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How You Do... What You Do: Create Service Excellence That Wins Clients For Life | 
 enlarge | Author: Bob Livingston
Creator: David Calhoun
Publisher: McGraw-Hill
Category: Book
List Price: $27.95
Buy New: $10.50
You Save: $17.45 (62%)
New (44) Used (13) from $9.64
Avg. Customer Rating:  7 reviews
Sales Rank: 284362
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 282
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.3
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6 x 1.2
ISBN: 0071592784
Dewey Decimal Number: 658.812
EAN: 9780071592789
ASIN: 0071592784
Publication Date: June 2, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Between the challenges of escalating competition, well-informed clients, and dismal customer service, today's marketplace is becoming more and more crowded. The result is that your clients have more influence and choices than ever before. If you or your organization do not consistently satisfy and surpass their expectations, your clients will take their buying power elsewhere. It's that simple. But by establishing service excellence as your top strategic and cultural priority, you will foster the strong relationships needed to win--and retain--loyal clients. In this breakthrough book, customer service expert Bob Livingston gives you practical tools for transforming your approach to serving clients by strengthening “how you do what you do.” Whether you're a business leader, a client service executive, a sales manager, or an individual, you can differentiate yourself from competition by adopting Livingston's simple yet proven roadmap for achieving Service Excellence. In How You Do . . . What You Do, Livingston imparts a clear, step-by-step blueprint for transforming your culture, attitudes, and behaviors by illustrating how to: - Develop and live your Purpose and Values
- Understand your clients' soft needs, and create plans to satisfy them
- Seek continuous improvement by stimulating creativity and innovation
- Keep your service-oriented culture growing
- Create a passion for Service Excellence
Livingston draws upon a lifetime of experience in which he has achieved measurable success helping many companies shape their service cultures--most notably CROSSMARK, an international consumer products sales and marketing agency, whose remarkable transformation stands out as one of the strongest proof statements for this methodology. Throughout, Livingston benchmarks other great companies renowned for their service excellence, including Accenture, Henry & Horne, ECRM, The Nielsen Company, TBWA\Worldwide, Four Seasons, and many others. Properly executed, this compelling and inspirational approach to service virtually guarantees the client loyalty that will set you apart from competition, and distinguish you by How You Do . . . What You Do.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 2 more reviews...
 Something so simple but never given the deserved focus. September 10, 2008
This book is full of excellent advice that is transferable across any industry. There are not complex formulas and 12 steps programs, just a few simple rules to ensure you provide superior service to your customers, your friends and your family. It's really the difference between delivering good work and delivering work that is forever remembered by your clients.
Also, what a company can be and do for its salespeople August 1, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Frankly, I doubt if there are any head-snapping revelations left concerning customer service but I continue to be impressed by recently published books in which their authors offer thought-provoking perspectives, insights, and suggestions worthy of careful consideration. Just as there is a buyer for every house, in publishing there is a buyer for every book. My task as a reviewer is to help those who read my comments to decide whether or not the given book seems to be directly appropriate to her or his own circumstances, needs, and interests. How You Do...What You Do offers a case in point.
Bob Livingston achieves his objective of presenting a comprehensive, cohesive, and cost-effective program that (with appropriate modifications, of course) could be put in place by almost any company, whatever its size and nature may be. I think that his book can also be of substantial value to individuals in sales, especially those who are relatively inexperienced although much of what he shares could serve as "reminders" to sales managers.
Obviously, the best an organization can do to support its sales initiatives (as opposed to its marketing initiatives) is to "free up" its salespersons - as much as possible - from responsibilities that are unrelated to the cultivation, solicitation, and post-sale process. Less time consumed by paperwork means more time available to nourish customer relationships. A company can maintain zero-defect quality control of each product it sells. It can also ensure that there are no foul-ups with order processing, delivery, invoicing, and technical service. An appropriate analogy would be to carrier jet pilots who also depend on an efficient system to provide the information they need, then get them and their planes safely on their way to each target destination. As Livingston explains very well, companies should be customer-centric, indeed customer-driven and develop a culture that recognizes what Peter Drucker observed decades ago: "If you don't have a customer, you don't have a business."
Of course, selling today must take into full account that customers have more choices than ever before, that many (if not most) products are commodities or at least widely viewed that way, and that in general, customers are much better informed than in years past, largely because of immediate access to more and better information, much of it provided by Web sites. (There are several Web sites that direct people to other Web sites. They function as an electronic concierge" and can be quite helpful.) Purchase decisions - including the decision to purchase nothing now or soon - usually involve several people (what Michael Boylan characterizes as a "circle of influence") rather than a single decision-maker, so cultivation strategies must be diversified and "customized" and yet (somehow) coordinated effectively. If you don't think that's tricky, try doing it.
As Livingston fully understands, no sales program or system such as his (or anyone else's) can ever replace a knowledgeable, likeable, principled, and energetic salesperson, nor was it intended to be. On the contrary, it should be viewed as an enabling device that saves a salesperson precious time and energy, improves identification and pre-qualification of prospective customers, and in other ways (to repeat) "frees up" her or him to focus on cultivation and solicitation initiatives.
His book will help those in sales to gain a better understand of what to do...and how to do it. (Those who read between lines will also get some tips on what not to do...and how not to do it.) Livingston's book can also help CEOs and other C-level executives to gain a better understanding of why a customer-centric, indeed customer-driven culture must be established and then sustained.
Those who share my high regard for this book are urged to check out Joseph Michelli's The New Gold Standard: 5 Leadership Principles for Creating a Legendary Customer Experience Courtesy of The Ritz Carlton Hotel Company and two of Leonard Berry's books, On Great Service: A Framework for Action and Discovering the Soul of Service: The Nine Drivers of Sustainable Business Success as well as Creating Customer Evangelists: How Loyal Customers Become a Volunteer Sales Force co-authored by Ben McConnell and Jackie Huba.
One of a kind!! June 15, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
One could easily say that Bob's most enduring talent is to naturally motivate and encourage those around him. For those of us who have seen him speak, we have had the luxury of seeing the stories in this book come to life in the most inspiring and thought provocking manner.
You will want to photocopy sections of this book for your staff, bosses and clients alike. You will find yourself coming back to it over and over again. HYDWYD will be your valued asset in engaging those around you in service minded behavior. After all it is about the "how" you do "what" you do...
Bob is clearly the real life depiction of "how you do, what you do!" I can easily endorse Bob and his book without reservation.
The real deal...he practices what he preaches! June 12, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I have had the pleasure of reading the book, hearing him present "How you do..What you do, and working with him directly and I can tell you that Bob Livingston is the real deal! The premise of the book extends beyond work and has meaning for your personal life as well. The book lays out in clear terms a pathway for improving "how you do" things, in many ways a lost art (or even value) today. It also provides meaningful examples to emphasize the points. It is fast paced and a must read!
Service Excellence is something everyone can learn from! May 22, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Bob Livingston has a wonderful way of conveying service stories and solutions. He shares his many years of experience and situations from the Corporate World and presents simple solutions that we can all learn from. Every time I have a poor service experience, I wish that there were handouts in Bob's book so that I could share with people how they could learn to improve their level of service. How You Do....What You Do raises an awareness level of service second to none. This is a quick read, that will remain with you always. I highly recommend it.
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