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| customer service consulting business: Consulting Success Michael Zipursky, 2018-10-16 How can you take your skills and expertise and package and present it to become a successful consultant? There are proven time-tested principles, strategies, tactics and best-practices the most successful consultants use to start, run and grow their consulting business. Consulting Success teaches you what they are. In this book you'll learn: - How to position yourself as a leading expert and authority in your marketplace - Effective marketing and branding materials that get the attention of your ideal clients - Strategies to increase your fees and earn more with every project - The proposal template that has generated millions of dollars in consulting engagements - How to develop a pipeline of business and attract ideal clients - Productivity secrets for consultants including how to get more done in one week than most people do in a month - And much, much more |
| customer service consulting business: The Everything Start Your Own Consulting Business Book Dan Ramsey, 2009-10-18 Consultants work in all fields. They operate from offices and from home, work for investment firms and as personal trainers, or have expertise as accountants and wedding planners. The independence, flexibility, and potential income it brings make for an exciting and satisfying career. And it’s an increasingly popular one for highly skilled, motivated professionals who’ve been laid off in this unstable economy. This guide features tips and tricks to help beat the competition, including how to: Set—and keep—personal and financial goals Organize important paperwork Price and market specific services Create advertising and publicity plans Grow a business, from finding a partner to managing employees Minimize and eliminate business risks Consultants are paid well for their advice—if they know how to operate a successful business. With advice from experts in a variety of areas, this valuable guide helps you create the business of your dreams! |
| customer service consulting business: Managing The Professional Service Firm David H. Maister, 2012-12-11 Professional service firms differ from other business enterprises in two distinct ways: first they provide highly customised services thus cannot apply many of the management principles developed for product-based industries. Second, professional services are highly personalised, involving the skills of individuals. Such firms must therefore compete not only for clients but also for talented professionals. Drawing on more than ten years of research and consulting to these unique and creative companies, David Maister explores issues ranging from marketing and business development to multinational strategies, human resources policies to profit improvement, strategic planning to effective leadership. While these issues can be complex, Maister simplifies them by recognising that 'every professional service firm in the world, regardless of size, specific profession, or country of operation, has the same mission statement: outstanding service to clients, satisfying careers for its people and financial success for its owners.' |
| customer service consulting business: Strategic Customer Service John A. GOODMAN, 2009-05-13 The success of any organization depends on high-quality customer service. But for companies that strategically align customer service with their overall corporate strategy, it can transcend typical good business to become a profitable word-of-mouth machine that will transform the bottom line. Drawing on over thirty years of research for companies such as 3M, American Express, Chik-Fil-A, USAA, Coca-Cola, FedEx, GE, Cisco Systems, Neiman Marcus, and Toyota, author Goodman uses formal research, case studies, and patented practices to show readers how they can: • calculate the financial impact of good and bad customer service • make the financial case for customer service improvements • systematically identify the causes of problems • align customer service with their brand • harness customer service strategy into their organization's culture and behavior Filled with proven strategies and eye-opening case studies, this book challenges many aspects of conventional wisdom—using hard data—and reveals how any organization can earn more loyalty, win more customers...and improve their financial bottom line. |
| customer service consulting business: Winning on Purpose Fred Reichheld, Darci Darnell, Maureen Burns, 2021-12-07 Great leaders embrace a higher purpose to win. The Net Promoter System shines as their guiding star. Few management ideas have spread so far and wide as the Net Promoter System (NPS). Since its conception almost two decades ago by customer loyalty guru Fred Reichheld, thousands of companies around the world have adopted it—from industrial titans such as Mercedes-Benz and Cummins to tech giants like Apple and Amazon to digital innovators such as Warby Parker and Peloton. Now, Reichheld has raised the bar yet again. In Winning on Purpose, he demonstrates that the primary purpose of a business should be to enrich the lives of its customers. Why? Because when customers feel this love, they come back for more and bring their friends—generating good profits. This is NPS 3.0 and it puts a new take on the age-old Golden Rule—treat customers the way you would want a loved one treated—at the heart of enduring business success. As the compelling examples in this book illustrate, companies with superior NPS consistently deliver higher returns to shareholders across a wide array of industries. But winning on purpose isn't easy. Reichheld also explains why many NPS practitioners achieve just a small fraction of the system's full potential, and he presents the newest thinking and best practices for doing NPS right. He unveils the Earned Growth Rate (EGR): the first reliable, complementary accounting measure that can truly leverage the power of NPS. With keen insight and moving personal stories, Reichheld advances the thinking and practice of NPS. Winning on Purpose is your indispensable guide for inspiring customer love within your own teams and using Net Promoter to achieve both personal and business success. |
| customer service consulting business: Lean B2B Étienne Garbugli, 2022-03-22 Get from Idea to Product/Market Fit in B2B. The world has changed. Nowadays, there are more companies building B2B products than there’s ever been. Products are entering organizations top-down, middle-out, and bottom-up. Teams and managers control their budgets. Buyers have become savvier and more impatient. The case for the value of new innovations no longer needs to be made. Technology products get hired, and fired faster than ever before. The challenges have moved from building and validating products to gaining adoption in increasingly crowded and fragmented markets. This, requires a new playbook. The second edition of Lean B2B is the result of years of research into B2B entrepreneurship. It builds off the unique Lean B2B Methodology, which has already helped thousands of entrepreneurs and innovators around the world build successful businesses. In this new edition, you’ll learn: - Why companies seek out new products, and why they agree to buy from unproven vendors like startups - How to find early adopters, establish your credibility, and convince business stakeholders to work with you - What type of opportunities can increase the likelihood of building a product that finds adoption in businesses - How to learn from stakeholders, identify a great opportunity, and create a compelling value proposition - How to get initial validation, create a minimum viable product, and iterate until you're able to find product/market fit This second edition of Lean B2B will show you how to build the products that businesses need, want, buy, and adopt. |
