Convince & Convert, an online customer service and digital marketing consultancy and media company, is led by Jay Baer. He has five novels to his credit, including the New York Times best-seller Youtility. He writes for Inc., Entrepreneur, and Forbes.com, runs the world's number one content marketing site, and hosts multiple award-winning podcasts.

Eighty percent of businesses claim to provide excellent customer service, yet just eight percent of their customers agree. This book will assist you in closing that gap by restructuring your customer service to provide outstanding experiences.

The widespread use of smartphones and social media has drastically changed the science of complaints. Critics ("haters") can now express their anger more quickly and publicly than ever before. These tendencies have resulted in an overall increase in complaints and the perception among many firms that they must "choose their spots" when responding to critiques.

Bestselling author Jay Baer explains why this strategy is disastrous. Hug Your Haters demonstrates that there are two categories of complainers, each with very different motivations, based on an extensive private study of how, where, and why we complain:

• Offstage haters. These people are merely looking for solutions to their difficulties. They complain through traditional channels where they are more likely to receive a response—phone, e-mail, and company websites. Offstage detractors don't care if anyone else finds out as long as they have their questions answered.
• Onstage haters. These people are frequently dissatisfied with traditional means of communication, therefore they resort to alternative channels such as social media, online review sites, and discussion boards. Haters onstage want more than solutions; they want an audience to join them in their righteous outrage.

Hug Your Haters demonstrates how to deal with both groups by utilizing painstakingly researched case studies from organizations of all sizes and sorts from around the world. It comes with precise playbooks and algorithms, as well as a fold-out poster of "the Hatrix," which outlines the optimal strategies for various situations. The book also contains tragic and funny examples of haters gone wild and companies gone insane, as well as inspiring stories of businesses responding with quickness, compassion, and empathy.

You will have detractors whether you work for a mom-and-pop shop or a worldwide business, and you cannot afford to ignore them. Baer's insights and strategies will teach you how to embrace complaints, turn haters into supporters, and turn bad news into positive consequences.

Author: Jay Baer

Link to buy: https://www.amazon.com/Hug-Your-Haters-Complaints-Customers/dp/1101980672/

Ratings: 4.4 out of 5 stars (from 38 reviews)

Best Sellers Rank: #177,533 in Books

#255 in Customer Relations (Books)

#288 in Marketing & Consumer Behavior

#1,153 in Marketing (Books)

Tony Hsieh joined Zappos in 1999 as an advisor and investor, just two months after the company was launched. He finally became a full-time employee of Zappos in 2000. Under his leadership, Zappos increased gross merchandise sales from $1.6 million in 2000 to more than $1 billion in 2008.

• Pay brand-new workers $2,000 to resign
• Make customer service the duty of the entire organization, rather than just one department.
• Priority one should be given to corporate culture.
• Apply happiness science studies to business management.
• Assist employees in their personal and professional development.
• Attempt to make a difference in the world.
• Oh, and make money as well...

Does that sound crazy? It's all routine procedure at Zappos, the online retailer with yearly gross merchandise sales of more than $1 billion. Zappos was acquired by Amazon in a deal valued at more than $1.2 billion on the day of completion, after debuting as the highest-ranking newcomer on Fortune magazine's annual "Best Companies to Work For" list in 2009.

Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh explains the various lessons he has learned in business and life, from beginning a worm farm to running a pizza business, through LinkExchange, Zappos, and others, in Delivering Happiness. Delivering Happiness is a fast-paced and down-to-earth look at how a totally different kind of corporate culture can be a powerful model for success—and how focusing on the happiness of others around you may drastically boost your own. Bestseller in the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal

Author: Tony Hsieh

Link to buy: https://www.amazon.com/Delivering-Happiness-Profits-Passion-Purpose/dp/0446576220

Ratings: 4.6 out of 5 stars (from 3167 reviews)

Best Sellers Rank: #13,875 in Books

#19 in Customer Relations (Books)

#68 in Workplace Culture (Books)

#77 in Communication Skills

MATTHEW DIXON is the executive director of CEB's Sales & Service Practice. He is a frequent contributor to Harvard Business Review, and his previous book, The Challenger Sale, was a Wall Street Journal bestseller that was hailed as "the most important advance in selling in many years" (Neil Rackham) and "the beginning of a wave that will take over many selling organizations in the next decade" (Business Insider).

