The Best Service is No Service: How to Liberate Your Customers from Customer Service, Keep Them Happy, and Control Costs

by Bill Price, David Jaffe

In this groundbreaking book, Bill Price and David Jaffe offer a new, game-changing approach, showing how managers are taking the wrong path and are using the wrong metrics to measure customer service. Customer service, they assert, is only needed when a company does something wrong―eliminating the need for service is the best way to satisfy customers. To be successful, companies need to treat service as a data point of dysfunction and figure what they need to do to eliminate the demand. The Best Service Is No Service outlines these seven principles to deliver the best service that ultimately leads to "no service":

Genres: Business, Nonfiction, Entrepreneurship, Professional Development, Management

336 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 2008

Reviews

[Julio Lopes · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wish I had read this book much earlier. So many things that I tried to reinvent the wheel in my career and in the end got to the same conclusions of the authors. If you just started picking up on growth of your support team in your company this book holds quite a lot of the secrets to deal with it!

[Alaeddin Hallak · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lots of great advice for improving customer service or company's services in general. I listened to the audio version but I feel like I must go back read the ebook version to make sure I grasp the entire content.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting and some valid points.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this book, the authors make the case that providing enough self-help tools to your customers and removing the root causes for why they contact support in the first place will decrease the need for service; hence the full title of the book. They also press the idea that traditional service metrics and methodologies are tired and don't meet the needs of customers.

The book provides a number of examples of companies that have done well, and not so well, in providing Best Service. On the negative side, they show how outdated and frustrating practices decrease satisfaction. Those companies that have done well have all made themselves easy to reach using as many channels as possible. Additionally, they have adopted cultures that embrace the ideal that the customer experience is the responsibility of everyone in the company.

There were a number of very quotable passages in the book. Some of my favorites include:

"The first challenge in trying to achieve Best Service is convincing the company that it's possible and worthwhile.

[Yet,] despite our efforts to achieve Best Service, no company will ever get there."

"The most radical and far-reaching solutions often need rethinking of processes and deep questioning of the status quo-and these are hard."

"Many service departments are so busy fighting fires-trying to hire enough people to get the work done or dealing with the next product or system launch- that there appears to be no time to stand back and ask why this activity exists today. The answer to that problem is that you need to make time."

I'm looking forward to discussing the book's ideas with colleagues to see how we can implement them.

[Mike Hales · Rating 5 out of 5]

Simple and logical

The worst part of this book are the surveys at the end of each chapter. You find yourself nodding and taking notes throughout the chapter then you take the survey and realize that your company is just like one of those cited examples of customer service failure.
A great read and worth a second or even third read to review your services against those examples, collect that data and plan those changes. Practical examples and methodologies, a must read if you're a customer service operative, manager, Ceo or cmo.
Fantastic book.

[atom_box Evan G · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you are a bit experienced in Customer Service and suddenly you need to do it as a manager, or give a talk on it, this is an efficient cheat sheet. The vibe is blue chip, best practices, nothing futuristic or controversial.

The title is a little bit dated (we all know this now, maybe?). Yes, of course: removing friction and making the customer unaware that they are even "having a relationship" should be the goal (especially if you work in SaaS).

But the specificity of data is great. Bill Price gives nearly a hundred specific examples here for you to help share these ideas with other folks:
- Amazon
- Dell
- Toyota

Almost half of the examples are counterexamples: Price gives cautionary tales in each chapter from several companies who did not follow best principles.

If the 273 pages feel a little long, maybe read the intro and then immediately go to the back first. There's a decent 21 question diagnostic to administer to any company. Based on the score, he then tells you which chapters to apply and which priority for each.

There's a 40 word glossary of customer service words - all useful if you are transitioning from doing customer service to running customer service. If you are going from a role where customer service is a small part of your job to a big part of your job, the acronyms and terminology is a quick way to level up. It's not just jargon.

If you don't want such a comprehensive text book, I can recommend an alternative. If you want something to read on the plane, to gestate on the frictionlessness concept yourself, and do a little brainstorming around customer service, The Effortless Experience by Rick DeLisi feels like a newer version of the Bill Price message. That book is a conciser, newer read on the topic of low friction customer service.

[Larisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wish every manager has read this book and followed the advice.

[Ines Relvas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite impressive how it is still quite current despite having been written more than 10 years ago

[Kayla · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great business book and still very much applicable even though it's a bit older at this point. I wish every company worked with these principles!

[Kaitlin · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book spent too long trying to build its case. Didn't need to be a 10 hour book. Look up a summary online

[Martta Oliveira · Rating 5 out of 5]

Required reading for an Customer Support Leaders

Love the book because it follows a clear structure, includes frameworks, practical examples (both good and bad) and checklists. Highly recommend this book!

[Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

7 principles:

Challenge customer Demand for service Instead of coping with it
1) Eliminate Dumb Contacts
2) Create Engaging Self-service
3) Be proactive

4) Make it really easy to contact your company
5) Own the actions across the company
6) Listen and act
7) Deliver great service experiences
a) Companies are stuck with service expectations that have forgotten who the customer is
b) Companies are stuck obsessing about Speed, Not Quality, as an overall measure of Service (If so, they have the wrong metrics)
c) Companies are stuck thinking that faster is more efficient

[Jen · Rating 2 out of 5]

This should have been subtitled, "Bill Price's ode to his work at Amazon". There were about 3 great concepts in the book. There was not 200+ plus pages worth of material. I got so sick of the references to things they'd already said or previewing things they were about to say. This was a frustrating read.

[Joel · Rating 5 out of 5]

The most sound approach to customer service - stopping the demand and surprising users by using proactive communications. Well thought out examples of improving the user experience, mostly examples of Amazon, and their successes with customer service.

[Horacio · Rating 3 out of 5]

Me costó terminarlo porque después del comienzo inspirador, se pone bastante repetitivo y tedioso. En resumen, el mejor servicio es cuando no es necesario contactar al servicio al cliente. Hace mucho sentido y se ofrecen algunas herramientas para acercarse a este ideal.

[Derek · Rating 4 out of 5]

Could have been 1/2 the length, but the insights are invaluable. Definite reference for ideas and solid foundation for implementation. Great insight to Amazon because, heck, I'm the same never-call-them kinda guy that's happy as can be.

[Jorie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting read with insights and real company examples of what works and what doesn't.

[Jeffasmith1 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some good ideas some ideas opposite to what you may commonly think.