| customer service consulting business: Start Your Own Consulting Business Entrepreneur magazine, Eileen Figure Sandlin, 2014-05-19 Leading entrepreneurs into the multi-billion dollar consulting industry, the experts at Entrepreneur show you how to capitalize on your talents to help others achieve their business goals. Coached by experts, learn to define your market, find and keep clients, obtain licenses, set rates, monitor cash flow, hire staff, prepare contracts, agreements, and reports, and more. Includes new interviews with successful consultants, updated answers to frequently asked questions, and a completely refreshed list of the top 20 consulting businesses. |
| customer service consulting business: The Customer Service Revolution John R. DiJulius, 2015-01-06 In The Customer Service Revolution, DiJulius points out how numerous companies have made Customer service their biggest competitive advantage, are dominating their industries, and have made price irrelevant. As a result of this Customer service revolution, people are being treated differently, better, and in a way like never before. This is a result of how companies and management are treating their employees and how employees are treating each other and the Customer—which ultimately permeates into people’s personal lives at home and in their communities. Can the way you run your business or treat your Customers have an effect on the world at large? John DiJulius will show you just that! Drawing on years of experience consulting with the top customer service companies around the world and in his role building his first business, John Robert’s Spa, into one of the top 20 salons in the US, DiJulius will show you exactly how to create your very own Customer service revolution and make price irrelevant. |
| customer service consulting business: Creating Superfans Brittany Hodak, 2023-01-10 Superfans aren’t just for pop stars and NBA teams. What if your customers loved your brand the way Swifties love Taylor or Drake loves the Raptors? In Creating Superfans, entrepreneur, keynote speaker, and fan-engagement guru Brittany Hodak shares the proprietary five-step SUPER Fan System she developed running successful campaigns and products for globally known brands including Walmart, Disney, Amazon, Katy Perry, the Boston Red Sox, and more. With her trademark mix of humor and sharp business insights, she combines entertaining stories from her years of working with major stars like Dolly Parton and KISS with case studies of familiar brands and companies to illustrate the effective and easy-to-master system for transforming customers into passionate advocates of your brand. You’ll learn how to: - define, understand, and share your own unique brand story - better capture, understand, and utilize customer feedback - connect your brand’s story to your individual customers’ stories - make exceeding customer expectations business-as-usual - regularly earn and capitalize on customer referrals You’ll also get checklists, exercises, and easy-to-implement tools that will have you building your very own legion of superfans right away. Whether you’re launching a career as a recording artist, running a tech startup, or helming a hundred-year-old brand, you, too, can tap into the power of superfandom. |
| customer service consulting business: Uncommon Service Frances X. Frei, Frances Frei, Anne Morriss, 2012 Offers an organizational design model for service organizations, covering such topics as funding mechanisms, employee management systems, and customer management systems. |
| customer service consulting business: The Human Centered Brand Nela Dunato, 2018-10-04 Promote your business with clarity, ease, and authenticity. The Human Centered Brand is a practical branding guide for service based businesses and creatives, that helps you grow meaningful relationships with your clients and your audience. If you're a writer, marketing consultant, creative agency owner, lawyer, illustrator, designer, developer, psychotherapist, personal trainer, dentist, painter, musician, bookkeeper, or other type of service business owner, the methods described in this book will assist you in expressing yourself naturally and creating a resonant, remarkable, and sustainable brand. Read this book to learn: Why conventional branding approaches don't work for service based businesses. How to identify your core values and use them in your business and marketing decisions. Different ways you can make your business unique among all the competition. How to express yourself verbally through your website, emails, articles, videos, talks, podcasts... What makes your ideal clients truly ideal, and how to connect with real people who appreciate you as you are. How to craft an effective tagline. What are the most important elements of a visual brand identity, and how to use them to design your own brand. How to craft an exceptional client experience and impress your clients with your professionalism. How your brand relates to your business model, pricing, company culture, fashion style, and social impact. Whether you're a complete beginner or have lots of experience with marketing and design, you'll get new insights about your own brand, and fresh ideas you'll want to implement right away. The companion workbook, checklists, templates, and other bonuses ensure that you not only learn new information, but create a custom brand strategy on your own. Learn more at humancenteredbrand.com |
| customer service consulting business: Customer Service For Dummies Karen Leland, Keith Bailey, 2011-03-03 Customer Service For Dummies, Third Edition integrates the unbeatable information from Customer Service For Dummies and Online Customer Service For Dummies to form an all-in-one guide to customer loyalty for large and small businesses alike. The book covers the fundamentals of service selling and presents up-to-date advice on such fundamentals as help desks, call centers, and IT departments. Plus, it shows readers how to take stock of their customer service strengths and weaknesses, create useful customer surveys, and learn from the successes and failures of businesses just like theirs. Karen Leland and Keith Bailey (Sausalito, CA) are cofounders of Sterling Consulting Group, an international consulting firm specializing in quality service consulting and training for such clients as Oracle, IBM, Avis, and Lucent. |
| customer service consulting business: Ten Years to Midnight Blair H. Sheppard, 2020-08-04 “Shows how humans have brought us to the brink and how humanity can find solutions. I urge people to read with humility and the daring to act.” —Harpal Singh, former Chair, Save the Children, India, and former Vice Chair, Save the Children International In conversations with people all over the world, from government officials and business leaders to taxi drivers and schoolteachers, Blair Sheppard, global leader for strategy and leadership at PwC, discovered they all had surprisingly similar concerns. In this prescient and pragmatic book, he and his team sum up these concerns in what they call the ADAPT framework: Asymmetry of wealth; Disruption wrought by the unexpected and often problematic consequences of technology; Age disparities--stresses caused by very young or very old populations in developed and emerging countries; Polarization as a symptom of the breakdown in global and national consensus; and loss of Trust in the institutions that underpin and stabilize society. These concerns are in turn precipitating four crises: a crisis of prosperity, a crisis of technology, a crisis of institutional legitimacy, and a crisis of leadership. Sheppard and his team analyze the complex roots of these crises--but they also offer solutions, albeit often seemingly counterintuitive ones. For example, in an era of globalization, we need to place a much greater emphasis on developing self-sustaining local economies. And as technology permeates our lives, we need computer scientists and engineers conversant with sociology and psychology and poets who can code. The authors argue persuasively that we have only a decade to make headway on these problems. But if we tackle them now, thoughtfully, imaginatively, creatively, and energetically, in ten years we could be looking at a dawn instead of darkness. |
