Product Plus: How Product Plus Service Equal Competitive Advantage - Hardcover

In this text, Christopher Lovelock demonstrates how organizations consistently profit by putting customers first, and lays out a proven strategy for building an entire company around customer-is-king satisfaction. Based on an in-depth understanding of customer needs, the book's nucleus is its five-point "product plus" services: information - how to transmit instructions and advice, take reservations and provide progress reports; hospitality - how to welcome customers with courteous greetings, comfortable waiting areas and readily available facilities; caretaking - how customers appreciate such extra touches as convenient parking, secure coatrooms and personal care of their valuables; exceptions - how companies can impress everyone with service for the handicapped, those with special dietary needs, and other "exceptional" customers; and payment - how to avoid the "one last chance to disappoint". With these principles in place, Lovelock illustrates how an organization can harness the power of modern technology to improve service quality; leverage employee skills; speed service delivery; reduce costs; and increase productivity. He goes behind the scenes of well-known service companies to see what makes them tick, details the best strategies of international companies, and flowcharts the customer's experience to see how buying decisions and product loyalty evolve.

Christopher Lovelock was professor at the Harvard Business School for more than a decade. He has also taught at MIT, Stanford, the Theseus Institute in France, and the International Institute for Management Development (IMD) in Switzerland.