Best Customer Service Books: 19 Picks Recommended by CEOs

Danny Meyer argues that hospitality, unlike mere service, is felt when something is done for a guest rather than to one, and builds his restaurants on enlightened hospitality, which serves staff first and guests second. Ramit Sethi and Noah Kagan both recommend it.

Shep Hyken builds his Amazement Tools around the service record of Ace Hardware, covering culture, leadership, community and one-on-one service, and argues that every employee has to lead, with or without a title. Tony Hsieh links it to the WOW that Zappos tries to deliver to every customer.

Lee Cockerell, a former Walt Disney World executive, condenses four decades in hospitality into short rules, such as treating every customer like a regular and seeing that service is not a department. Fred Whyte says its guidelines can be put to work right away at any company.

Micah Solomon, a customer service expert, gathers lessons from owners, general managers and chefs at top hotels and restaurants, among them Four Seasons and Ritz-Carlton, on exceeding guest expectations for every generation from boomers to millennials. Sara Kearney calls it a valuable look at succeeding with today’s and tomorrow’s guests.

Robert Spector and Patrick D. McCarthy turn the service principles of Nordstrom into a practical handbook for owners, managers and trainers, with tools for a customer-driven culture and chapters on online and multi-channel service. Howard Schultz says it shows how empowering employees builds lasting customer relationships.

Ken Blanchard and Sheldon Bowles teach service through a parable in which a new Area Manager learns that satisfied customers are not enough, and that a business must set a vision, learn what customers want and make outstanding service permanent. Vivek Garipalli calls it short, simple and effective.

The Culinary Institute of America holds that consistent service is how restaurants win and keep customers, with chapters on hiring and training staff, hospitality at the front door, styles of table service and handling service failures. Chuck Rogers says nothing matters more to success than service that brings people back.

Will Guidara made Eleven Madison Park the world’s top-ranked restaurant by giving guests far more than they expected, such as sledding in Central Park for a family who had never seen snow, and argues any business can choose hospitality. Sam Parr calls it his best business read in years.

Ron Kaufman argues that service is too often left to one department and to clichés like the customer always being right, and offers the principles, models and tools that successful service teams share. Ann Rhodes of JetBlue praises the structure it gives for building a service culture.

Jeff Toister lays out a step-by-step plan, with exercises and tools, for building a customer-centered culture in a whole company, one department or a single site, and shows how customer-focused firms engage their staff. Brad Cleveland calls it a practical and fun guide to a culture that works.

Dennis Snow and Teri Yanovitch organize the work of building a service culture into nine leadership actions, covering staff training, measuring service quality, accountability, recognition and a shared customer service vision. Rich Stamberger says that where others explain why service matters, these authors show how to deliver it.

Mainly Tony Hsieh’s memoir of his ventures, from LinkExchange to running Zappos and its sale to Amazon, built on the argument that a culture centered on happiness also produces results. Raluca Radu says it has shaped how she thinks about customer service ever since.

Chip Heath and Dan Heath study why some brief experiences lift people up and how such moments can be designed. Adam Grant took from it new ideas for delighting customers, and Eric Ries says it shows how to design experiences with real impact for customers and employees.

Mainly a turnaround method for bars: Jon Taffer’s Reaction Management rebuilds a venue around the reactions it produces in customers, an approach he says also fits storefront, online and service companies. Nick Shepherd sees lessons in it for any service business.

Mainly about leadership: Danny Meyer explains how his company kept its hospitality culture while growing far beyond its first restaurants, using concepts such as a Hospitality Quotient and four gears of leadership. Adam Grant calls it a warm, wise guide to building cultures where people do their best.

James P. Womack and Daniel T. Jones mainly extend lean thinking to how customers obtain and use products and services, as when Fujitsu call centers removed the causes of problems instead of handling them again and again. Bill Gurley praises it for carrying lean manufacturing into service industries.

Mainly a story of company values: Kip Tindell explains the Foundation Principles and Conscious Capitalism of The Container Store, which put employees first and pair superior customer service with strict merchandising. Jilliene Helman calls it an amazing book by the Container Store chief.

Mainly a hotel turnaround: Chip Conley used Maslow’s hierarchy of needs to rebuild his boutique hotel company, applying it to employees, customers and investors and asking what each group truly needs. Tony Hsieh calls it an operating manual for life.

Mainly about retention rather than service itself, Noah Fleming argues for moving resources from winning new customers to keeping existing ones, through loyalty programs, his 3Cs of content, character and community, and dropping customers who cost more than they bring. Seth Godin praises its examples and common sense.