| customer service consulting business: Ignore Your Customers (and They'll Go Away) Micah Solomon, 2020-01-14 The ultimate guide to transforming your customer service, company culture, and customer experience, endorsed by all the top names in the field. Great customer service may be today's most essential competitive advantage. This book gives a step-by-step plan to craft a customer service culture and customer experience so powerful that they'll transform your organization and boost your company's bottom line. You'll enjoy inspirational and hilarious tales from the trenches as author Micah Solomon, one of the world's best-known customer service consultants and thought leaders, brings you with him on hands-on adventures assessing and transforming customer service in a variety of industries. In Ignore Your Customers (and They'll Go Away), you will find: Exclusive customer service secrets and proven turnaround methodologies showing you how to perform effective and lasting customer service transformation within your company. A dive into one of the hottest topics in business today: company culture, specifically how to build and sustain a customer-centric company culture. Case studies and anecdotes from the great customer-centric companies of our time. Each chapter concludes with a Business Reading Group Guide and a point-by-point summary to maximize your memory retention and make every insight actionable. Drawing on a wealth of stories assembled from today's most innovative and successful companies including Amazon, USAA, The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, Nordstrom, MOD Pizza, and more, Solomon reveals what it takes to turn an average customer interaction into one that drives customer engagement and lifelong loyalty. |
| customer service consulting business: 25 Top Consulting Firms WetFeet (Firm), WetFeet, 2008 |
| customer service consulting business: Customer Experience 3.0 John A. Goodman, 2014-08-12 Customer Experience 3.0 provides firsthand guidance on what works, what doesn't--and the revenue and word-of-mouth payoff of getting it right. Between smartphones, social media, mobile connectivity, and a plethora of other technological innovations changing the way we do almost everything these days, your customers are expecting you to be taking advantage of it all to enhance their customer service experience far beyond the meeting-the-minimum experiences of days past. Unfortunately, many companies are failing to take advantage of and properly manage these service-enhancing tools that now exist, and in return they deliver a series of frustrating, disjointed transactions that end up driving people away and into the pockets of businesses getting it right. Having managed more than 1,000 separate customer service studies, author John A. Goodman has created an innovative customer-experience framework and step-by-step roadmap that shows you how to: Design and deliver flawless services and products while setting honest customer expectations Create and implement an effective customer access strategy Capture and leverage the voice of the customer to set priorities and improve products, services and marketing Use CRM systems, cutting-edge metrics, and other tools to deliver customer satisfaction Companies who get customer service right can regularly provide seamless experiences, seeming to know what customers want even before they know it themselves…while others end up staying generic, take stabs in the dark to try and fix the problem, and end up dropping the ball. Customer Experience 3.0 reveals how to delight customers using all the technological tools at their disposal. |
| customer service consulting business: Leave Your Mark Aliza Licht, 2015-05-05 Leave Your Mark isn't an advice book -- it's a mentorship in 288 pages. Aliza Licht-global fashion communications executive, AKA fashion's favorite 'PR girl' and former Twitter phenomenon-is here to tell her story, complete with The Devil Wears Prada-like moments and insider secrets. Drawing invaluable lessons from her experience, Licht shares advice, inspiration, and a healthy dose of real talk in Leave Your Mark. She delivers personal and professional guidance for people just starting their careers and for people who are well on their way. With a particular emphasis on communicating and building your personal brand, something she knows a thing or two about, Aliza is your sassy, knowledgeable guide to the contemporary working world, where personal and professional lines are blurred and the most important thing you can have is a strong sense of self. |
| customer service consulting business: Ask a Manager Alison Green, 2018-05-01 From the creator of the popular website Ask a Manager and New York’s work-advice columnist comes a witty, practical guide to 200 difficult professional conversations—featuring all-new advice! There’s a reason Alison Green has been called “the Dear Abby of the work world.” Ten years as a workplace-advice columnist have taught her that people avoid awkward conversations in the office because they simply don’t know what to say. Thankfully, Green does—and in this incredibly helpful book, she tackles the tough discussions you may need to have during your career. You’ll learn what to say when • coworkers push their work on you—then take credit for it • you accidentally trash-talk someone in an email then hit “reply all” • you’re being micromanaged—or not being managed at all • you catch a colleague in a lie • your boss seems unhappy with your work • your cubemate’s loud speakerphone is making you homicidal • you got drunk at the holiday party Praise for Ask a Manager “A must-read for anyone who works . . . [Alison Green’s] advice boils down to the idea that you should be professional (even when others are not) and that communicating in a straightforward manner with candor and kindness will get you far, no matter where you work.”—Booklist (starred review) “The author’s friendly, warm, no-nonsense writing is a pleasure to read, and her advice can be widely applied to relationships in all areas of readers’ lives. Ideal for anyone new to the job market or new to management, or anyone hoping to improve their work experience.”—Library Journal (starred review) “I am a huge fan of Alison Green’s Ask a Manager column. This book is even better. It teaches us how to deal with many of the most vexing big and little problems in our workplaces—and to do so with grace, confidence, and a sense of humor.”—Robert Sutton, Stanford professor and author of The No Asshole Rule and The Asshole Survival Guide “Ask a Manager is the ultimate playbook for navigating the traditional workforce in a diplomatic but firm way.”—Erin Lowry, author of Broke Millennial: Stop Scraping By and Get Your Financial Life Together |
| customer service consulting business: The Profitable Consultant Jay Niblick, 2013-03-15 Selling can be uncomfortable for professional business consultants and executive coaches. The two biggest problems are generating more qualified leads, and turning those leads into actual paying clients. Taking traditional beliefs about how best to sell and turning them completely upside down, author Jay Niblick rewrites the sales playbook for the consulting and coaching industry. His proven five-step sales process is specifically designed for independent business consultants and coaches, serving as a common set of rules to grow their practice, deliver more value and generate more revenue. The Profitable Consultant delivers a suite of ready-to-launch tools that will automate readers’ marketing efforts, so they can focus more time delivering revenue-generating services -- to even more clients. |
| customer service consulting business: Consulting for Organizational Change Fritz Steele, 1975 Monograph on the behavioural sciences aspects of management consultantcy - emphasizes a consultation methodology that is aimed at improvement in the future functioning of the client system, and covers the importance of learning by both client and consultant, etc. Diagrams and references. |
