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What you think you know about customer service is wrong

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Barry Moltz came to my attention with Bounce!, his book on failure. His latest book is BAM! Delivering Customer Service in a Self-Service World, with co-author Mary Jane Grinstead. (Barry and I are already working on his next book, and my first, on rural entrepreneurs.) Barry gave me a copy of BAM!, and it is terrific.
Good customer service

Here’s why you want to read it. What you think you know about customer service is at least partly wrong. Maybe worse than the parts you have wrong, are the parts of your thinking that are incomplete. But Barry and Mary Jane are going to help you see customer service in a new way. They help you think all the way through ideas like “good customer service is common sense” and where they break down.

Every customer is different and how they feel about your company, your product and their purchase, varies enormously based on a whole raft of factors you can control and some you can’t.

At the book’s website, you can read the BAM!-good Customer Service Manifesto, learn about BAM blockers, and even read through all the myths. And you should. But you should also get a copy of the book, because until you read the whole thing, you won’t get it.

Barry handed out buttons that say, “Just give me good customer service and nobody gets hurt.” Who hasn’t felt that way? If you put these ideas into practice in your business, you’re going to satisfy more customers. That means more profits. And that is exactly why Barry says you want to give good customer service: it helps your bottom line.

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About Becky McCray

Becky started Small Biz Survival in 2006 to share rural business and community building stories and ideas with other small town business people. She and her husband have a small cattle ranch and are lifelong entrepreneurs. Becky is an international speaker on small business and rural topics.

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