NICK TOMAN is a frequent writer to Harvard Business Review and the senior director of research for CEB's Sales & Service Practice.

RICK DELISI is a well-known public speaker and facilitator, as well as the senior director of consulting services for CEB's Sales & Service Practice.

CEB is the most prominent member-based advisory firm. CEB provides senior leaders and their teams with insight and actionable solutions to transform operations by combining the best practices of thousands of member organizations with its advanced research methodology and human capital analytics.

Everyone knows that the ideal approach to build client loyalty is to provide service that is so good, so out of the ordinary, that it surprises and delights. But what if everyone is mistaken?

Matthew Dixon and his colleagues at CEB debunked numerous long-held sales fallacies in their famous bestseller The Challenger Sale. With a new book that throws conventional thinking on its head, they've turned their research and analysis to a new crucial business subject: customer loyalty.

The notion that businesses must delight customers by exceeding service standards is so entrenched that few managers even question it. They commit incalculable time, energy, and resources to dazzling others and inspiring unwavering allegiance. Despite this, CEB's thorough study over five years and tens of thousands of responses demonstrates that the "dazzle factor" is vastly overrated—it simply does not predict repeat sales, share of wallet, or favorable word of mouth. The truth:

"Loyalty is driven by how well a company delivers on its basic promises and solves day-to-day problems, not on how spectacular its service experience might be. Most customers don’t want to be “wowed”; they want an effortless experience. And they are far more likely to punish you for bad service than to reward you for good service."

This makes a lot of sense if you put on your customer hat instead of your manager or marketer hat. What do you truly want from your cable company: a free month of HBO when it goes down or a quick, easy connection restoration? Do you desire free cookies and a friendly grin from your bank, or maybe a personal relationship with your teller? Or is it just a simple in-and-out transaction with an easy option to seek a refund if it overcharges on fees?

Among the best books on customer service, The Effortless Experience takes readers on an enthralling trip deep within the consumer experience, revealing what truly makes customers loyal—and disloyal. The authors outline the four main pillars of a low-effort customer experience, including strong statistics, stunning insights, and profiles of firms who are already using the concepts uncovered by CEB's study with remarkable success. They also contain a plethora of tools and templates that you can use right now to enhance service, cut expenses, minimize customer attrition, and eventually produce the illusive loyalty that the "dazzle factor" fails to achieve.

The prizes are there for the taking, and the path to obtaining them is now well-defined.

Author: Matthew Dixon, Nick Toman and Rick DeLisi

Link to buy: https://www.amazon.com/Effortless-Experience-Conquering-Battleground-Customer/dp/1591845815/

Ratings: 4.6 out of 5 stars (from 498 reviews)

Best Sellers Rank: #43,805 in Books

#53 in Direct Marketing (Books)

#54 in Customer Relations (Books)

#85 in Marketing & Consumer Behavior

Ted Kinni has written thirteen books on business. He ghostwrote seven books for companies such as Booz & Company, Prime Resource Group, The Walt Disney Company, LIF Group, and IMPAQ, Inc. He is also a business journalist, with articles and book reviews published in a range of publications, including cover stories in Harvard Management Update, Across the Board, Training, Selling Power, Quality Digest, and Corporate University Review.

The Disney Institute, which specializes in assisting professionals in seeing new possibilities through concepts not commonly encountered in the workplace, is unveiling even more of the business behind the magic of exceptional service. Thousands of professionals from more than thirty-five countries and forty industries have attended business programs at Disney Institute over the last twenty-five years, learning how to adapt the Disney strategy for their own firms. Be Our Guest highlights many of these companies' triumphs, as well as the core processes and best practices that have helped Disney become a trusted and revered brand around the world for more than eighty-five years.