| customer service consulting business: Getting Started in Consulting Alan Weiss, 2019-04-02 The definitive guide to getting out of the office and getting into consulting Getting Started in Consulting, Fourth Edition is the acclaimed real-world blueprint to professional and financial freedom. For nearly two decades, this invaluable resource has helped thousands of people quit the daily grind and become their own boss. This practical and motivational guide provides the tools and knowledge to control your future and secure your fortune. From establishing goals and sorting out the legal and financial paperwork, to advanced marketing strategies and relationship building techniques, this indispensable book offers step-by-step instructions for you to establish and grow your own consultancy business. This extensively revised and updated fourth edition includes new and expanded coverage on topics including utilizing informal media, changes in legal and financial guidelines, key distinctions of wholesale and retail businesses, and much more. Author Alan Weiss delivers expert advice on how to combine minimal overhead with optimal organization to produce maximum income. Every step in the process is clearly explained, including financing, marketing, bookkeeping, establishing your fees, and more. This guide is a comprehensive, one-stop source for everything you need to prosper in the rapidly expanding world of private consultancy. Adopt a pragmatic and profitable strategy to achieve incredible results from your consultancy business Learn to identify and address the most commons issues facing your prospects and clients Leverage technology to reduce labor, maximize profitability, and increase discretionary time Access sample budgets, case studies, references and appendices, downloadable tools and forms, and online resources The modern business landscape presents unique opportunities for those willing to take the leap from corporate offices to home offices. Getting Started in Consulting, Fourth Edition is the must-have guide for anyone seeking to cut their own path to their own consulting business. |
| customer service consulting business: Customers.com Patricia B. Seybold, Ronni T. Marshak, 1998 This text shows how to use the Internet to keep customers, increase sales, and improve profits. It offers practical, easy-to-understand and apply advice based on proven marketing principles and on real, detailed case-studies of how well-known corporations are using the Internet successfully. |
| customer service consulting business: Marketing Your Consulting and Professional Services Richard A. Connor, Jeffrey P. Davidson, 1990 Here is a blueprint for professionals, business people and techinicians: specialists who want to enter the consulting field or market their firms' professional services more effectively and profitably. This second edition is revised to serve as a marketing handbook for the 1990s and beyond, and is based on the same client-centered/leveraged approach as the original edition, showing how servicing fewer clients/markets can generate greater profits. It contains principle-based practices and strategies culled from over 20 years of experiences in 600 firms, effectively converting theory into practical reality for professionals who need to know what to do and how to do it. |
| customer service consulting business: Million Dollar Consulting Alan Weiss, 2009-09-17 The Long-Awaited Update for Buildinga Thriving Consultancy Completely updated for today’s busier-than-ever consultants, this classic guide covers the ins andouts for competing and winning in this ultracompetitive field. You’ll find step-by-step advice on howto raise capital, attract clients, create a marketing plan, and grow your business into a $1 million-per-yearfirm, plus brand-new material on: Blogging and social networking Global consulting Delegating labor Profiting in a troubled market Retainer business Internet marketing Praise for the previous editions of Million Dollar Consulting: “If you’re interested in becoming a rich consultant, this book is a must read.” Robert F. Mager, founder and president, Mager Associates, and member of the Training & Development Hall of Fame “Blast out of the per diem trap and into value billing.” Jim Kennedy, founder, publisher, and editor, Consultants News “The advice on developing price structure alone is worth a hundred times the price of the book.” William C. Byham, Ph.D., author of Zapp! “Must reading for those who are beginning a practice orseeking to upgrade an existing practice.” Victor H. Vroom, John G. Searle Professor, School of Management, Yale University |
| customer service consulting business: Office Optional Larry English, 2020-06-05 Virtual work isn't the model of the future-it's here now. But many companies struggle with setting their employees free from the office without sacrificing culture. Centric Consulting president Larry English is here to guide the way. Twenty years ago, Larry and his friends weren't happy in their consulting jobs. The long hours took a serious toll on their personal lives. So they built their own company where employees could work virtually and the culture would contribute to both the business's success and employee happiness. Since then, Centric Consulting has expanded to over 1,000 team members with operations in 12 US cities and India-and everyone works remotely some or most of the time. As Larry unpacks everything he's discovered about creating and sustaining a culture of collaborative teams, you'll learn: How and why you need to cultivate an atmosphere of trust in a virtual environment How to recruit and hire team members for remote work How to build strong relationships with people you don't see every day How to scale your virtual company without sacrificing culture How the right software tools can help build culture How to be a great virtual team member Sprinkled with funny, insightful stories from Larry and other Centric employees, Office Optional: How to Build a Connected Culture with Virtual Teams is the ultimate guidebook to remote work and a successful virtual culture. |
| customer service consulting business: ADKAR Jeff Hiatt, 2006 In his first complete text on the ADKAR model, Jeff Hiatt explains the origin of the model and explores what drives each building block of ADKAR. Learn how to build awareness, create desire, develop knowledge, foster ability and reinforce changes in your organization. The ADKAR Model is changing how we think about managing the people side of change, and provides a powerful foundation to help you succeed at change. |
| customer service consulting business: How Clients Buy Tom McMakin, Doug Fletcher, 2018-03-13 The real-world guide to selling your services and bringing in business How Clients Buy is the much-needed guide to selling your services. If you're one of the millions of people whose skills are the 'product,' you know that you cannot be successful unless you bring in clients. The problem is, you're trained to do your job—not sell it. No matter how great you may be at your actual role, you likely feel a bit lost, hesitant, or 'behind' when it comes to courting clients, an unfamiliar territory where you're never quite sure of the line between under- and over-selling. This book comes to the rescue with real, practical advice for selling what you do. You'll have to unlearn everything you know about sales, but then you'll learn new skills that will help you make connections, develop rapport, create interest, earn trust, and turn prospects into clients. Business development is critical to your personal success, and your skills in this area will dictate the course of your career. This invaluable guide gives you a set of real-world best practices that can help you become the rainmaker you want to be. Get the word out and make productive connections Drop the fear of self-promotion and advertise your accomplishments Earn potential clients' trust to build a lasting relationship Scrap the sales pitch in favor of honesty, positivity, and value Working in the consulting and professional services fields comes with difficulties not encountered by those who sell tangible products. Services are often under-valued, and become among the first things to go when budgets get tight. It is now harder than ever to sell professional services, so your game must be on-point if you hope to out-compete the field. How Clients Buy shows you how to level up and start winning the client list of your dreams. |
