"Mr. Time Manager"

A new biography about Claus has been released in Denmark. It is written by Niels Lillelund and published on Jyllands-Postens Forlag.

It has received some great reviews including this one from "Information" (in Danish). There was also a great review in Berlingske Tidende on September 30th, but this is not available online yet.

In the next few days, we'll make available an excerpt from the book in Danish.

FREE excerpt from A Complaint Is a Gift

August 1, 2008 the 2nd edition of A Complaint Is a Gift hit the shelves. We've now got a free excerpt which you can download (PDF). The original sold more than 130,000 copies.

Thoroughly revised and updated with new material on handling Internet complaints, dealing with complaints directed at you, complaining effectively yourself, as well as new examples covering a wide range of industries.

The concept is more relevant than ever in today’s constantly connected world, when customers can complain instantly and broadcast their dissatisfaction around the world.

Download the excerpt.

Don't forget to enter our competition to win 1 of 5 copies signed by Claus.

If you would like to buy a copy of the book at the discounted launch price of $13.57 go to Amazon.com.

Competition: Win a Signed Copy of "A Complaint is a Gift"

To celebrate the launch of the second edition of "A Complaint is a Gift", we've decided to give away 5 signed copies of the book.

All you have to do is send us your best customer service story - it can be either good or bad service, but is has to be a good story :-) - and we will select the 5 best and publish them here on the site (please let us know if you want to be anonymous on the site).

Send your story, along with your name, address and email address to us before September 1st and a signed copy of the book could be winging its way to you before the end of September.

Seen on The Prize Finder

2nd Edition of "A Complaint is a Gift" Hits the Shelves on August 1!

I'm happy to announce that BK Business is releasing an updated version of the customer service management bestseller "A Complaint is a Gift" on August 1, 2008. As with the first edition, released in 1996, this book has been co-authored with Janelle Barlow and will feature brand new and up-to-date examples of how to deliver great customer service through handling customer complaints. When I originally developed the concept as a 1-day training programme with a small booklet of cases, examples, ideas, tests and implementation guides back in 1993, it was considered a novel concept that a complaint could be a gift. Most people thought that I had lost my marbles and I was often asked: "How can you say that a complaint is a gift? Have you ever been on the frontline dealing with irate customers?" My response was quite simply that if our customers do not tell us what we're doing wrong, they're probably not telling us what we're doing right, either.

• Handling complaints in an efficient manner does not only give us the opportunity to determine if there is anything wrong with our products, services or delivery mechanisms.
• It also allows us to establish a better relationship with the complaining customer. Research has shown that at heart, most of the people who complain actually want to remain your customers so this is an ideal opportunity to turn them into even more loyal customers rather than risk them spreading bad word-of-mouth around.

One of the key premises of the original book was some shocking research from TARP that showed that on average, an unhappy customer will tell 23 of their peers about their experiences, whilst somebody who has had a positive experience will only share that information with 9 peers. Furthermore, the cost of retention for almost all product and service categories is manyfold lower than the costs of a new customer acquisition. Therefore you cannot afford to take customer complaints lightly, but must learn to treat them as gifts. You can pre-order "A Complaint is a Gift" (2nd edition) from Amazon now.

Test run of "Beyond Time and Knowledge"

Last Tuesday, Ron Young and I did a first dry run of our new exciting concept called "Beyond Time and Knowledge" (just a working title so far) in front of an exclusively invited audience at Les 4 Moulins in France.

The foundation for the concept is that we live in a world that has become too focused on gadgetry and technology, which leads to people losing track of who they are; what their goals are; and how they can attain those goals.

The underlying principle is that there are some management evergreens, which people of all ages, and in all walks of life, could benefit from learning and that by having a clear focus in both your personal and work life you will also be able to benefit from technology to a greater extent. Knowing where you are going and how you are going to get there will allow you to select the right tools for the job.

We had an incredibly powerful day, where the guests really felt that they had received some valuable inspiration and we got some great feedback in terms of both the contents and the format of the presentation.

The plan is that we will develop the concept into a multitude of products and services from books to articles, tests and seminars and we will probably be ready to unleash "Beyond Time and Knowledge" on the world in 2009.

I am immensely excited about this project, as it will be a first for me to develop a concept with a co-presenter. I have collaborated with others on writing books in the past, most notably "Heart Work" with Dr. Reuven Bar-On, who originally coined the phrase "Emotional Intelligence", and "A Complaint is a Gift" (retail version) with Janelle Barlow. I will continue to lift the veil a bit more as the year progresses so you can follow the development of this exciting project, and I hope that you will actively wish to participate in the development of the concept by giving me feedback along the way.

In the meantime, if you would like to attend one of the small and closed test seminars in the Autumn of 2008 for a marginal fee to cover accommodation and meals, please feel free to send me an email.