Top 5 Customer Service Books

Delivering great customer service is no easy task, but it is not one you will have to face alone.Many experts have taken to writing to share their experiences and best practices. There are countless books in the market, ready to help you mobilize your team and achieve your present and future objectives. That’s the good news – the only issue is that very same sentence -- there are so many books! Which ones should you read? Which ones can best help you?

I’m here to help!  I decided to go online and check a number of “Top Customer Service Books” lists tofind out which books everyone agrees are “must read.”

Looking through these lists, I found many important quotes, including:

“The only thing that never changes is human nature. Given a choice, people will always spend their money on people they like”

---The Thank You Economy

I found a common theme was among the most beloved books was “happy workers = happy customers.” Creating an enjoyable workplace for your employees, these books argue, results in a better experience for your customers.

I also saw several books appear consistently across many of the lists.  Those would seemingly represent the best places to start your customer experience reading.

Without further ado, here are the Top 5 customer service books:

5) The Starbucks Experience: 5 Principals for Turning Ordinary into Extraordinary – Joseph A. Mitchell

How did a company take something so common and sell it for several times the average cost? This book is a study into how Starbucks built an empire through making its customers happy and building a world of coffee people felt a need to be a part of.

4) The Effortless Experience: Conquering the New Battleground for Customer Loyalty – Matthew Dixon, Nick Toman, Rick DeLisi

Based on an incredible study of data collected from hundreds of companies and over 100,000 customers, Dixon, Toman and DeLisi write their own version of customer service myth busters. He contends that delighting your customers may be overrated; reducing effort is actually a better way to drive loyalty. I am personally excited to include this book on the list as Delisi was the keynote speaker for our recent Call Center Week Online event, where he shared insights and best practices for raising awareness and customer retention through reducing effort.  Dixon, meanwhile, delivered an acclaimed presentation at Call Center Week in Vegas.

3) Customer Satisfaction is Worthless, Customer Loyalty is Priceless: How to Make Them Love You, Keep Them Coming Back, and Tell Everyone They Know – Jefferey Gitomer

Traditional customer satisfaction measures are essentially meaningless because a merely satisfied customer is still likely to shop around for a better price or more convenient offering the next time he or she needs to buy your product or service. Gitomer’s book lays out the blue print to creating the coveted loyal customer who is more likely to not only to come back and repeat purchase but also recommend you to friends and colleagues.

2) The Thank You Economy - Gary Vaynerchuck

We live in a new world where word of mouth can be seen world wide. If your customers like you, they will take to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and any other online channel they can get their hands on. They can spread the news just as quickly as any paid advertising you do and can potentially reach more people as well! Vaynerchuk takes a look at the power of social media and how customer service has never been more important than it is today, providing real-world examples and best practices for all managers and employees out there to take to heart.

1)       Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion and Purpose – Tony Hsieh

The 17th Annual CCW game changing keynote presenter is also a game changer with a pen. Found on almost every list I went through, “Delivering Happiness” is seen as the “must read” book for all customer service professionals. As a #1 New York Times Best Seller, this book has sold over 600,000 copies. Hsieh shares his own experiences in business and life, showing how he created a friendly work place for his employees, en route to his online retail business Zappos doing over a billion dollars annually in merchandise sales. He introduces the Zappos company culture, a very different way of doing business, and shows howyour company can achieve the same greatness.

Lists of top customer service books:

Help Scout: https://www.helpscout.net/blog/customer-service-books/

Happy Fox: http://www.happyfox.com/blog/25-customer-service-books-you-should-read/

Groove: https://www.groovehq.com/support/best-customer-service-books

Business.com: http://www.business.com/customer-service/10-excellent-customer-service-books-every-business-owner-should-read/

Salesforce Desk: http://www.desk.com/blog/customer-service-books

Zendesk: https://www.zendesk.com/blog/best-books-step-customer-service-game-2015/

Business Insider: http://www.businessinsider.com/12-must-read-customer-experience-books-for-2011-2011-3

Ready to Manage: http://blog.readytomanage.com/top-20-books-on-customer-service/

All Business: https://www.allbusiness.com/top-10-customer-service-books-13975567-1.html