Do you want to learn more about The Walt Disney Company, its creator, and its driving creative forces? Explore these Disney Editions behind-the-scenes stories in Be Our Guest:

• Travels with Figment: On the Road in Search of Disney Dreams (By Disney Legend Marty Sklar)
• One Little Spark! Mickey's Ten Commandments and The Road to Imagineering (By Disney Legend Marty Sklar)
• Magic Journey: My Fantastical Walt Disney Imagineering Career (By Kevin Rafferty)
• Travels with Walt Disney: A Photographic Voyage Around the World (By Jeff Kurtti)
• Eat Like Walt: The Wonderful World of Disney Food (By Marcy Carriker Smothers)
• Walt Disney: An American Original (By Bob Thomas)
• Disney A to Z: The Official Encyclopedia, Fifth Edition (By Disney Legend Dave Smith)
• Disney Facts Revealed: Answers to Fans’ Curious Questions (By Disney Legend Dave Smith)
• Disney Trivia from the Vault: Secrets Revealed and Questions Answered (By Disney Legend Dave Smith)
• My Pride: Mastering Life's Daily Performance from Broadway's Record-Breaking Lion King (By Alton Fitzgerald White)

Author: Theodore B. Kinni

Link to buy: https://www.amazon.com/Be-Our-Guest-Perfecting-Institute/dp/1423145844

Ratings: 4.7 out of 5 stars (from 1528 reviews)

Best Sellers Rank: #18,553 in Books

#5 in Orlando Florida Travel Books

#13 in Disney World Travel Books

#20 in Theme Park Travel Guides

Shep Hyken is a speaker and author who assists businesses in developing loyal relationships with their customers and staff. He is the author of Moments of Magic and The Loyal Customer, and the founder of The Customer Focus program, which assists companies in developing a customer service culture and a loyalty mindset. His clients span from small businesses to multinational behemoths like American Airlines, General Motors, IBM, Kraft, Marriott, Toyota, Verizon, and many more.

You can't just satisfy your customers in today's competitive business environment. You must be better than that, providing them with memorable experiences. Shep Hyken, the author, has spent the last twenty-five years researching outstanding companies and the evangelists they produce. Hyken demonstrates in The Cult of the Customer how to create a strategy that guides both customers and staff through five unique cultural phases, ranging from "uncertainty" to "amazement." Hyken highlights the crucial internal and external adjustments that allowed them to develop a Cult of the Customer - and reveals how you can accomplish it too - by offering dozens of case studies that show how great organizations made this trip.

The message delivered by Hyken is both compelling and timely: the happier your customers and workers are, the more successful your business will be. The Cult of the Customer, one of the best books on customer service, is your road map to establishing a customer-focused culture that transforms satisfied customers into customer advocates.

Author: Shep Hyken

Link to buy: https://www.amazon.com/Cult-Customer-Experience-Satisfied-Evangelists/dp/0470404825

Ratings: 4.5 out of 5 stars (from 109 reviews)

Best Sellers Rank: #135,180 in Books

#63 in Business Marketing

#187 in Customer Relations (Books)

#901 in Marketing (Books)

Jeff Toister works with customer care teams to help them realize their full potential. He is the author of The Service Culture Handbook: A Step-by-Step Guide to Obsessed Customer Service in Your Employees. He's also written customer service training films for LinkedIn Learning, such as Customer Service Foundations and Leading a Customer-centric Culture. Global Gurus named Jeff one of the top 30 customer service professionals in the world. The International Customer Management Institute also designated him one of the Top 50 Thought Leaders to Follow on Twitter.

Consider developing a customer-focused culture so strong that your workers always seem to do the right thing. They support one another, work together to solve challenges, and are always looking for ways to go the additional mile.

Consider a company culture in which employees are completely obsessed with customer service.

The Service Culture Handbook is a step-by-step guide to developing a customer-focused culture in your organization, department, or location. Whether you're just starting out or have been working on culture for a while, this handbook will help you take the next step. You'll get practical advice, simple activities, and tried-and-true tools that you can use right away.

