Woo, Wow, and Win: Service Design, Strategy, and the Art of Customer Delight

Description

In this pioneering guide, two business authorities introduce the new discipline of Service Design and reveal why trying new strategies for pleasing customers isn't enough to differentiate your business-it needs to be designed for service from the ground up. Woo, Wow, and Win reveals the importance of designing your company around service, and offers clear, practical strategies based on the idea that the design of services is markedly different than manufacturing. Bestselling authors and business experts Thomas A. Stewart and Patricia O'Connell contend that most companies, both digital and brick-and-mortar, B2B or B2C; are not designed for service-to provide an experience that matches a customer's expectations with every interaction and serves the company's needs. When customers have more choices than ever before, study after study reveals that it's the experience that makes the difference. To provide great experiences that keep customers coming back, businesses must design their services with as much care as their products. Service Design is proactive-it is about delivering on your promise to customers in accordance with your strategy, not about acceding to customer dictates. Woo, Wow, and Win teaches you how to create "Ahhh" moments when the customer makes a positive judgment, and to avoid Ow" moments-when you lose a sale or worse, customer trust. Whether you're giving a haircut, selling life insurance, or managing an office building, your customer is as much a part of your business as your employees are. Together, you and customers create a bank of trust; fueled by knowledge of each other's skills and preferences. This is Customer Capital, the authors explain, and it is jointly owned. But it's up to you to manage it profitably. Innovative yet grounded in real world examples, Woo, Wow, and Win is the key strategy for winning customers-and keeping them.

Thomas A. Stewart is a bestselling author, an authority on intellectual capital and knowledge management, and an influential thought leader on global management issues and ideas. His books include Intellectual Capital and The Wealth of Knowledge. He is the executive director of the National Center for the Middle Market at the Fisher College of Business at The Ohio State University and has served as chief marketing and knowledge officer for Booz & Company, as well as the editor and managing director of Harvard Business Review. Patricia O'Connell is president of Aerten Consulting, a New York City-based firm that works with companies to devise content strategies and develop thought leadership for top management. She is the writer, with author Neil Smith, of the New York Times bestseller How Excellent Companies Avoid Dumb Things. She is also the former management editor of BloombergBusinessweek.com.

"Woo, Wow, and Win is a roadmap for success in a landscape being rapidly transformed by technology and entrepreneurship. " -- Steve Case, Chairman and CEO of Revolution, author of The Third Wave: An Entrepreneur's Vision of the Future This is the book that service business executives have been waiting for. Woo, Wow, and Win shows how to make the connection between strategic opportunity, business design, and customer satisfaction. The principles of service design are the pathway to a more profitable future--and happier customers. -- Ram Charan, advisor to CEOs and boards, author of The Attackers Advantage. "Here is a long overdue manual for using the cohesiveness and power of design thinking to optimize every interaction your business has with its customers. You'll not only understand why Service Design is as important as product design--you'll have a new perspective on what makes a company unique." -- Beth Comstock, Vice Chair, GE "Tom Stewart's and Patricia O'Connell's exceptional book is a convincing testimony to the power of having service strategies that are as unique and differentiated as product strategies. It provides deep insights into how you can develop your customers and retain them with superior service. It's a must read!" -- Bill George, Senior Fellow at Harvard Business School, former Chair & CEO of Medtronic, and author of Discover Your True North "Anyone who wants to get or keep customers would do well to heed the advice in these smart, incisive pages. Service design is an idea whose time has come." -- Marshall Goldsmith, executive leadership coach and author, Triggers and What Got You Here Won't Get You There "Two pervasive themes cut across all sectors of the world economy: Everything is digital, and everything is a service. Woo, Wow, and Win shows how the discipline of Service Design enables any company to capitalize on these two trends to engage their customers, enlist their employees, and delight their shareholders." -- Geoffrey Moore, author Crossing the Chasm and Zone to Win "It's impossible to operate a successful business without mastering your service design, and it's difficult to master without this book. There is tremendous wisdom and clarity in its pages, making a complex subject both inspiring and immediately useful. Woo, Wow, and Win is an essential, urgent read." -- Stan Slap, New York Times bestselling author of Under the Hood and Bury My Heart at Conference Room B