Best Face Forward Introduces Smart Front Office as Critical Path to Competitive Advantage
Fri Dec 03 16:56:06 EST 2004 As companies search for new ways to attract and retain customers in an increasingly competitive marketplace, authors and recognized business strategists Jeffrey Rayport and Bernard Jaworski offer a guide to securing long–term loyalty and competitive advantage in Best Face Forward: Why Companies Must Improve Their Service Interfaces with Customers (Harvard Business School Press, January 20, 2005). 

The authors – proven experts on the impact of information technology on companies’ service and marketing strategies – argue that today’s companies must increase their focus on improving customer service interfaces by reengineering the front-office in order to meet today’s more advanced market demands.  Rayport and Jaworski recommend that machines in front-line roles should be integrated with people in order to radically improve efficiency and effectiveness – creating a system of interfaces with customers that will bring the ways firms touch their customers into alignment with their broader strategic goals. “Technology is revolutionizing – and humanizing – service,” say Rayport and Jaworski.  “Visionary companies understand this critical service component and are recruiting machines into the workforce for greater value.”    

 Technology–Human Workforce

Today’s successes are based on how well firms manage their interactions with customers, and the most farsighted executives are seeking alternative ways to improve efficiency and effectiveness.  They realize that bringing machines into the workforce has sparked a revolution in how they serve customers and stay competitive.

In Best Face Forward, the authors illustrate how today’s forward–thinking firms are harnessing an effective mix of customer interfaces to surpass typical levels of performance and service.  Based on extensive research inside both start up ventures and mature businesses in industries including retail, restaurant, consumer goods, media, and finance, Rayport and Jaworski outline the best approach to breaking down and managing an organization’s customer interactions by targeting tasks for employees, technology, and a combination of the two.  The authors advise organizations to combine “smart” front–office devices and intelligent networks throughout their consumer channels to both establish and capitalize on customer–service relationships.  Readers walk away with strategies that can be implemented immediately to improve the customer experience and enhance customer loyalty.

Best Face Forward reframes the question from “what human jobs will technology eliminate?” to “what jobs are more efficiently performed by automation? And which jobs are best performed by people?” Visionary and compelling, this book shows how new roles for technology and people will radically reshape business and competition—and ultimately create a “people-rich” work place that benefits customers, employees, and shareholders.

PUBLICATION INFORMATION:

BEST FACE FORWARD: Why Companies Must Improve Their Service Interfaces with Customers.  By Jeffrey F. Rayport & Bernard J. Jaworski.  Price: $29.95.  Hardcover. Pages: 288.  ISBN: 0-87584-867-2

Visit our Web site at http://www.hbspress.org

CONTACT:

Julie Devoll, Harvard Business School Press (617) 783-7471.  Email  jdevoll@hbsp.harvard.edu