Psychology of Customer Care: A Revolutionary Approach

292 Pages·1992·16.059 MB·English

by  James J. Lynch

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF CUSTOMER CARE
Also by James J. Lynch
A MANPOWER DEVELOPMENT SYSTEM
* AIRLINE ORGANISATION
* ETHICAL BANKING
MAKING MANPOWER EFFECTIVE
MAKING MANPOWER MORE EFFECIIVE
THE PEOPLEPOWER GAP
*Also published by Macmillan
The Psychology of
Customer Care
A Revolutionary Approach
James J. Lynch
MACMILLAN
ffi
© James J. Lynch 1992
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of
this publication may be made without written permission.
No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or
transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with
the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988,
or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying
issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court
Road, London WIP 9HE.
Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this
publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil
claims for damages.
First published 1992 by
MACMILLAN PRESS LTD
Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS
and London
Companies and representatives
throughout the world
ISBN 0-333-55769-7
A catalogue record for this book is available
from the British Library.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2
04 03 02 01 00 99 98 97 96
Printed in Great Britain by
Antony Rowe Ltd
Chippenham, Wiltshire
For Christine
Details of consultancy and training
services on 'the psychology of
customer care' are available from:
Service Excellence Associates
Lions Green House,
Lions Green,
Heathfield,
East Sussex TN21 OPJ.
Telephone or Fax: [phone]
Contents
List of Figures and Tables xii
Preface xv
PART I THE CONSCIOUS ELEMENTS OF CUSTOMER
CARE PSYCHOLOGY
1 From Total Quality to Total Care 3
1.1 Introduction 3
1.2 Total Quality 3
1.3 Total Care 6
1.4 Total Care and the Customer 8
1.5 Total Care and the Environment 12
1.6 Total Care and the Local Community 12
1.7 Total Care and Ethics 13
1.8 Conclusion 14
New Thinking About New Customers 16
2.1 Introduction 16
2.2 The Growing Role of Service Industries 17
2.3 Customer Care Psychology: The Basic Model 19
2.4 New Social Values and Viewpoints 21
2.5 The Psychological Make-up of Customers 25
2.6 The Arenas of Customer Satisfaction 31
2.7 Conclusion 43
Customer Life-stages 45
3.1 Introduction 45
3.2 Childhood 46
3.3 Youth 48
3.4 Young Adulthood 52
3.5 Mature Adulthood 54
3.6 Middle Age 56
3.7 Young Old Age 56
3.8 Old Old Age 58
3.9 Conclusion 59
vu
viii Contents
Influencing Customer Choice 61
4.1 Introduction 61
4.2 Psychic Added-value 63
4.3 Shaping Customers' Psychology 68
4.4 Service Encounters 73
4.5 Customer Care Skills 75
4.6 Customer Psychology Chains 76
4.7 The Colour of Customer Care 86
4.8 Colour Support for Services and Products 87
4.9 Other Uses of Colour 87
4.10 Conclusion 90
Managing Customer Care 91
5.1 Introduction 91
5.2 Mission 91
5.3 Strategies 93
5.4 Competitive Quality 93
5.5 Corporate Quality 95
5.6 Building the Service Quality System 96
5.7 Developing the Service Vision 97
5.8 Determining the Vision-Reality Gap 97
5.9 Practices for Optimising Customer Satisfaction 99
Traditional Approaches to Time and Customer Care 107
6.1 Introduction 107
6.2 Brain Time 107
6.3 Social Time 108
6.4 Operating Time 110
6.5 Target Time 112
6.6 Time as a Service 112
6.7 Service Rhythms 114
6.8 Seasonal Rhythms 115
6.9 Daily Rhythms 115
6.10 Individual Rhythms 116
6.11 Rhythm Pacing 116
6.12 Conclusion 118
Contents IX
PART II THE SUBCONSCIOUS ELEMENTS OF CUSTOMER
CARE PSYCHOLOGY
7 Time - What Every Customer Wants 123
7.1 Introduction 123
7.2 The Building Blocks 124
7.3 Dominant Life-needs 126
7.4 The Development of Global Time 130
7.5 The Impact of the Church 130
7.6 The Impact of Industry 131
7.7 Conclusion 133
Customer Care Time-shaping 135
8.1 Introduction 135
8.2 Time-diversion 135
8.3 Time-compressing 137
8.4 Time-layering 139
8.5 Time-contraflows 141
8.6 Entertainment in the Air - An Example of
Time-shaping 142
The Customer Time Care Agency Business 144
9.1 Introduction 144
9.2 Time-compressing Agencies 144
9.3 Time-smoothing Agencies 145
9.4 Time-substituting Agencies 147
9.5 Conclusion 148
10 The Life-style Time-zones 154
10.1 Introduction 154
10.2 Family Time-zone 158
10.3 Leisure Time-zone 161
10.4 Private Time-zone 163
10.5 Ritual Time-zone 168
10.6 Survival Time-zone 170
10.7 Waiting Time-zone 172
10.8 Worship Time-zone 174
10.9 Conclusion 175