Uncommon Service


Uncommon Service: How to Win by Putting Customers at the Core of Your Business
by Frances Frei and Anne Morriss

Customer service is not an afterthought. In order to provide consistently excellent service, it must be baked in to the business model. In Uncommon Service, authors Frances Frei and Anne Morriss explain that great service is “made possible—profitable, sustainable, scalable—by designing a system that sets everyone up to excel.”

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The Paradox of Excellence


The Paradox of Excellence: How Great Performance Can Kill Your Business
by David Mosby and Michael Weissman

When a company consistently provides excellent service it can become “invisible” to the client until something goes wrong. This book illustrates the problem through a parable about a trucking company. Their largest and most profitable customer has given notice to terminate their contract due to a botched delivery. Management is shocked, as there had been no previous problems with this client over the many years they have done business together.

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Always Be Testing


Always Be Testing: The Complete Guide to Google Website Optimizer
by Bryan Eisenberg and John Quarto -vonTivadar with Lisa T. Davis

Always Be Testing cuts straight to the chase. By the end of chapter two, you will understand how to set up a test.

The authors explain the difference between A/B tests (comparing the performance of two or more pages) and Multivariate tests  (comparing the performance of multiple components within a page). But be aware that as of August 1, 2012, Google Website Optimizer has been replaced by  Content Experiments and the multivariate functions are no longer available. More on that in a moment.

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