Amaze Every Customer Every Time: 52 Tools for Delivering the Most Amazing Customer Service on the Planet

by Shep Hyken

You must deliver an amazing customer experience. Why? It is the competitive edge of new-era business--in any market and any economy. Renowned customer experience expert Shep Hyken explains how consistently amazing customers through stellar service can elevate your company from good to great. All transformations require a role model, and Shep has found the perfect role model to inspire your Ace Hardware. Ace was named as one of the top ten customer service brands in America by Businessweek and ranked highest in its industry for customer satisfaction. Through revealing stories from Ace's over-the-top work with customers, Shep explores the five tactical areas of customer leadership, culture, one-on-one, competitive edge, and community. Delivering amazing service requires everyone in your organization to step up and be a leader. It doesn't take a title. It takes the right set of tools and principles. To help you empower employees at all levels, Shep brings the content to a deeply practical level. His 52 Amazement Tools--like ''Ask the extra question'' and ''Focus on the customer, not the money''--are simple, clear, useful for almost anybody, and supported with compelling research and stories. Between these covers, you will find the tools and tactics you need to transform your company into a seriously customer-focused operation that will amaze every customer every time.

Genres: Business, Nonfiction, Buisness, Audiobook, Management

240 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2013

About the author

The "Official" (and somewhat boring) Shep Hyken Bio...

Shep Hyken, CSP, CPAE is the Chief Amazement Officer at Shepard Presentations. As a speaker and author, Shep works with companies and organizations who want to build loyal relationships with their customers and employees. His articles have been read in hundreds of publications, and he is the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and USA Today bestselling business author of "Moments of Magic," "The Loyal Customer," "The Cult of the Customer" and "The Amazement Revolution." He is also the creator of The Customer Focus program, which helps clients develop a customer service culture and loyalty mindset.

In 1983 Shep founded Shepard Presentations and since then has worked with hundreds of clients ranging from Fortune 100 size organizations to companies with less than 50 employees. Some of his clients include American Airlines, AAA, Anheuser-Busch, AT&T, AETNA, Abbott Laboratories, American Express - and that's just a few of the A's!

Shep Hyken's most requested programs focus on customer service, customer loyalty, internal service, customer relations and the customer experience. He is known for his high-energy presentations, which combine important information with entertainment (humor and magic) to create exciting programs for his audiences.

(CPAE, or the Council of Peers Award for Excellence, is the National Speakers Association's Speaker Hall of Fame award for lifetime achievement in the area platform/speaking excellence. CSP is the international designation for Certified Speaking Professionals and is awarded to individuals for certain achievements and education in the speaking profession.)

Reviews

[Matt McAlear · Rating 5 out of 5]

A solid book with many takeaways for how to have excellent customer service.

A few Takeaways from this book:
- If you want to have to world best customer service than you have to treat your employees better than anyone else and have the best culture. Great customer service starts with the people who have already been treated right and will reciprocate that to the customer.
- There cannot be any weak link because your employees are the company at any given moment. So if there is an employee not following the customer service principles of the group they will quickly cause damage.
- $5 Rule. Allow the employees to fix customer problems no matter what they may be for $5 or less. There are a lot of problems that can be fixed for a couple bucks and it empowers the employees to take charge and wow the customer.
- Wowing the customer. When problems arise for the customers take that opportunity to turn the negative into a positive for them by wowing the customer. Go above and beyond their expectation and build lasting loyalty.
- The value of a lifetime customer. We should be ok with taking care of customers through RGA's and discounts because those pale in comparison to the lifetime value of winning and keeping that customer.

[Jeff]

Thank you. I just won this book in a first reads giveaway. I will read and comment once I get the book.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

Here is a book on customer service. The main message of this book is similar to Lee Cockerell's The Customer Rules , but this book hits me a little closer to home because Hyken uses Ace Hardware as his chief exemplar for each of his 52 tools for the 'most amazing customer service on the planet.' As someone whose current job is in an Ace, has a supervisory role and wants to deliver great service every time, I found this a helpful book for my context. Of course I would say personally, and as a store, we fall short of 'amazing customer service' all too often. Hyken challenges us to deliver consistent, above average customer service and their is room to grow for anyone regardless of your context.

Like with The Customer Rules, much of Hyken's advice is both common sense and belongs in the 'how to be a good human being' category, but hey, these are important and often neglected categories. For a book on customer service, this book delivers the goods.

The fifty-two tools, are organized under broad headings: leadership, culture, one-on-one (interaction with the customer), the competive edge, and community. There is even a downloadable study guide which helps you implement the suggestions in this book.

All good books on customer service say essentially the same thing: 'treat people right.' This book manages to say that well and is careful to say that 'the bottom line is not the bottom line,' caring for customers is. I think that is what makes this book good.

[Waldo Jones · Rating 3 out of 5]

I listened to the audiobook, but something tells me that the way this book was formatted, wasn't really meant for audio. (The extreme repetition gave it away)

Unless you want to hear the name "Ace" or "Ace Hardware" to the point where any patient man has the desire to buy 40 copies of this book, just to burn them in front of the authors house - I recommend skipping the first section of the book. The result being that you only hear those two names used a total of maybe 70 times, rather than a total of 400+ times, and you won't really miss anything that he won't repeat to you four or five times over.

