Customer Service Solution: Managing Emotions, Trust, and Control to Win Your Customer’s Business

Richard B. Chase is Director of the Center for Operations Management Research and Education at USC. He is widely published in both books and academic journals and is considered one of the top service "gurus" in the field. He is on the Editorial Advisory Board of the Journal of Operations Management, an Advisor to Production and Operations Management journal, and a Fellow of the Decision Sciences Institute.

• CONTENTSPREFACE xiiiACKNOWLEDGMENTS xvCHAPTER 1CUSTOMER SERVICE SOLUTIONS:LEVERAGING CUSTOMER PSYCHOLOGYTO DESIGN SERVICE OPERATIONS 1Implicit Outcomes Are Importantfor Your Customers 2Types of Knowledge Needed forDelivering Implicit Outcomes 3Parsing the Service Encounter 6It Is All About YourCustomers’ Perceptions 7Factors That Shape YourCustomers’ Perceptions 8A Scientific Approach to DeliveringGreat Experiences 20Beyond the Encounter:Memory Management 21CHAPTER 2DESIGNING EMOTIONALLYINTELLIGENT PROCESSES 23Emotions 101 24Services Differ in Their Emotional Content 29Emotions and Emotional Intelligence 31Factors That Drive Your Customers’ Emotions 31Tiered Approach for Shaping Emotions 36Designing Emotional Themes 37Creating Processes to Deliver theEmotional Theme 44Blueprints for Tracking YourCustomers’ Emotions 47Segmenting Your Customers 52Responding to Your Customers’Transaction History 54A Limited Approach to Managing Emotions 55Key Principles for Designingfor Optimal Emotional Impact 56Conclusion 56CHAPTER 3ENGENDERING YOUR CUSTOMERS’ TRUST 59Market Mechanisms for ReducingRisk for Your Customer 61Benefits of Trust 62Components of Trust 63Whom Does Your Customer Trust:The Firm or the Employee? 65Moments That Influence Trust 67Cues to TrustworthinessBefore the Encounter 69Calculated Versus Blind Trust 72Cues to TrustworthinessDuring the Encounter 73Building Your Trust Fund 79Key Principles forBuilding Trust 87CHAPTER 4SHAPING YOUR CUSTOMERS’PERCEPTIONS OF CONTROL 89Control Matters 90Components of Control: Behavioraland Cognitive Control 91Moments That Influence Your Customers’Perception of Control 92Battles for Control 93Allocating Control to Your CustomerThrough Choice 96Allocating Control to Your CustomerThrough Self-Service 99Framework for Sharing Controlwith Your Customers 102Enhancing Your Customers’Perceived Control 106Devise Mistake-Proof Processes 111Manage Server Behavior 112Sway with Social Proofing 113Conclusion 114CHAPTER 5SEQUENCING THE EXPERIENCE 117The Sequence Impacts YourCustomers’ Perceptions 118Customers’ Preferences for Separatingor Combining Events 125Sequencing When There AreMultiple Encounters 126Designing the Sequence 128Sequence Theory Mattersfor Your Employees 133Principles for Sequencing the Encounter 134Self Quiz: DSL Help Desk 135CHAPTER 6TIME WARP: DURATION MANAGEMENT 139Perception Is Everything When ItComes to Time 140Temporal Distortions 141Factors That InfluenceDuration Judgments 146The Value of Time 147Factors That Alter Your Customers’Valuation of Time 147Pacing and Cultural Intelligence 149Reducing Your Customers’ PerceivedDuration of the Wait 150Build Your Customers’ Anticipationfor Positive Outcomes 162Enhance Value-Added Activities 164Conclusion 167CHAPTER 7ATTRIBUTION: ENSURING THAT YOUGET YOUR DUE 169Subjective Perceptions 170Do Your Customers Recognize a Successor a Failure? 172How Your Customers May Discern the Cause 173When Memory Plays Attribution Tricks 177How Your Customers May AssignResponsibility 179Feeling the Hurt 182Channeling Your Customers’ Attribution 184Principles for Managing Attribution 191CHAPTER 8PUTTING THE CONCEPTS TO WORK 193Identify the RelevantPsychological Factors 195Develop Service ExperienceImprovement Projects 199Project Examples 202Think in Terms of Three Ts and Four Ps 206ETCs for Employees 207ENDNOTES 211INDEX 217