Learn the one thing that is at the heart of every great culture. Learn what customer-centric businesses do differently to engage their staff. And look into ways to strategically align every aspect of your organization with exceptional service.

Creating and maintaining a customer-focused culture is a never-ending endeavor that requires dedication, hard work, and commitment. The Service Culture Handbook is an invaluable reference for keeping you and your workers on track.

Author: Jeff Toister

Link to buy: https://www.amazon.com/Service-Culture-Handbook-Step-Step/dp/0692842004/

Ratings: 4.6 out of 5 stars (from 314 reviews)

Best Sellers Rank: #64,206 in Books

#31 in Service Industry (Books)

#48 in Consulting

#78 in Customer Relations (Books)

Lee Cockerell is the author of several books, including Creating Magic: 10 Common Sense Leadership Strategies from a Life at Disney. He is a former Walt Disney World Leadership Vice President of Operations and has held executive positions at Hilton Hotels and Marriott.

Lee Cockerell understands that acquiring and retaining clients is critical to the success of any organization. Lee shares what he has learned in his 40+ year career in the hotel industry on building an environment that keeps customers coming back for more in 39 digestible, bite-sized chapters. In The Customer Rules, Lee demonstrates not only why the customer always wins, but also the Rules for treating consumers so well that they'll never want to do business with anybody else. As an example:

• Rule #1: Customer Service Is Not a Department
• Rule #3: Great Service Follows the Laws of Gravity
• Rule #5: Ask Yourself "What Would Mom Do?"
• Rule #19: Be a Copycat
• Rule #25. Treat Every Customer like a Regular
• Rule #39: Don’t Try Too Hard

These principles, as simple as they are profound, have been shown to work in companies as large as Disney and as small as a local coffee shop; in businesses selling cutting-edge technologies like computer tablets to those selling timeless products like shoes and handbags; and in corporations as old as Ford Motors and as new as a brand new start-up. And they have been shown to be indispensable at all levels of a company, from managers in charge of hiring and training people, establishing rules and procedures, and developing the company culture to front-line employees who engage directly with clients and customers.

The Customer Rules is the indispensable handbook for service excellence everywhere, chock-full of universal advice that is applicable both online and offline. It is regarded as one of the best books on customer service.

Author: Lee Cockerell

Link to buy: https://www.amazon.com/Customer-Rules-Essential-Delivering-Sensational/dp/0770435602

Ratings: 4.7 out of 5 stars (from 361 reviews)

Best Sellers Rank: #179,807 in Books

#260 in Customer Relations (Books)

#743 in Sales & Selling (Books)

#2,352 in Business Management (Books)

Shepard Presentations' CAO (Chief Amazement Officer) is Shep Hyken, CSP, CPAE. Shep works with companies who want to develop loyal relationships with their customers and staff as a customer service expert and keynote speaker. His primary focus is on providing excellent customer service, engaging customers, controlling the customer experience, and building customer loyalty. He is a National Speakers Association Hall of Fame speaker and a New York Times and Wall Street Journal best-selling author.

Want to wow your customers, impress your coworkers, and outperform your competitors? Going from mediocrity to amazing is not an impossible aim. In truth, astonishment is a habit that anyone can cultivate, and Shep Hyken understands how to do so.

Shep discusses the secrets to making his mantra "Always Be Amazing!" an everyday lifestyle in Be Amazing or Go Home, and demonstrates how you, too, can become great in business and life. Shep demonstrates simple techniques that can boost your game, drawing on the routines of outstanding performers, such as:

• Showing up ready to be amazing
• Being proactive
• Craving feedback
• Taking responsibility
• Embracing authenticity
• Focusing on excellence
• Turning misery into magic

Once you've mastered these habits, you'll be able to build trust, stronger connections, sell more, advance your profession, and much more. Now is the time to move beyond the ordinary and into the extraordinary.

