Customer service has been turned upside down by the self-sufficiency and immediacy of shopping and buying products and services on the web. Our self-help culture has been transformed into a self-service culture with customers able and willing to do much more for themselves. We are becoming accustomed to the benefits and good feelings that we experience online through automated buying experiences that can be customized and personalized to our schedules, locations, buying patterns, and desires. More than ever before, the transactional relationship between the seller of products and the buyer of those products is critical to companies' overall profitability. In this increasingly transparent world where so many products and services are viewed by consumers as commodities, providing exceptional customer service becomes the only sustainable competitive advantage for creating customer loyalty. The harsh economic realities that every business faces today and for the foreseeable future make this even truer. BAM! Is a no nonsense book that teaches companies why they want to deliver effective customer service in this self-service world and how to do it The book debunks the 20 common myths of customer service-from "The customer is always right" to "Customer service means the same thing to everyone," to "Companies achieve customer service by under-promising and over-delivering"-myths that too many companies use automatically to run their customer service practices and policies without ever questioning them. BAM! replaces myths with a tactical approach that shows companies how to make more money through attitudes and actions that will help their customers feel satisfied in good times or bad. Creating satisfied customers is the only enduring competitive advantage left in a world market where virtually everything is a commodity. Forget the customer service platitudes. The only reason a company should offer excellent customer service is because it will make money for the business.