Best Face Forward consists of an Introduction and 8 Chapters.  Click on the links below to go to a detailed chapter summary.

Introduction
Chapter 1:  Interfaces as the New Frontier of Comptetive Advantage
Chapter 2:  The Interface Imperative
Chapter 3:  The Front-Office Revolution
Chapter 4:  What People Do Best
Chapter 5:  What Machines Do Best
Chapter 6:  Putting the Amalgam of People and Machines to Work
Chapter 7:  Managing Interface Systems
Chapter 8:  The Interface Audit

Introduction

This chapter provides an overview of the themes in the book and a summary of the book chapters. We introduce concepts and language that will be used throughout the book, including automation, front-office reengineering, service interfaces, interface systems, and three basic archytypes: people-dominant, machine-dominant, and hybrids of people and machines.

1. Interfaces As the Next Frontier of Competitive Advantage

In chapter 1, we analyze the new realities of business that have made the quality of customer interactions and relationships the next frontier of competitive advantage. In so doing, we explore the limitations of competing on product and service offerings alone, which have given rise in recent years to a focus on customer experience. We argue that the most actionable approach to managing customer experience centers on a company’s service interfaces, because those interfaces are how companies determine the quality of their interactions and relationships with customers. Managers must open their minds to innovative configurations of people and machines to compose interface systems in optimal ways. If they do, the payoffs in productivity gains can be enormous and we examine the literature supporting this position. Finally, we conclude the chapter with a set of principles that guide our understanding of the front-office revolution. 

In chapter 2, we explain why the front-office revolution is unfolding now. We explore in more depth the trends in technology evolution related to networks and devices that make this a time of unique opportunity for establishing interface-based strategic advantage. While no one trend is new, in combination they create a kind of a threshold effect. The trends are: the proliferation of smart devices, the rising intelligence and interactivity of those devices, the capacity of such devices to appeal on increasingly emotional dimensions, and the synaptic connectivity that links such devices to other devices and networks. These trends result in new possibilities for the roles technology can play in managing customer interactions for companies. In persuasively adopting customer relationship management roles, machines have come of age—and joined the work force, this time in the front office.

In chapter 3, we contrast the reengineering revolution of the 1980s with the front-office reengineering revolution unfolding today. Front-office reengineering involves the radical redefinition of front-office labor in light of the contributions of machines and machine-driven processes. These new roles for machines result from the four trends outlined in chapter 2. In this chapter, we deal with the economic incentives to substitute capital equipment for human labor on the front lines, both for efficiency (lower costs of delivering a customer interaction or relationship) and effectiveness (better quality of customer interaction or relationship management). In our view, front-office reengineering is ultimately concerned with productivity gains at the enterprise level, as measured in reduced costs and increased revenues.

In the next three chapters, we take a close look at the building blocks of interface systems, outlining our three interface types or archetypes. In chapter 4, we examine the traditional interface through which companies have delivered services throughout history—the pure human interface involving people enabled by people in the interaction and relationship management functions of the front office. Industries discussed include: Retail, hospitality, airlines

In chapter 5, we examine the automated interface that has begun to appear as more and more smart devices are tied to networks and become compelling interfaces in physical, cognitive, emotional, and synaptic dimensions, for connecting customers and companies. Industries discussed include: Robotics, car rental, hospitality, consumer electronics, automobiles, retail banking, speech recognition technology.

In chapter 6, we examine two versions of the hybrid interface, people enabled by machines and machines enabled by people. Our intent here is to examine the ways in which humans and machines may collaborate in the front-line work force, and how the combination of people and technology can prove powerful in compressing costs while increasing the quality of interactions and relationships. Industries discussed include: retail, hospitality, fast food, media, retail banking

In chapter 7, we examine a variety of interface systems and what makes some successful and others not. These systems represent combinations of the foregoing interface archetypes, with the added complexity of multiple layers of people and technology creating even more complex, multilevel interfaces. We focus in particular on one company that’s orchestrated a world-class interface system using people and machines in a variety of innovative roles—and created a truly breakthrough business as a result. That company is QVC, the leader in TV home shopping and a retailer with some of the highest levels of satisfaction and loyalty, not to mention profitability, in the business.

In chapter 8, we provide an assessment tool for deploying interface systems and optimizing portfolios of interfaces already deployed. This methodology underscores that interface systems have two constituencies—the internal (employees) and the external (customers)—because internal and external interfaces are intimately interrelated and companies must deploy them with this interrelationship in mind. The process of front-office reengineering entails trade-offs in relationship management between efficiency and effectiveness. For every business, the trade-offs drive different forms of optimization. Getting it right enables corporations to manage customer interactions and relationships in ways that create long-term, sustainable competitive advantage.