Author: Shep Hyken

Link to buy: https://www.amazon.com/Be-Amazing-Go-Home-Confidence/dp/1640951490

Ratings: 4.6 out of 5 stars (from 153 reviews)

Best Sellers Rank: #138,034 in Books

#194 in Customer Relations (Books)

#235 in Marketing & Consumer Behavior

#915 in Marketing (Books)

Gary Vaynerchuk is a New York Times bestselling author and the chairman of VaynerX, a modern day communications company, as well as the active CEO of VaynerMedia, a modern global creative and media agency intended to generate business outcomes for their clients. He is a well-known public speaker and an active investor, with stakes in companies such as Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Venmo, Coinbase, Slack, and Uber.

The Thank You Economy is about something bigger than any single groundbreaking platform. It's not some abstract concept or strange business strategy—real, it's and we all do business in it every day, whether we realize it or not. It affects how we communicate, how we purchase and sell, and how businesses and customers engage both online and offline. The Internet, which gave birth to The Thank You Economy, has given consumers their voice back, and the great strength of their opinions via social media means that corporations and brands must compete on a far higher level than they used to.

Gone are the days when a flood of marketing money could be utilized to swamp the airwaves, drown out the competition, and capture customer attention. Customers' demands for authenticity, originality, creativity, honesty, and good intent have forced companies and brands to return to a level of customer service not seen since the days of our great-grandparents, when business owners often knew their customers personally and gave them individual attention.

Here, acclaimed entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk explains how businesses large and small can scale that kind of personalized, one-on-one attention to their entire client base, no matter how huge, by leveraging the same social media platforms that drive consumer word of mouth. The Thank You Economy provides compelling, data-driven evidence that we have entered an entirely new business era, one in which the companies that see the greatest returns will not be those that can throw the most money at an advertising campaign, but those that can demonstrate they care more about their customers than anyone else. Businesses and brands that can harness the power of social media word-of-mouth, those that can change their culture to be more customer-aware and fan-friendly, will be able to separate themselves from the pack and prosper in today's marketplaces.

The Thank You Economy reveals how businesses can harness all of the changes and challenges inherent in social media and turn them into tremendous opportunities for profit and growth, filled with Vaynerchuk's irrepressible candor and wit, as well as real-world examples of companies profiting by putting Thank You Economy principles into practice.

Author: Gary Vaynerchuk

Link to buy: https://www.amazon.com/Thank-You-Economy-Gary-Vaynerchuk/dp/0061914185

Ratings: 4.6 out of 5 stars (from 633 reviews)

Best Sellers Rank: #65,607 in Books

#80 in Customer Relations (Books)

#110 in Web Marketing (Books)

#129 in Marketing & Consumer Behavior

Micah Solomon is a world-renowned expert in customer service, corporate culture, and the customer experience. He's a best-selling book, customer service expert, and well-known keynote speaker. He is also a Forbes contributor and has been featured in The Washington Post, The New York Times, Harvard Business Review, and on ABC and CBS.

Many businesses fall short when it comes to providing excellent customer service and experience. But there's no reason why you and your firm should be included. Ignore Your Customers explains, step by step, how to create a customer service culture and experience that will revolutionize your organization and enhance your bottom line.

You'll appreciate inspiring, and sometimes amusing, tales from the trenches as author Micah Solomon, one of the world's most well-known customer service consultants, recounts his experiences reviewing and improving customer service in a variety of businesses.

You'll go behind the scenes with Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh to see how the company provides "wow" customer service. Richard Branson will teach you how Virgin companies provide true customer service (rather than what he refers to as "Stepford Customer Service") and how to turn social media adversaries into brand promoters.

In Ignore Your Customers, one of the best books on customer service, Solomon reveals what it takes to transform a mundane customer interaction into one that drives customer engagement and lifelong loyalty, drawing on a wealth of stories personally gathered from today's most innovative and successful companies, including Amazon, Cleveland Clinic, Drybar, USAA Insurance, and The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company.

Author: Micah Solomon

Link to buy: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1400214920/

Ratings: 4.7 out of 5 stars (from 98 reviews)

Best Sellers Rank: #136,058 in Books

#190 in Customer Relations (Books)

#230 in Marketing & Consumer Behavior

#585 in Sales & Selling (Books)