| customer service consulting business: The Consulting Apprenticeship Steve Shu, 2015-07-16 The Consulting Apprenticeship is written for business professionals and consultants with a focus on nuances passed on during apprenticeship regarding consulting delivery. Business professionals can benefit with a jump-start approach to applying consulting principles to their business. Designed for the busy professional, The Consulting Apprenticeship is a book of forty, quick-read ideas. These forty, short chapters are divided into four sections: Consulting Mindset - This section covers consulting ways of thinking and can be adopted by both company personnel and consultants. Consulting Techniques - This section covers specific tactics and toolkit methods when using consultative approaches in the trenches as either a company- or consulting firm-practitioner. Consulting Mastery - This section covers advanced perspectives on consulting and may be more useful to either company personnel evaluating consultants or mid- to senior-level consultants. Consulting Special Situations - Whereas the prior sections are applicable to a wide variety of situations, this section covers more infrequent, specific business situations involving consultative approaches in the trenches as either a company- or consulting firm-practitioner. Each chapter of the book concludes with an optional, takeaway exercise. The exercises vary widely in terms of level of involvement. For example, in some cases you can refer to online material. In other cases, you can engage in deeper thinking or apply the concepts over an extended period of time. However you choose to use this book, consulting mastery is a lifelong pursuit. I hope this book helps you with your journey. Stephen Shu Praise for The Consulting Apprenticeship When one of the companies I worked for needed help taking its consulting organization to the next level, I hired Steve Shu. His ability to drive our management team - all with different opinions on what we should or should not do - to a 'so-what' conclusion and pragmatic next steps gave us the jump start we needed. He is one of the best and deeply understands how consulting organizations should work. His book provides great techniques as well as tools you can use immediately. - Prakash Panjwani, CEO at WatchGuard Technologies, former President and CEO of SafeNet Steve Shu has put together a comprehensive guide to the all-important nuts and bolts of being a great consultant. The information in Chapter 21, 'Eight Secret Weapons of the Modern Consultant, ' is worth the price of the book. If you're serious about being a more effective consultant, read this book. - Michael McLaughlin, Author of Winning the Professional Services Sale and Principal Consultant at MindShare Consulting LLC; former Partner at Deloitte Steve Shu has written a hands-on, highly practical guide for new management consultants and internal corporate business strategists alike. So many projects fail because they do not practice the basic consulting project management hygiene Steve describes in chapter 11. If you are new to the trade and want to greatly increase your chance of delivering successful consulting projects, read this book. - Robert Reppa, Vice President Strategy at Johnson Controls and former Partner at Booz & Company Steve Shu has written a Rosetta Stone for both new and experienced consultants. Filled with forty power-packed ideas and practical chapter takeaways, Consulting Apprenticeship is structured for busy executives to easily digest each concept. A must read for those who seek to go beyond the shallow bromides of the consulting profession, and hone their skills with deeper, more meaningful approaches. - Adrian C. Ott, Award-winning author of The 24-Hour Customer, and CEO, Exponential Edge Inc, called One of Silicon Valley's most respected strategists by Consulting Magazine |
| customer service consulting business: Clientelligence Michael B. Rynowecer, 2015 Behind every great rainmaker, mover and shaker, and leader are great relationships. In fact, replace great with superior. People who make things happen make superior relationships first. Relationships are the power source, if not the very soul, of doing good business-the kind of business where clients smile and believe your value simply dwarfs your fee. People who sell don't develop nearly as much business as people who develop relationships. New business flows to those individuals and companies who can move beyond a transaction to a relationship. People, especially executives, don't want to work with the person with the best sales skills. They want to work with people who are emotionally invested in helping them and will pay significant premiums for this rare commodity. The 17 activities within Clientelligence are proven drivers to superior client relationships. In essence, they are how clients define client service excellence and what they expect out of the providers with whom they have the best relationships. Now you can use these activities to create and maintain superior client relationships of your own and fuel growth and profits. |
| customer service consulting business: The McKinsey Way Ethan M. Rasiel, 1999-02-22 If more business books were as useful, concise, and just plain fun to read as THE MCKINSEY WAY, the business world would be a better place. --Julie Bick, best-selling author of ALL I REALLY NEED TO KNOW IN BUSINESS I LEARNED AT MICROSOFT. Enlivened by witty anecdotes, THE MCKINSEY WAY contains valuable lessons on widely diverse topics such as marketing, interviewing, team-building, and brainstorming. --Paul H. Zipkin, Vice-Dean, The Fuqua School of Business It's been called a breeding ground for gurus. McKinsey & Company is the gold-standard consulting firm whose alumni include titans such as In Search of Excellence author Tom Peters, Harvey Golub of American Express, and Japan's Kenichi Ohmae. When Fortune 100 corporations are stymied, it's the McKinsey-ites whom they call for help. In THE MCKINSEY WAY, former McKinsey associate Ethan Rasiel lifts the veil to show you how the secretive McKinsey works its magic, and helps you emulate the firm's well-honed practices in problem solving, communication, and management. He shows you how McKinsey-ites think about business problems and how they work at solving them, explaining the way McKinsey approaches every aspect of a task: How McKinsey recruits and molds its elite consultants; How to sell without selling; How to use facts, not fear them; Techniques to jump-start research and make brainstorming more productive; How to build and keep a team at the top its game; Powerful presentation methods, including the famous waterfall chart, rarely seen outside McKinsey; How to get ultimate buy-in to your findings; Survival tips for working in high-pressure organizations. Both a behind-the-scenes look at one of the most admired and secretive companies in the business world and a toolkit of problem-solving techniques without peer, THE MCKINSEY WAY is fascinating reading that empowers every business decision maker to become a better strategic player in any organization. |
