Customers for Life How to Turn That One-Time Buyer Into a Lifetime Customer

by Sewell, Carl; Brown, Paul B.

• ISBN13: 9780385504454
• ISBN10: 0385504454
• Edition: Revised
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-11-19
• Publisher: Crown Currency

Summary

In this completely revised and updated edition of the customer service classic (more than 600,000 copies sold), Carl Sewell enhances his time-tested advice with fresh ideas and new examples and explains how the groundbreaking "Ten Commandments of Customer Service" apply to today's world. Drawing on his incredible success in transforming his Dallas Cadillac dealership into the second largest in America, Carl Sewell revealed the secret of getting customers to return again and again in the originalCustomers for Life. A lively, down-to-earth narrative, it set the standard for customer service excellence and became a perennial bestseller. Building on that solid foundation, this expanded edition features five completely new chapters, as well as significant additions to the original material, based on the lessons Sewell has learned over the last ten years. Sewell focuses on the expectations and demands of contemporary consumers and employees, showing that businesses can remain committed to quality service in the fast-paced new millennium by sticking to his time-proven approach: Figure out what customers want and make sure they get it. His "Ten Commandants" provide the essential guidelines, including: Underpromise, overdeliver: Never disappoint your customers by charging them more than they planned. Always beat your estimate or throw in an extra service free of charge No complaints? Something's wrong: If you never ask your customers what else they want, how are you going to give it to them? Measure everything: Telling your employees to do their best won't work if you don't know how they can improve Borrow, borrow, borrow: Sewell, for example, learned about hospitality from Japanese culture, cleanliness from Disney, and politeness from his mother.

Author Biography

<b>Carl Sewell</b> is the owner of one of the largest car dealerships in the United States, with more than one billion dollars in sales. He lives in Dallas, Texas, and speaks regularly to prominent executives and top corporations nationwide. <b>Paul B. Brown</b>, a former writer and editor for <i>Business Week</i>, <i>Financial World</i>, <i>Forbes</i>, and <i>Inc.</i>, lives in Duxbury, Massachusetts.

Table of Contents

What's New	xi
Foreword	xv
Tom Peters
The Ten Commandments of Customer Service	xix
It All Starts Here: How Good Do You Want to Be?	xxi
ONE Ask Your Customers What They Want . . . and Give It to 'Em	1	(20)
The Customer Will Tell You How to Provide Good Service	3	(9)
If the Customer Asks, the Answer Is Always Yes	12	(3)
There's No Such Thing As After Hours	15	(3)
Underpromise, Overdeliver	18	(3)
TWO How to Give Good Service Every Time	21	(38)
Systems, Not Smiles	23	(5)
Fire Your Inspectors	28	(4)
Fire Your Consumer Relations Department, Too	32	(3)
Do It Right the First Time	35	(6)
When Something Goes Wrong	41	(5)
Picking a Profitable Plan: Figuring Out the Basis of Your Customer's Buying Decision	46	(4)
How to Have What Your Customers Want	50	(4)
Good Enough Never Is	54	(5)
THREE People: How To Care for Customers---and Employees	59	(34)
Q: Who's More Important? Your Customer or Your Employee? A: Both	61	(3)
The Customer Isn't Always Right	64	(5)
You Can't Have All the Customers	69	(3)
How To Teach Customers to Get the Best Service	72	(4)
Creating Frequent Buyers	76	(4)
Making Sure You Have the Best People	80	(8)
Developing Service Superstars	88	(5)
FOUR How Do You Know How Good You Are?	93	(16)
Accounting For More Than Money	95	(14)
FIVE What Do You Pay to Get Good Service?	109	(12)
Save More by Paying More	111	(5)
Partnership Pay	116	(5)
SIX Leadership Is Performance	121	(6)
You Can't Fake It	123	(4)
SEVEN Every Impression Is Important	127	(22)
Selling Should Be Theater	129	(6)
Quality Time	135	(3)
Your Mother Was Right: Manners Really Are Important	138	(3)
``If That's How They Take Care of the Restrooms, How'll They Take Care of Me?''	141	(3)
When Was the Last Time (If Ever) You Thought About Your Signs?	144	(2)
If the Boss Is a Crook, You Can't Expect the Employees To Be Honest	146	(2)
The Only Dress Code You'll Ever Need	148	(1)
EIGHT Creating Products That Are Easy to Sell	149	(14)
Make a Little, Sell a Little	151	(5)
You Can't Give Good Service If You Sell a Lousy Product	156	(7)
NINE Borrow, Borrow, Borrow	163	(18)
Why Reinvent the Wheel? Just Improve It	165	(6)
Cycle Time	171	(5)
``The Things You Don't Know Are the History You Haven't Read''	176	(5)
TEN You Are the Message	181	(10)
Speak Softly, But . . .	183	(4)
Promotions: Wet T-shirts or the Symphony?	187	(4)
ELEVEN Bring 'Em Back Alive	191	(12)
The $517,000 Customer	193	(3)
How To Be Forgiven Your Trespasses	196	(2)
This Way of Working Really Does Work	198	(3)
None of This Is Worth a Damn, If You Don't Make a Profit	201	(2)
Afterword	203	(1)
Stanley Marcus
Acknowledgments	204