High-Tech, High-Touch Customer Service: Inspire Timeless Loyalty in the Demanding New World of Social Commerce

Jonathan Feldman, Contributing Editor, Information Week: “In High-Tech, High-Touch Customer Service, Micah Solomon, better than anybody I’ve seen, illustrates how to achieve a level of customer engagement that makes an organization thrive in our era of tech-enabled business success.”

“Micah Solomon takes on one of the stickiest questions in business today–how to navigate the ever-changing landscape of technology without losing the soul of the cus­tomer experience–and explains it with great savvy. High-Tech, High-Touch Customer Service is a must read.”
— Jay Coldren, Vice President, Marriott

“To create a personal connection in today’s fast-paced environment businesses you must listen and respond at the speed of light – and create a culture built on service. Solomon illustrates how to anticipate customer expectations and deliver a memorable experience every time.” Ray Davis, President and CEO, Umpqua Bank

“Brilliantly written and often belly-laugh humorous!” Brian Schoenbaechler, President and Managing Partner, Integracore

Are you finding customers more and more fickle, less and less loyal, and ever ready to jump off the handle and on to Twitter? Are you starting to sense that the way you’ve always done customer service simply isn’t working anymore? You’re right to be alarmed. Terrified, even. Social media, self-service technologies, and smart phones have created a disorienting new landscape for businesses that were chugging along just fine as recently as last month.

You now hold the solution to those concerns in your hands. High-Tech, High-Touch Customer Service is the guide that teaches you to harness the power of technology to build emotional connections with your customers–and generate fierce loyalty as a result.

You’ll learn how to bulletproof your business against the increasingly challenging world of customer interactions, both online and off. This book is the tool you need to regain your balance in a world where socially empowered customers pound companies with ever-escalating expectations and where complaints can quickly go viral, with devastating results.

However, this isn’t a book that throws the baby out with the digital bathwater. Everything in these pages is grounded in decades of experience and proven methodology. High-Tech, High-Touch Customer Service gives you a clearheaded analysis of what’s new in our digitally connected world and what remains unchanged, along with strategies for capturing a customer’s business again and again. Packed with brilliant examples of anticipatory customer service, as well as some hilariously cautionary examples of customer service done disastrously wrong, this essential book explains how to:

* Implement the eight unbreakable rules of social media customer service
* Effectively address online customer complaints on Yelp, Twitter, TripAdvisor, and other forums
* Build a powerful culture that’s nearly immune to competitive copycats
* Design compelling self-service options for today’s customers
* Bind your customers to you closely through technologically informed anticipatory customer service
* Deliver best-of-class customer service in person, on the Web, via social media, and by use of the old-fashioned (but very effective) telephone call

This is the book you’ve been waiting for: eye-opening insights, real-life disaster stories, and a sweeping perspective to help you make sense of the seismic changes in customer service delivery. It will help you fully grasp the crucial new rules that dictate who will survive and thrive in the years ahead.

Micah Solomon is the customer service and marketing strategist termed by the Financial Post “a new guru of customer service excellence”. He is a top keynote speaker, strategist, and consultant on customer service issues, the customer experience, and company culture. An entrepreneur and business leader, he coauthored the bestselling Exceptional Service, Exceptional Profit. His expertise has been featured in Fast Company, Inc. Magazine, Bloomberg BusinessWeek, CNBC, Forbes.com, and elsewhere, and he created and helms the “College of the Customer” website.