| customer service consulting business: The Automatic Customer John Warrillow, 2015-02-05 The lifeblood of your business is repeat customers. But customers can be fickle, markets shift, and competitors are ruthless. So how do you ensure a steady flow of repeat business? The secret—no matter what industry you’re in—is finding and keeping automatic customers. These days virtually anything you need can be purchased through a subscription, with more convenience than ever before. Far beyond Spotify, Netflix, and New York Times subscriptions, you can sign up for weekly or monthly supplies of everything from groceries (AmazonFresh) to cosmetics (Birchbox) to razor blades (Dollar Shave Club). According to John Warrillow, this emerging subscription economy offers huge opportunities to companies that know how to turn customers into subscribers. Automatic customers are the key to increasing cash flow, igniting growth, and boosting the value of your company. Consider Whatsapp, the internet-based messaging service that was purchased by Facebook for $19 billion. While other services bombarded users with invasive ads in order to fund a free messaging platform, Whatsapp offered a refreshingly private tool on a subscription platform, charging just $1 per year. Their business model enabled the kind of service that customers wanted and ensured automatic customers for years to come. As Warrillow shows, subscriptions aren’t limited to technology or media businesses. Companies in nearly any industry, from start-ups to the Fortune 500, from home contractors to florists, can build subscriptions into their business. Warrillow provides the essential blueprint for winning automatic customers with one of the nine subscription business models, including: • The Membership Website Model: Companies like The Wood Whisperer Guild, ContractorSelling, and DanceStudioOwner offer access to highly specialized, high quality information, recognizing that people will pay for good content. This model can work for any business with a tightly defined niche market and insider information. • The Simplifier Model: Companies like Mosquito Squad (pest control) and Hassle Free Homes (home maintenance) take a recurring task off your to-do list. Any business serving busy consumers can adopt this model not only to create a recurring revenue stream, but also to take advantage of the opportunity to cross-sell or bundle their services. • The Surprise Box Model: Companies like BarkBox (dog treats) and Standard Cocoa (craft chocolate) send their subscribers curated packages of goodies each month. If you can handle the logistics of shipping, giving customers joy in something new can translate to sales on your larger e-commerce site. This book also shows you how to master the psychology of selling subscriptions and how to reduce churn and provides a road map for the essential statistics you need to measure the health of your subscription business. Whether you want to transform your entire business into a recurring revenue engine or just pick up an extra 5 percent of sales growth, The Automatic Customer will be your secret weapon. |
| customer service consulting business: From Impressed to Obsessed: 12 Principles for Turning Customers and Employees into Lifelong Fans Jon Picoult, 2021-10-12 If you’re aspiring to satisfy your customers, then you’re aspiring to mediocrity. That’s the fascinating premise of From Impressed to Obsessed, a book that will fundamentally change how you think about creating a successful, beloved business. Acclaimed customer experience expert Jon Picoult explains why building customer loyalty requires leaving indelible positive impressions on everyone you work with—not just shaping their experiences, but also shaping their memories. Picoult explores the cognitive science behind great customer experiences, pinpointing the breakthrough, psychology-based strategies that both industry leaders (like Apple, Disney, and Southwest Airlines) as well as fast-growing startups (like BILT and Framebridge) use to shape people’s perceptions and sculpt unforgettable impressions—thereby turning more sales prospects into customers, and more customers into obsessed brand ambassadors. Packed with intriguing case studies, engaging stories, and eye-opening research, the book details these proven principles and illustrates how they can be applied to almost any type of business or customer. Examples include cases that show how to: • Create Peaks & Avoid Valleys—leverage the science of memory to etch positive impressions in people’s minds, by creating greater experiential peaks and fewer experiential valleys. • Give the Perception of Control—the almost magical power of giving customers a sense of agency, via choice and expectation-setting, causing them to feel better about the experience a business is already delivering. • Make It Effortless—make interactions easy for customers, not just from a physical perspective, but also a cognitive one, to satisfy today’s demand for simplicity and convenience. • Stir Emotion—harness the power of emotion as a memory cue, by infusing customer experiences with emotional resonance, highlighting positive feelings while stemming negative ones. No matter what kind of constituency you serve—customers or colleagues, individuals or institutions, employees or employment candidates—this book will help you do it with distinction. Picoult’s message is particularly relevant for managers, as he shows the parallels between how great companies cultivate engagement with customers, and how great leaders accomplish the same with their workforce. From Impressed to Obsessed reveals the what, the why, and—most importantly—the how behind great customer experiences. Filled with actionable insights, the book provides an invaluable roadmap for becoming the company that everyone wants to do business with, the employer everyone wants to work for, and the leader everyone wants to follow. |
| customer service consulting business: Never Say Sell Tom McMakin, Jacob Parks, 2020-10-27 Learn the secrets of how recurring revenue is driven at expert firms like BCG, KPMG, EY, and more Never Say Sell: How the World's Best Consulting and Professional Services Firms Expand Client Relationships explains how to scale individual engagements into long-term business relationships. Cowritten by Tom McMakin, the coauthor of How Clients Buy and expert in account development, and colleague Jacob Parks, this book provides insights from key rainmakers at firms like Accenture, IBM, and more into how they drive growth from existing relationships. Never Say Sell is a business development guide for professional service providers like consultants, accountants, and lawyers, whether they are sole proprietors or members of account teams tasked with expanding key accounts. Doing good work with existing clients is not enough to have them come back to you again and again. You must do more. This book explores the techniques and methods that leading professional service providers use to add value, cross sell, and drive recurring revenue from existing engagements. Never Say Sell will help you turn one-and-done clients into some of your most exciting and lucrative relationships. It is a must-have for any professional who benefits from repeat business. |
| customer service consulting business: Never Chase Clients Again Michael Moshiri, 2015-06-18 Are you a professional consultant looking for a predictable and reliable source of consulting leads and prospective clients, a firm leader looking for ways to grow your client base, or a consulting executive with business development responsibilities? If so, then this book will show you the fastest and most effective strategy for achieving those goals. The secret, consulting expert Michael Moshiri explains, is to never chase clients. As the author discovered during his decades of consulting with the world's biggest professional service firms - Deloitte, EY, and PwC - what distinguishes highly successful service professionals from everyone else is their ability to use Catalysts to attract and motivate clients to want to buy services from them. In Never Chase Clients Again, Moshiri lays out the specific steps - and inner mindset - he uses to leverage Catalysts to rapidly find, reach, and attract the most highly-qualified clients with minimal effort. Moshiri distinguishes the most effective business development actives from the random, ineffective, and wasteful interactions usually associated with networking and lead generation. He then distills his proven strategies for getting clients into an easy-to-follow system (called the Client Catalyst System) and a set of practical principles, including: Never rely on referrals: Expecting a referral source to take the initiative to present your merits, to endorse you, or to recommend you is the fast-track to failure. Most people prefer not to jeopardize their reputations or relationships. Business is chemistry: To bond quickly with the most highly-qualified clients, you must use the best catalysts. Clients love gravity: If you must drop names, you'd better use the names that carry the most weight. Clients crave value: You can catch more clients with an ounce of pure value than you can with a pound of small talk. In the course of the book, Moshiri outlines the timeless strategies shared by the world's biggest and most successful consulting firms. The step-by-step instructions and practical principles in this book will help you to leverage the power of Catalysts to find new clients, win more business, and grow your consulting firm - quickly, predictably, and efficiently. Never Chase Clients Again is destined to take its place alongside Managing The Professional Service Firm and The Trusted Advisor as a business classic for consulting firm leaders, seasoned consultants, and business development professionals alike. Included Online Resources: Accelerate your success in implementing the systems outlined in this book by leveraging the free downloadable worksheets, templates, and checklists available on the book's website at http: //NeverChaseClientsAgain.com/BookBonuses. |
