Wired and Dangerous

Book excerpt: In an era of economic stress, rapid change, and social networking, customers are distracted, disgruntled, and harder to please than ever. Picky, Fickle, Vocal, Wired, and Vain – they have very little tolerance for error and are ready to spread the word quickly over the internet when things go wrong. If a companyÆs customer service doesnÆt adapt to these new conditions, they will get burned by bloggers and viral videos that can severely damage their reputation. This book describes exactly what todayÆs customers expect and how to give it to them. In Wired and Dangerous, Bell and Patterson provide a tested formula for restoring balance to the customer relationship by establishing what they call “Service Calm”. The three steps to Service Calm sound simple, but they draw on sophisticated psychological principles and are profound in application: 1) Deal with Self, 2) Deal with Customer, 3) Deal with Context.