Service workers share their funniest and most cringeworthy stories of difficult, demanding, and just plain mind-boggling encounters with the public . . . “Ma’am, the rules clearly state that you cannot have any liquids over 3.4 ounces in your carry-on. If you’d like to, you could—” “But that’s not a liquid!” “Excuse me, ma’am?” “It’s not a liquid! It’s water!” Retailers, restaurants, and tech support providers believe service is king, but in The Customer Is Not Always Right, A.J. Adams proves that customers will do anything they can to put that motto to the test. Enjoy tales from the creator of the popular website Not Always Right, including half that are previously unpublished, showcasing customer-relations horror stories everyone can relate to. No matter what side of the counter you’re on, there are hilarious accounts about everything that can go wrong between the customer and retail or service provider. Whether it's a confrontation in the drive-through over not enough fries or arguing over a one-cent price difference on milk, this book proves the principle of “the customer is always right” can be dead wrong.

This volume includes the full proceedings from the 2011 World Marketing Congress held in Reims, France with the theme The Customer is NOT Always Right? Marketing Orientations in a Dynamic Business World. The focus of the conference and the enclosed papers is on marketing thought and practices throughout the world. This volume resents papers on various topics including marketing management, marketing strategy, and consumer behavior. Founded in 1971, the Academy of Marketing Science is an international organization dedicated to promoting timely explorations of phenomena related to the science of marketing in theory, research, and practice. Among its services to members and the community at large, the Academy offers conferences, congresses and symposia that attract delegates from around the world. Presentations from these events are published in this Proceedings series, which offers a comprehensive archive of volumes reflecting the evolution of the field. Volumes deliver cutting-edge research and insights, complimenting the Academy’s flagship journals, the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science (JAMS) and AMS Review. Volumes are edited by leading scholars and practitioners across a wide range of subject areas in marketing science.​

Don't let the customer get between you and building a strong valued brand If you want to stand out from the crowd, develop a clear and consistent brand voice, and ultimately build a fruitful business – listen to your brand. Stop Listening to the Customer offers insights into how consumers are driving homogeneity in brands and shares the proven strategies you can implement to amplify your own position in the world. The customer is not always right. In fact, our obsession with the customer risks devaluing brands by making them generic and forgettable. Brands have become too consumer-led, where they are driven by journey-mapping, customer-centric design, and an excessive focus on consumer-driven data. Instead try redressing the balance, and be brand-led, where brands and businesses can truly become unique, interesting and highly profitable. Multi-award-winning brand strategist and consumer psychologist Adam Ferrier shares his contrary approach to building a strong brand in Stop Listening to the Customer. Backed by science, real-world examples and extensive industry experience, Ferrier explores the dangers of listening to the consumer too much, shares lessons from successful businesses who prioritise their brand, and reveals the brand-building secrets of their success. With insights from Jules Lund, Lisa Ronson, John Newcomb, Rory Sutherland, and many more, this invaluable book will enable you to: • Avoid the pitfalls of drowning in customer data • Establish a strong, brand-led business • Develop a unique brand by embracing and leveraging your weaknesses • Define your brand • Get your customers to invest into you Stop Listening to the Customer is ideal for those looking to grow their brands and businesses by defeating consumer-driven mediocrity, standing out from the crowd, and listening their own brand.

On the front lines of customer service, every day presents new and unexpected challenges—and even the most dedicated employees can be caught unprepared. They need confidence. They need training. They need help. Those who work on the front lines of customer service never know what new and unexpected challenges await them each day. But they do know one thing--they will be needed. But how can you prepare for the unexpected? How can customer service reps get the training and confidence required to tackle the unknown? In Be Your Customer’s Hero, internationally recognized customer service expert Adam Toporek provides the answers to preparing for the surprises awaiting the CSR. Through short, simple, actionable advice, in quick, easy-to-read chapters, this invaluable guide shows customer-facing CSRs how to: Achieve the mindset required for Hero-ClassTM service Understand the customer’s expectations--and exceed them Develop powerful communication skills Avoid the seven triggers guaranteed to set customers off Handle difficult and even irrational customers with ease Armed with the tools and techniques in Be Your Customer’s Hero, you will have all they need to transform themselves into the heroes their customers need.

A breakthrough guide to the real lessons of business Have you ever noticed that individuals of brilliance often fall short of their true potential? Great ideas, concepts and initiatives seldom break through the sea of business mediocrity. As a senior international leader with over 30 years corporate experience, Hamish Thomson has discovered that true transformation and breakthrough comes from personal insight — derived not from intellect or technical mastery, but from experience and observation of real-life occurrences. It’s Not Always Right to Be Right offers unique business and leadership insights, teachable models, and practical advice on what one needs to do differently to achieve desired results. Writing in a casual, autobiographical style, Hamish shares the key experiences and hard-won lessons that enabled him to drive significant change when all the right ways of doing things didn’t work. Packed with fascinating true-to-life stories and powerful, often counterintuitive lessons, this invaluable guide: Distills a lifetime of business wisdom into a single volume Offers honest business and leadership lessons drawn from a long and successful corporate career Features learning messages, practical steps, and shareable strategic models and frameworks to help you make a tangible difference where it counts Provides strategic models that can be used to frame discussions and drive change in individuals, teams, and entire organizations It’s Not Always Right to Be Right is a must-read for anyone starting out in the business and corporate world, for anyone in the middle of their career looking to break through to the next level, and for senior leaders seeking to improve performance and drive meaningful change.

Are you endlessly trying to improve your employees' customer service skills, but getting so-so results? There may be a culprit that you've never considered.Rather than offering another set of customer service tips, Getting Service Right takes a novel approach by rooting out the real reasons employees don't consistently deliver the service they should. The results can be both surprising and illuminating, such as: Company cultures that unwittingly discourage excellent customer service.Employees torn between following policy or serving the customer.Cost reduction efforts that actually increase the cost of service.Poor products and services that make it impossible to satisfy customers.Bad habits that make it difficult to listen to customers' needs.Getting Service Right is filled with examples from well-known organizations, real stories from frontline employees, and the latest scientific research. These powerful, sometimes counterintuitive insights can be applied at the organizational, departmental, or individual level to help the entire team deliver outstanding customer service.Note: the first edition of this book was published under the title, Service Failure: The Real Reasons Employees Struggle with Customer Service and What You Can Do About I

Not all customers are created equal. Despite what the tired old adage says, the customer is not always right. Not all customers deserve your best efforts: in the world of customer centricity, there are good customers...and then there is pretty much everybody else. Upending some of our most fundamental beliefs, renowned behavioral data expert Peter Fader, Co-Director of The Wharton Customer Analytics Initiative, helps businesses radically rethink how they relate to customers. He provides insights to help you revamp your performance metrics, product development, customer relationship management and organization in order to make sure you focus directly on the needs of your most valuable customers and increase profits for the long term.