| customer service consulting business: Million Dollar Consulting, Sixth Edition: The Professional's Guide to Growing a Practice Alan Weiss, 2021-11-23 Build a thriving 21st-century consultancy with an all-new edition of the classic bestseller In a world of rapidly evolving technologies and business paradigms, your consulting business needs to radically adapt its techniques and models. Taking full measure of these changes, Alan Weiss, the “Rock Star of Consulting,” will guide you through the process with a revised and completely updated sixth edition of his authoritative guide to consulting success. Weiss updates his time-tested model for creating a flourishing consulting business, while showing you the many dynamic changes in solo and boutique consulting, coaching, and entrepreneurship. In addition, he offers you invaluable guidance on raising capital, attracting clients, and creating an airtight marketing strategy. This new edition is packed with step-by-step advice on how to: Use volatility and disruption as offensive weapons Maximize fees by adopting a “value mindset” Build a successful model for marketing remotely Master cutting-edge technology to reach the broadest audience Form powerful alliances to increase reach and impact Think branding—and think global Generate six-figure projects, six-figure retainers, and seven-figure incomes Million Dollar Consulting has been the go-to classic for consultants for nearly 25 years. With cutting-edge new content, Alan Weiss will show you how to grow your business into a seven-figure firm today. |
| customer service consulting business: The Accidental Library Marketer Kathy Dempsey, 2009 The Accidental Library Marketer fills a need for library professionals and paraprofessionals who find themselves in an awkward position: They need to promote their libraries and services in the age of the internet, but they've never been taught how to do it effectively. This results-oriented A-to-Z guide by Kathy Dempsey--long-time editor of the Marketing Library Services newsletter--reveals the missing link between the everyday promotion librarians actually do and the real marketing that's guaranteed to assure funding, excite users, and build stronger community relationships. Combining real-life examples, expert advice, and checklists in a reader-friendly style, The Accidental Library Marketer is the complete how-to resource for successful library marketing and promotion.--Cover. |
| customer service consulting business: Consulting Business Entrepreneur magazine, 2014-05-01 The experts at Entrepreneur provide a two-part guide to success. First, capitalize on your talents and learn how help others achieve their business goals as a consultant. Then, master the fundamentals of business startup including defining your business structure, funding, staffing and more. This kit includes: • Essential industry-specific startup essentials including industry trends, best practices, important resources, possible pitfalls, marketing musts, and more • Entrepreneur Editors’ Start Your Own Business, a guide to starting any business and surviving the first three years • Interviews and advice from successful entrepreneurs in the industry • Worksheets, brainstorming sections, and checklists • Downloadable, customizable business letters, sales letters, and other sample documents • Entrepreneur’s Small Business Legal Toolkit More about Entrepreneur’s Startup Resource Kit Every small business is unique. Therefore, it’s essential to have tools that are customizable depending on your business’s needs. That’s why with Entrepreneur is also offering you access to our Startup Resource Kit. Get instant access to thousands of business letters, sales letters, sample documents and more – all at your fingertips! You’ll find the following: • The Small Business Legal Toolkit • Sample Business Letters • Sample Sales Letters |
| customer service consulting business: Plunkett's Consulting Industry Almanac 2007: Consulting Industry Market Research, Statistics, Trends & Leading Companies Jack W. Plunkett, Plunkett Research Ltd, 2007-06 Covers trends in consulting in such fields as marketing, information technology, management, logistics, supply chain, manufacturing and health care. This guide contains contacts for business and industry leaders, industry associations, Internet sites and other resources. It also includes statistical tables, an industry glossary and indexes. |
| customer service consulting business: The 7 Day Startup Dan Norris, 2016-11 From generating ideas to gaining your first paying customers. This is the bootstrapper's bible for launching your next product. 1. Why validation isn't the answer 2. How to evaluate your business idea 3. How to choose a business name fast 4. How to build a website in 1 day for under $100 5. 10 proven ways to market a business quickly |
| customer service consulting business: Never Say Sell Tom McMakin, Jacob Parks, 2020-10-14 Learn the secrets of how recurring revenue is driven at expert firms like BCG, KPMG, EY, and more Never Say Sell: How the World's Best Consulting and Professional Services Firms Expand Client Relationships explains how to scale individual engagements into long-term business relationships. Cowritten by Tom McMakin, the coauthor of How Clients Buy and expert in account development, and colleague Jacob Parks, this book provides insights from key rainmakers at firms like Accenture, IBM, and more into how they drive growth from existing relationships. Never Say Sell is a business development guide for professional service providers like consultants, accountants, and lawyers, whether they are sole proprietors or members of account teams tasked with expanding key accounts. Doing good work with existing clients is not enough to have them come back to you again and again. You must do more. This book explores the techniques and methods that leading professional service providers use to add value, cross sell, and drive recurring revenue from existing engagements. Never Say Sell will help you turn one-and-done clients into some of your most exciting and lucrative relationships. It is a must-have for any professional who benefits from repeat business. |
to-Endless Customer Service. End-to - Accenture
Our research1 has revealed that leading companies are already embracing an end-to-endless customer service mindset. It also puts revenue at risk. It’s time to seize larger, more strategic …
Customer Experience Transformation Services - Tata …
Tata Consultancy Services’ (TCS’) Customer Experience Transformation Services helps clients improve their customer experience through our proven capabilities in CX strategy, design, …
Customer Experience Excellence - Porsche Consulting
Customer experiences are more important than features and benefits of a product or service. They provide stability and orientation and set clear directions for transformation. Creating wow …
Customer Experience And Analytics Modernization: Critical …
business leaders place significant importance on modernizing business applications to better support customer outcomes and to improve data and analytics capabilities.
