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Jeff Toister
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The Service Culture Handbook: A Step-by-Step Guide to Getting Your Employees Obsessed with Customer Service Kindle Edition

by Jeff Toister (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 433 ratings
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Imagine you could develop a customer-focused culture so powerful that your employees always seem to do the right thing. They encourage each other, proactively solve problems, and constantly look for ways to go the extra mile.


In short, imagine a workplace culture where employees were absolutely obsessed with customer service.


The Service Culture Handbook is a step-by-step guide to help you develop a customer-focused culture in your company, department, or location. Whether you’re just beginning your journey, or have been working on culture for years, this handbook will prepare you to take the next step. You’ll receive actionable advice, straightforward exercises, and proven tools you can utilize immediately.


Learn the one thing that forms the foundation of every great culture. Discover what customer-focused companies do differently to engage their employees. And explore ways to strategically align every facet of your organization with outstanding service.


Creating and sustaining a customer-focused culture is a never-ending journey that takes hard work, dedication, and commitment. The Service Culture Handbook is an indispensable resource to help you and your employees stay headed in the right direction.


Praise for The Service Culture Handbook:


"The Service Culture Handbook provides the poignant inspiration and practical instruction for the difficult work of transforming a service culture into one that is distinctive, successful, and permanent." —Chip R. Bell, author of Kaleidoscope: Delivering Innovative Service That Sparkles


"Though research continues to uncover the astonishing impact of customer-focused cultures on customer loyalty and business results, few organizations know how to get there. Jeff Toister unlocks that mystery through this practical (and fun to read!) guide to developing a culture that really works." —Brad Cleveland, founding partner and former CEO, International Customer Management Institute

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  1. Print length
    190 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Sticky notes
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  4. Publication date
    April 2, 2017
  5. File size
    723 KB
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"Jeff provides a clear blue print on how to create and sustain a customer service culture. Written in an engaging style and filled with practical examples, companies will have all the tools they need to create a successful customer service culture." --Joshua Vollendorf, Manager, Employee Learning, Gateway Technical College

"Jeff Toister's The Service Culture Handbook is the perfect guide for building a true service focused culture in any organization. The easy to follow steps are outlined in a clear, concise way with plenty of supporting research and real company examples of success and missteps. It is a fun, engaging and buzzword free guide that doesn't shy away from the message that it takes long term commitment, patience and courage to build and maintain a service culture." --Vickie Friece, Senior Vice President Operations--Service Delivery/Financial Operations, Meta Payment Systems

"Jeff Toister has written a book with the formula for business success in the 21st century. If you are looking for what can help transform your business from mostly transactional to partner and service oriented, this book is for you." --Jason Gardner, CPLP, Administrator, Organizational Development, Southwest Gas Corporation

"One of the best Customer Experience books of all time" - BookAuthority

From the Back Cover

Praise for The Service Culture Handbook:

"The Service Culture Handbook provides the poignant inspiration and practical instruction for the difficult work of transforming a service culture into one that is distinctive, successful, and permanent." —Chip R. Bell, author of Kaleidoscope: Delivering Innovative Service That Sparkles

"Though research continues to uncover the astonishing impact of customer-focused cultures on customer loyalty and business results, few organizations know how to get there. Jeff Toister unlocks that mystery through this practical (and fun to read!) guide to developing a culture that really works." —Brad Cleveland, founding partner and former CEO, International Customer Management Institute

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B06XZZBDZF
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Toister Performance Solutions, Inc. (April 2, 2017)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ April 2, 2017
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 723 KB
  • Simultaneous device usage ‏ : ‎ Unlimited
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 190 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 433 ratings

About the author

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Jeff Toister

Jeff Toister

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Jeff Toister's first customer service interaction ended in a service failure. Vowing to learn from that experience, he became obsessed with customer service.

Today, he is an author, consultant, and trainer who helps organizations develop customer-focused cultures.

He's written four books including The Service Culture Handbook. More than 10,000 customer service professionals around the world subscribe to Jeff's Customer Service Tip of the Week email. More than one million people have taken one of his video-based training courses on LinkedIn Learning.

Jeff has been recognized by Global Gurus as one of the top 30 customer experience in the world.

Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
4.6 out of 5
433 global ratings
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Top reviews from the United States

Billy Brophy
5.0 out of 5 stars Highly Recommended!
Reviewed in the United States on February 27, 2023
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If you'd like to create change in your business culture so it focuses more on delighting customers, read this book with your team and begin implementing it's advice asap! It's filled with wisdom in order to pull this outcome off.
One person found this helpful
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Gabriel F.
5.0 out of 5 stars A Ph.D. in Service Culture
Reviewed in the United States on April 26, 2017
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There's no easy to say this, but... if your company and/or team culture sucks, no amount of training, coaching, or plucked-from-thin-air engagement strategies are going to do it. Oh, and if you think you can just replicate the successes of other companies, keep on dreamin'.

It's overwhelming, I know. But here's the deal - it doesn't have to be and this book will show you why. Why is culture important and why do so many initiatives fail? What is culture? What does it look like within the context of your team or company? How do you align your company's goals around culture? How do hire and train the right people? The answer to these questions, and so much more, are found in this book.

Oh, and one last thing. This is not some dreary academic text with prose baked in Ambien. Jeff writes with a very conversational tone which makes this book an easy read.
18 people found this helpful
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Joel S.
4.0 out of 5 stars Practical with great ideas
Reviewed in the United States on November 13, 2022
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I've read a lot of books like this and many are filled with anecdotes and platitudes that are worth pondering but provide little in the way of practical things that can improve your company.

This book is different, with several well thought out procedures and examples of how to actually implement the creation of a vision statement and ways to develop workplace culture.

The chapters are well thought out and follow a logical progression. Plenty here not only to ponder but to actually do. Well worth your time.
3 people found this helpful
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Matt Plapp
5.0 out of 5 stars The Perfect Book for Customer Service
Reviewed in the United States on April 2, 2021
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I had the privilege of reading this book and talking to the author, Jeff Toister.

Jeff is awesome, and he is very knowledgable when it comes to customer service.

One of my favorite parts of the book is Chapter 7. Jeff deconstructs the importance of hiring people who'll embrace your culture.

