Service America!: Doing Business in the New Economy

Predicting a massive employment shift from heavy industry to a service economy, Albrecht and Zemke trace a major business trend toward customer-oriented competition. In 1981, they note, SAS, like other airlines, lost money. The line's incoming president, Jan Carlson, perceived that all planes fly the same sky and that the only competitive edge lay in customers' recollections of their travel experiences. Carlson enforced a program to assure customers of services they expectedon-time performance, courteous treatment, in-flight comfortas a primary management concern. Big profits ensued, and ""service management'' became a new by-word, in Europe and worldwide. The authors view each personnel-customer contact as a ``moment of truth,'' a cliche too often repeated as they delineate by anecdote, statistic, service ``blueprint'' and case history an increasing acknowledgment of customer satisfaction as a basic business requirement. 25,000 first printing; 50,000 ad/promo; author tour. November 14