Elevating customer satisfaction and growth through service …
customer care to a proactive, consultative approach to customer engagement. At its core, this approach involves identifying customers’ needs and offering solutions to provide better …
Enhance Customer Experience and Satisfaction While Also …
Good customer service is critical to successfully growing your business, retaining customers and protecting your company’s brand. It also plays an important role in establishing and …
BUSINESS EFFICIENCY CONSULTING - Sozo Firm
Sozo Firm offers a full evaluation of your business’ customer service along with strategies to transform your service from mediocre to outstanding. Do customers rave over the way you go …
CUSTOMER SERVICE AND RELATIONSHIP …
The theoretical framework of this thesis consists of the customer service management and relationship management with their brief definitions and the explanations. The different ways of …
Customer Service Audit Checklist - CH Consulting Group
See below for a high-level list of questions that would help kick off a Customer Service Audit – feel free to use this as an internal starting point within your organization! PEOPLE How often do …
Enhance customer experience and satisfaction while also
Good customer service is critical to successfully growing your business, retaining customers and protecting your company’s brand. It also plays an important role in establishing and …
Customer First: Personalizing the Customer-Care Journey
Customer-care functions that can excel at personalization, sincerity, empathy, and the quick resolution of requests can better differentiate their company from the competition. In the past, …
Contact Center Development Model
The CCDM provides a practical, strategic transformation planning approach that assesses a contact center’s competence and capability against a set of operational and strategic criteria.
Blueprint for service success - Accenture
We surveyed 748 industrial service business executives from across 14 countries to understand the approaches they are taking. The research revealed that a stronger focus on service-driven …
Customer Support within a Shared Services Model - Lauro …
customer service professionals and consultants can provide the necessary expertise and knowledge to assist your company with achieving specific goals and implementing a High …
Determinants of customer satisfaction with consultant services
Although models of service quality and customer satisfaction have been well researched within the consumer goods and services area, much less attention has been paid to high involvement …
The future of customer experience: Personalized, white-glove …
The next horizon of customer service will be built on individual customer profiles, enabling companies to quickly resolve issues and even prevent them from occurring.
What Really Shapes the Customer Experience - Boston …
Our research has found that four aspects of the customer experience have an impact on brand advocacy: value for money, customer service, product sat- isfaction, and emotional connection.
What Businesses Need To Know About Communicating With …
customer experience and business results. KEY FINDINGS › Asynchronous chat is a growing opportunity for customer service. Over half of consumers rank at least one form of …
COMPANY PROFILE - JTB Consulting ― SA's #1 Business …
JTB Consulting is South Africa’s leading Business Plan Company. JTB Consulting was founded in 2006. Since that time, JTB Consulting has been concentrating on providing world-class …
to-Endless Customer Service. End-to - Accenture
Our research1 has revealed that leading companies are already embracing an end-to-endless customer service mindset. It also puts revenue at risk. It’s time to seize larger, more strategic …
Customer Experience Transformation Services - Tata …
Tata Consultancy Services’ (TCS’) Customer Experience Transformation Services helps clients improve their customer experience through our proven capabilities in CX strategy, design, …
Customer Experience Excellence - Porsche Consulting
Customer experiences are more important than features and benefits of a product or service. They provide stability and orientation and set clear directions for transformation. Creating wow …
Building Customer Experience for the Future - Boston …
The customer experience is evolving Source: BCG analysis. Why CEOs need to pay attention to their customer experience (CX) Unlock short-term profitability gains while building long-term …
Customer Experience And Analytics Modernization: Critical …
business leaders place significant importance on modernizing business applications to better support customer outcomes and to improve data and analytics capabilities.
Elevating customer satisfaction and growth through service …
customer care to a proactive, consultative approach to customer engagement. At its core, this approach involves identifying customers’ needs and offering solutions to provide better …
Enhance Customer Experience and Satisfaction While Also …
Good customer service is critical to successfully growing your business, retaining customers and protecting your company’s brand. It also plays an important role in establishing and …
BUSINESS EFFICIENCY CONSULTING - Sozo Firm
Sozo Firm offers a full evaluation of your business’ customer service along with strategies to transform your service from mediocre to outstanding. Do customers rave over the way you go …
CUSTOMER SERVICE AND RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT
The theoretical framework of this thesis consists of the customer service management and relationship management with their brief definitions and the explanations. The different ways of …
Customer Service Audit Checklist - CH Consulting Group
See below for a high-level list of questions that would help kick off a Customer Service Audit – feel free to use this as an internal starting point within your organization! PEOPLE How often do …
Enhance customer experience and satisfaction while also
Good customer service is critical to successfully growing your business, retaining customers and protecting your company’s brand. It also plays an important role in establishing and …
Customer First: Personalizing the Customer-Care Journey
Customer-care functions that can excel at personalization, sincerity, empathy, and the quick resolution of requests can better differentiate their company from the competition. In the past, …
Contact Center Development Model
The CCDM provides a practical, strategic transformation planning approach that assesses a contact center’s competence and capability against a set of operational and strategic criteria.
Blueprint for service success - Accenture
We surveyed 748 industrial service business executives from across 14 countries to understand the approaches they are taking. The research revealed that a stronger focus on service-driven …
Customer Support within a Shared Services Model - Lauro …
customer service professionals and consultants can provide the necessary expertise and knowledge to assist your company with achieving specific goals and implementing a High …
Determinants of customer satisfaction with consultant services
Although models of service quality and customer satisfaction have been well researched within the consumer goods and services area, much less attention has been paid to high involvement …
The future of customer experience: Personalized, white-glove …
The next horizon of customer service will be built on individual customer profiles, enabling companies to quickly resolve issues and even prevent them from occurring.
What Really Shapes the Customer Experience - Boston …
Our research has found that four aspects of the customer experience have an impact on brand advocacy: value for money, customer service, product sat- isfaction, and emotional connection.
What Businesses Need To Know About Communicating With …
customer experience and business results. KEY FINDINGS › Asynchronous chat is a growing opportunity for customer service. Over half of consumers rank at least one form of …
COMPANY PROFILE - JTB Consulting ― SA's #1 Business …
JTB Consulting is South Africa’s leading Business Plan Company. JTB Consulting was founded in 2006. Since that time, JTB Consulting has been concentrating on providing world-class …
