E-Service: 24 Ways to Keep Your Customers--When the Competition Is Just a Click Away (Hardcover)

~ Ron Zemke (Author), Tom Connellan (Author) "WITH these words the last great gold rush of North America began..." (more)
Key Phrases: total customer experience, shipping status, service recovery, Great Plains, Dell Computer, Academy Award (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Online businesses that stand out from their competitors are not just those with a great product and a savvy marketing pitch; they also know how to translate the old-fashioned notion of superior customer service to the Web, argue customer-service consultants ZemkeAbest known for his Knock Your Socks Off seriesAand Connellan. In fact, first-rate customer service is even more important for online businesses than for their offline competitors. For those e-businesses that are losing out on sales or failing to capture repeat business because customers have difficulty navigating their Web site, Zemke and Connellan offer sound advice in the form of "seven winning principles" of e-customer service, based on their analysis of Web sites, focus groups and consumer complaints. The authors emphasize that first and foremost online businesses must personalize the e-experience (Amazon's approach is a prime example) and encourage human contact (as does Land's End). Among their occasionally surprising findings: customers don't want bells, whistles and distracting graphics; they want to find the information they need quickly and easily, so it's best to design for clarity and ease of use. This insightful book is among the best of the recent crop of online customer service books. Zemke's solid reputation, combined with the continuing fallout among Internet companies, will draw readers eager for fresh insights. It might even help e-bookstores enjoy a booming holiday shopping season. Author tour; 25-city morning drive-time radio campaign. (Oct.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Description

63% of online shopping carts are abandoned before checkout...50% of Web shoppers give a site only one chance...ThatOs why 100% of companies doing e- business need this book!

The Web has made the concept of "competitive edge" into a virtual anachronism. Location means little, and vendors can routinely beat each other's prices and offerings at a moment's notice. So how can an e-business differentiate itself? How can it stop fickle surfers in their tracks and turn them into loyal buyers?

The answer is service, tailored uniquely to the Web. And no one knows more about that crucial subject than service guru Ron Zemke and Tom Connellan, who shared in bringing the world "Knock Your Socks Off Service." Together, they have created a detailed blueprint for companies who want to cash in long-term on the exploding Web market.

Packed with ideas and solutions that readers can implement immediately, E- SERVICE explains how to: * Manage the customer's psychological experience to strengthen brand image in the marketplace * Capture the right buyers--the ones who provide true profit--and earn their iron-clad trust * Recover from mistakes, using methods that not only retain at-risk customers but turn them into your best publicists * Design home pages, order forms, and other visual elements that attract users rather than frustrate them; and more!

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: AMACOM; 1st edition (October 20, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0814406068
• ISBN-13: 978-0814406069
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,350,610 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars e-service, October 20, 2000

By	Kent W. Jones (Lake Crystal, MN) - See all my reviews

My career, delivering training for organizations throughout North America, not only requires I prepare in detail the specific programs I am hired to deliver but to keep up with other relevant issues in the training marketplace. This is one of the reasons I enjoy readinig and using Ron Zemke's books. He writes on relevant topics. This is the case for Tom Connellan and Ron Zemke's newest book E-SERVICE. Recently I loaned E-SERVICE to one of the Customized Training Coordinators for South Central Technical College, North Mankato, MN. Her first reaction was, "He (Zemke) has done it again. He has written a book with immediately useful and relevant information." I concur.

The content of this book is so valuable. We encourage organizations to make their processes, forms, and voice mail systems warmer and easier to use. Once you read this book you will see how important it is to keep these same principles (and practices) in mind when you encourage customers to conduct e-business with your organization. The book is literally a HANDS ON manual on what you want to consider and what you might do to make your website, your e-commerce site more effective, efficient, and productive.

The statistics and research are very valuable and validate how important it is to give your on-line commerce site serious consideration. The book becomes a great HANDS ON tool when you combine the research with what to do NOW and what to do NEXT.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars e-service tells why, how, when and where!, October 2, 2000

By	Judy in California (Tiburon, CA USA) - See all my reviews

Zemke and Connellan have struck gold again! Citing facts, figures and e-shoppers' perceptions, they present a compelling case. People may flock to dot com stores, but they also leave in droves. The conclusions: online sellers must not ignore critcal customer service lessons learned in storefronts, and online sellers also have a new set of customer service issues to address. The authors outline a detailed blueprint for how to do it, telling what customer service means in an internet environment and explaining exactly what steps must be taken to avoid losing customers online.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Retain or Die, July 23, 2001

By	Robert Morris (Dallas, Texas) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)    (VINE VOICE)

I have a bias which Zemke and Connellan apparently share: Literally anyone who has any contact with a customer (or client) is a "customer service representative." They include whoever answers the telephone; whoever greets visitors at the door or encounters them within the building; whoever delivers anything to a customer; whoever has direct contact with a customer's own customer, vendor, or service provider (e.g. banker, attorney, accountant, management consultant); and whoever in any other situation has an opportunity to add value to the customer relationship. You get my point. The authors of this book focus on a major challenge to all organizations: keeping customers, especially now when "the competition is just a click away." Customer retention is the name of this "game" and almost everyone within a given organization is a "player."

Zemke and Connellan organize their excellent material within fourteen chapters, presenting and then explaining 24 "key" strategies to maximize customer retention. These "keys" range from "Master the ETDBW [i.e. Easy to Do Business With] Design Basics" in Chapter 5 to "Use Incentives to Increase Spending" in Chapter 11. They then provide "A Seven-Lesson Crash Course in E-Service Improvement" in Chapter 12 followed by a thought-provoking chapter "The Future of the Net: Take These Predictions to the Bank" and, in the final chapter, a "Browser's Guide" which offers 80 "tips" such as "the long-term winners...will be those that have done the best job of supporting their customers and delivering that value in a way that seems effortless." I also appreciate the inclusion of "Notes" and "Additional Resources."

For small-to-midsize organizations especially, here in a single-volume are information and guidance sufficient to assist the design, launch, implementation, and refinement of an e-business customer service program. I think this book can also be of substantial value to much larger organizations which, I am convinced, should constantly re-evaluate such a program already in place. Recall the "bias" to which I referred earlier. Recent market research (generated by several million respondents) has revealed what is most important to customers: "feeling appreciated" and "ease of doing business" (or "convenience") were ranked either #1 or #2 among the attributes. Revealingly, "cost" is ranked anywhere between #9 and #14.

Do Zemke and Donnellan address all the "right" questions? No, but they don't miss many. Are all of their answers to various questions the "right" ones? Read the book and judge for yourself. In fact, I urge you to consult a number of other books which cover much of the same material. It would be imprudent (perhaps even stupid) to rely entirely on a single source. The authors identify several in the "Additional Resources" section to which I presume to add Treacy and Wiersema's The Discipline of Market Leaders (who have a great deal of value to say about "customer intimacy") as well as Customer Equity co-authored by Blattberg, Getz, and Thomas who provide a brilliant analysis of what could be called "the ROI of customer relationships."