Being a business owner myself, that was insightful for me to read. I'd recommend this book to any business owner who's looking to improve the way they interact with customers.
3 people found this helpful
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Rose P
5.0 out of 5 stars Exceptional Service starts with Culture…
Reviewed in the United States on April 27, 2017
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Easy, no, something a company can do: YES! The Service Culture Handbook is a book that acts as a guide to defining “exceptional customer service” and the work required to make it happen.
The book is loaded with examples of both the enablers and potential pitfalls that may be encountered along the way. It also includes tangible activities and tools to help each company shape the service culture that is right for their organization and customers. The fact that the handbook clearly states “Culture is not a side project. It’s a way of doing business that should be integrated into everything you do…” makes it clear that it is a journey that requires effort both to create it and then sustain it!
9 people found this helpful
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Richard A. Nardi
3.0 out of 5 stars Nice stories.
Reviewed in the United States on March 27, 2020
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I have a whole career that says quality/improvement initiatives rarely work. Every company I worked for was ISO 9001 compliant and had a highly compensated Quality Manager to prove it. “Pencil whip” is a verb. This book acknowledges those problems and provides various solutions. My skepticism remains that the companies I worked for would actually use them. Analyzing and discussing ideas is fun. It’s never too late to improve.
I’m not so impressed by the “heroic effort” touted early in this book. It usually indicates a failure in the system that remains uncorrected. Because it usually makes a great story, it is self-serving. The boy’s lost stuffed animal that goes on a photo journey is heartwarming. Does every single boy deserve and expect this same level of “heroic effort”? This reminds me of people who give large checks to charity if they can get their picture in the newspaper.
“It is easy to copy something in form but not as easy to capture the spirit that makes it work.” Mito, S. (1990). The Honda Book of Management, p. 31
Good advice tends to come out as mere platitude. Our brains seem to be wired for pattern recognition and storytelling. Consider the difference between “Don’t lie” and “The story of ‘The Boy Who Cried Wolf’”. The numerous stories in the book are excellent.
Self-interst. There is always the conflict between serving our self-interest and societies demand for ethical behavior (going against our self-interest). Commonly, people loudly proclaim that everyone else is required to be ethical while always promoting their own self-interest. Only one out of every ten employees can get promoted. The “one” is obvious.
In theory every service you offer for sale should be defined and achievable. Is getting the customer a bottle of whisky an available service? How about driving fifty miles to the nearest In-N-Out for a hamburger (that needs to be kept warm). Is that an available service? There must be a line somewhere. Is “heroic service” always good? There is little mention of tipping, which means the server is using company time and resources for personal gain. There are some examples of worthwhile “heroic effort”. I believe there should have been more emphasis on Root Cause Analysis and The Five Whys for every failure. That prevents future failures. Just saying “you can’t change the past” and forgetting about failures is bad policy. I’m not impressed by managers who want a list of the three or five most common failures, minimum a hundred or thousand, and think that is adequate. They are willing to throw a customer with a unique failure under the bus (unless they are politically connected). Your product shouldn’t fail. That is the basis of great service.
Most companies have an inch thick rule book of “you can’t do that”. So what is a server supposed to do when accommodating a customer would break a rule? What if the boss has specifically emphasized getting things done as quickly and cheaply as possible? I have personally never seen an employee manual that empowered employees. Power is wielded by management. Work is done by employees. Chapter 9 describes empowering employees. “… the company provides employees with the tools, resources, and authority to serve their customers at the highest level.”
Nice examples of how the measured variable is optimized, usually by gaming the system (95% customer satisfaction). The author is aware of how thing go wrong.
The books emphasis on company culture is well founded. Hiring honest, enthusiastic well socialized people is important. Chapter 7 describes how to do this. The next chapter tells about training/refreshing existing employees in customer culture. The book mentions several companies with excellent company culture. An approach to writing a vision statement is given. It is unfortunate that sustained senior management buy-in is necessary for improvement programs to work, as it rarely occurs. Chapters 10 and 12 describe management buy-in. You will have to buy the book to find the joke in Chapter 11.
13 people found this helpful
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fousto68
5.0 out of 5 stars Best CX book I've ever read (and I've read a lot)
Reviewed in the United States on September 20, 2019
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This book is the absolute best customer experience book I have read to date! It was so good I bought additional copies for people in my company. I was even compelled to reach out to the author to thank him for writing it!

The book does an amazing job of informing you not only about customer experience but also providing step by step actions you can take to implement what you've read. I could not recommend this book anymore highly.
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Tfcdawg
5.0 out of 5 stars A Helpful Guide to Customer Service Culture
Reviewed in the United States on September 1, 2017
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The Service Culture Handbook is very helpful for anyone leading a customer service center. The recommendations of Jeff Toister (same guy who does many of the customer service courses on Lynda.com) are easy to understand and he provides a straight-forward approach for implementation. I would highly recommend this book for any leader managing a customer service function for the first time, or any leader who wants to foster a customer service culture within their organization.
5 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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Paulo
5.0 out of 5 stars Cultura de servicio correctamente explicada
Reviewed in Mexico on May 9, 2019
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El libro explica claramente los pasos que debes seguir para implementar cultura de servicio en cualquier organización. Muy útil.
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Tina C
4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent For Positive Customer Service Culture Change in any Company!
Reviewed in Canada on March 30, 2018
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I spoke to Jeff and also used the principles in his book for my training. The results were wonderful. I highly recommend this book for any change Consultant or company looking to revitalize their customer service function. The step by step instructions and word cloud were a resounding hit with my client group. I would definitely recommend this to anyone in need of a customer service culture change!!
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Trevor Jensen
2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointed
Reviewed in Australia on July 30, 2023
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Disappointed
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John Yohannan
5.0 out of 5 stars an easy read, and helped me to develop two modules ...
Reviewed in India on April 27, 2018
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I have over 20+ years of customer-service experience...yet as a soft-skills trainer I was unable to come up with the points and material to 'teach' the subject! The book is highly informative, an easy read, and helped me to develop two modules on customer-service. Thanks!
One person found this helpful
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melanie
5.0 out of 5 stars Great customer service book
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 6, 2018
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Great read
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