I gave it three stars because even though these principles are common sense and I'm well familiar with them, it's always nice to have a recap and the book did teach me a handful of interesting facts that I was completely unfamiliar with.

But god damn does he love copy and paste.

[Rachael Jarrells · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought the book, Amaze Every Customer Every Time: 52 Tools for Delivering the Most Amazing Customer Service on the Planet, was a thought-provoking, easy read. Definitely a refresher course for businesses on what customer service should look like. My favorite take away tools from the toolbox was 1) treat customers the way you would like to be treated as the customer 2) the customer is not always right but 'correct' them with dignity. Those two tools gave me a different perspective on those topics. The one tool that I somewhat agree with/disagree with was "work like you own the company". That tool would work if you are basing everyone's behavior on good faith; however, that is typically a short-term, or unreliable expectation. What I mean is, people tend to create an internal pride about their company that can turn into 'big-headedness' and will actually act like they are the owner of the company when they are not. I do understand the point that the author was trying to make - should have written it differently.

[Kristen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is included with Audible but my thoughts are similar to other reviews, audio isn’t the best experience for this title. There is a lot of repetition even to the point of the same sentence being repeated in slightly different form. I felt like I was experiencing dejavú MANY times throughout.

I think it’s a good reference to recap many solid fundamentals in customer service and the clear “tools” are well bulleted where if you had the physical book you would be able to target what you were most interested in vs reading straight through.

The belabored reference to Ace Hardware wasn’t for me but some may appreciate a relatable business to aid the points. Hope they never go out of business or the whole book is busy regardless of the principals.

[Todd Cheng · Rating 3 out of 5]

A free download as part of Amazon Prime. I appreciated the easy read and learning the Ace Hardware methodology for customer support. A good take was the customer experience testing. Pretend to be a customer and test out the experience. Empower the associates with some level of cost threshold to help the customer on stuff that might not be in the normal workflow.

Think about the first question you ask the customer.

[Jen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is flat out fantastic and very applicable to every day life and work.

[Brandon · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice insight that goes way over and above customer service but into life in general. Delivered in bite sized chunks its.easy to grab over a coffee and get your fix.

[David Westerveld · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good book. A quick and dirty skim through customer service. Easy reading with some good insights in it.

[Marie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting book for Customer Service professionals. It should be part of each company library to provide a good toolbox to manage and exceed expectations.

[Adam McKee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great action steps for any company to improve their internal and external interactions with a client.

I am interested in having our team try out our products first hand

[Bennett · Rating 3 out of 5]

had to read it for work, fine for what it is, not for me.

[Brad · Rating 4 out of 5]

Had to read this for work and loved the real world applications with Ace Hardware. It makes it easier to relate when you have those examples and testimonies

[Jared Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

this book brakes down what makes some companies so affective The first few chapters look at why Ace hardware was picked as the example for good competitive customer service. The author wanted to use just one company that exemplifies all the traits and the mindset of a “customer service rock star”. These are companies that people think of when you say costumer service, but he brings the point that since the 1980s when ‘costumer service’ became in vogue many companies have come in and out of having amazing costumer service, such as Delta in the 80s and now Southwest has replaced Delta. This is an example of a company having a good start but also being the “sexy” rock star, and fading as it ages and gains wrinkles. Whereas Ace has been doing it for 85+ years they show that they are a “Rock star and…. Solid as a rock”
The next chapter starts of talking about the company needing to be employ centered, and how that leads to the costumer centered amazement. and brakes it down into steps.
In conclusion there are many other good points in this book. It is a very good read and applicable in its theory and road map to our clinic. I will take the above things and improve on them as well as using the principles to recreate my professional life and to energize me at work, and improve on both the strengths and weakness. Point 5 is adapt or die this is true in every aspect of the life of an individual, in professional, personal, spiritual and day to day life. And is a principle that I will focuses on. So that as the company grows and adapts I grow with it. As Socrates states “Education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel”. Learning never ceases it is constant and as we learn we must adapt.

[Ann · Rating 3 out of 5]

Stories are an age-old method to impart knowledge and encourage understanding and learning. The stories here support that. The 52 tools are presented in a way that lets you pluck an idea out and digest the message randomly or together.

[Richard Gray · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing your customers

If you are in business, you need this great advice from Shep Hyken. All the great tools to Amaze Your Customers is right here, and your Ace Hardware Store, "the helpful place". If you want to have loyal customer, this is your book. Thanks Shep.

[Alexander Belotserkovskiy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well, i think that it is the excellent book. Well formatted and written, those tips are obvious but still useful. Recommend it.

[Gustavo · Rating 5 out of 5]

A CX Classic, a must read

A must read, full of 'obvious' or 'common sense' ideas - but somehow not implemented in major organisations. Read it, wake up and apply it... or be left behind.