cover image The Customer Rules: 
The 39 Essential Rules for Delivering Sensational Service

The Customer Rules: The 39 Essential Rules for Delivering Sensational Service

Lee Cockerell. Crown Business, $19.99 (208p) ISBN 978-0-7704-3560-8

Cockerell, a service industry veteran and former executive v-p of operations at Walt Disney World, offers a slim, obvious listing of the rules of customer service. The author of Creating Magic: 10 Common Sense Leadership Strategies from a Life at Disney, Cockerell believes that treating customers right is the most important goal of any business, which will directly serve the business’s bottom line. The book is designed to help readers of any position or title achieve that goal. The 39 titular rules are solid, but nothing new: “Ask yourself: ‘What Would Mom Do?’ ”; “Always Act Like a Professional”; “Become an Expert at Creating Experts”; “Make Yourself Available”; “Don’t Just Make Promises, Make Guarantees”; and “Be Reliable.” Cockerell’s chatty, friendly tone is charming and credible, but there’s nothing that hasn’t been said before elsewhere. Agent: Lynn Franklin, Lynn C. Franklin Associates. (Mar.)