Customers Are People... The Human Touch

Knowing that the customer’s opinion of a company depends to a large degree not on the products or services he or she buys, but rather on the impression of being well or poorly treated during an interaction with the company, how is it that so few companies neglect to focus sufficiently on the human side of customer contacts? Starting from this observation, the author offers suggestions on how to make customers happier at each point of interaction with the company.
Don’t look to this book for revolutionary ideas or miracle formulas. Its main interest lies in the multitude of practical tips that it offers. Due to the U.S. culture of the author, some of these tips may bring a smile to European lips. However, they often right on the mark, with relevant examples such as that of Land Rover, Dorothy Lane Market, Suncorp and Ritz-Carlton.
This advice is scattered throughout each chapter, so readers must read the entire book to extract its whole substance. However, two passages in particular deserve special mention, i.e. the passage concerning the need for customers to be recognized as human beings (chapter 3) and the passage underlining the objectives of using technology, not to dehumanize customer interactions, but to enhance them (chapter 9).