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Describes the importance of training and summarizes learning theory. Details the top ten learning methods: videotapes, lectures, one‐on‐one instruction, role plays, games/simulation, case studies, slides, computer‐based training, audiotapes and films. Discusses the factors to consider when selecting a training method or combination of methods. Emphasizes the importance of post‐training evaluation.

In today’s volatile economy, providing excellent customer service can be the critical difference between a company’s success and failure. Customers today are better educated than ever before. They are increasingly careful about purchases and the dollars they spend and want value for their money. Customers also want good service and are willing to pay for it. The level of courtesy and assistance required from a customer service representative has increased dramatically over the past decade as a result of the customer’s upgraded “acceptable” service standards; more skills are required, such as telephone courtesy and assistance, effective telemarketing skills, customer retention, problem‐solving capabilities, maintaining customer satisfaction, and effective use of available technology. As a result, companies in various industries are induced to provide distinguished customer service in order to remain competitive. Learning is taking on strategic importance. Demand for customer service training is higher than ever before. Such extraordinary commitment can be elicited only in the context of a corporate culture that emphasizes caring about employees and sharing of the service ethic by everyone in the organization ‐ starting with the CEO. A business which offers not just the bare‐bones basics but exceptional, value‐amplified service, which anticipates and caters to a whole range of customer needs and desires, sets itself far above the competition.

How do we measure leadership? How do we measure success? Does the real measure of success escape analysis? According to John Wooden, team success is dependent on the individual success of each team member. Conversely, each team member’s success is dependent on the success of the whole. Presents Wooden’s definition of individual success as the “peace of mind which is the direct result of self‐satisfaction in knowing you did your best to become the best you are capable of becoming”. John Wooden devoted his life’s work to explaining how to coach people to achieve that peace of mind, that success. His methods produced winning teams for decades. His formula for coaching provides a classic model for today’s business leader by showing how to build a winning business team, one that will endure through the continual uncertainty of today’s business environment. Explores the essential building blocks of coaching in Wooden’s style of leadership, and how they can be applied to the business environment.

Uses personal telephone interviews, and researches the literature to show how banks change themselves to cope with changes in the marketplace. Focuses especially on high‐performing institutions and on what makes them different. Finds all three banks chosen for study share the same common elements of service excellence.

According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the service industry is responsible for over three‐fourths of all employment and is expected to account for all net job growth during the next decade. As this industry grows in size and economic importance, companies are rediscovering the value of those who deliver the service. As a result, experts believe survival for these businesses in the 1990s depends on creative approaches to finding, training, and retaining the best customer‐contact workers. While, unfortunately, most companies still view them as mindless robots, a few have managed to realize their importance and have made headway in encouraging them through conscientious management programmes. Their suggestions and examples can be a lesson to all.

Early in this century, extensive research was carried out regarding the worker in the industrial setting with the physical environment as the focus. In the 1930s, the focus became the social environment. Several developments have recently brought the physical environment into prominence and, in particular, the office as a work setting. The US economy has shifted from production to the provision of information and services, with 80 per cent of the workforce predicted to be in the office work setting by the year 2000, compared with 53 per cent today. The work environment is also changing due to advances in technology. This research is in its infancy; and the relationship of the work setting and behaviour, and how it affects productivity, is said to be complex.The existing data suggest that non‐supportive design has negative effects on work and workers, and design appropriate to the work has positive ones. In fact, many businesses have begun changing their design and organizational cultures with positive results. Only time and more observation can reveal what will result from these changes.

Re‐engineering is the latest in a long line of performance improvement programmes with which US industry has experimented during the last decade. The radical approach taken by re‐engineering is the main characteristic setting it apart from any of its predecessors. Re‐engineering is based on the premiss that the best way for a corporation to make significant improvements is to take a clean sheet of paper and ask itself “if I were to start this company over from the beginning, what would I do?” Now, two years after the introduction of this unusual approach, many corporations are finding their efforts have failed. By analysing these case studies, several key topics have arisen which explain why some organizations have completed their re‐engineering programmes without meeting their expectations. First discusses re‐engineering in detail, and then addresses several of these recent developments.

While accurate measurement of customer service is important, of even greater importance is making the measurement effectively so that results can be used to improve business operations. Discusses a number of measurement methods and describes the market share method, which was developed to incorporate the important factors of these methods while linking it with company profits through market share.

American industry has been challenged from goods coming from abroad. Once pre‐eminent in quality in the 1940s and 1950s, US companies can no longer stand complacent while their market share erodes in the face of foreign competition, especially from Asian companies. To see how American industry can better its predicament, one must look to the Asian “tigers” for the answers to American industry’s woes. Examines, specifically, certain Asian companies such as Hyundai and Toyota in depth to see how they could achieve such an astounding success in quality in just a few decades. Moreover, examines how these two Asian companies achieved excellence in quality through their techniques in quality management, which might provide, in the present as well as in the future, an example for American companies to emulate.

Indicates the importance of strong and stable work relationships, and how to establish and maintain these by means of three “representational systems”: auditory, visual, and kinesthetic. Concludes that strong working relationships often lead to a more productive work environment.