Author Kirt Manecke offers what he dubs “The Essential 60-Minute Crash Course” in a slender paperback sporting a sharp-looking cover in blue with yellow highlights of the word ‘Smile’.
The text layout of the pages is equally clean and eye-catching, while the content on how to improve customer service is concise and persuasive.
The book is broken up into five, easy to read chapters with each double page layout offering concise information for each skill and tip, while text boxes highlight crucial points and fact. There are also numerous references to well known authors in the customer service field, such as Malcolm Gladwell and his best selling book, BLINK.
Though touted as a customer service tool, much of Manecke’s advice is based on common sense social etiquette, effective communication skills and basic psychology that makes SMILE appealing and relevant to a vast audience ranging from employees and employers, high school students to high level business people, from sales staff to teachers to anybody that has a job requiring human interaction.
Some of the basic skills included involve saying “please” and “thank you,” acknowledging customers when they enter the store, listening actively and learning how to ask open ended questions that open the door for communication versus a “yes” or “no” answer. This advice is also adapted to allow for improvements during online communication, with the biggest advice being to spell check and proofread emails, which reflect the same courtesy, respect and consideration for the customer as attentive, effective in-person communication.
SMILE’s easy-to-use format and well-rounded content makes it this book a informative source for those wanting to brush up on their social skills, a nice companion to an existing training program or a simple strategy for a small company to follow, or a foundation on which to build a customer service program.
SMILE is an efficiently organized, instructional and informative guide that, though designed to improve sales by improving customer service, also serves as a tool for improving general communication skills and strategies.
Reviewed by Maya Fleischmann for IndieReader