" in the most profession, beneficial, courteous and profitable manner. The book refers to the Zingerman's group of business located in Ann Arbor MI, which are service based businesses. But, with a little thought and creativity the lessons taught in this book can easily translate to other, non-service, businesses. Additionally, there a few references in the book to systems and forms that Zingerman's has used successfully for years. They offer these resources via their phone line, but you can also go to the Zingerman's website and download them for free. A nice touch that adds even more value to this already great book.