2/8/2000
For years, sales and credit departments within the same company have sniped at each other, often to the detriment of the company as a whole. But it doesn't have to be that way, says Schaeffer: leading-edge firms have begun to combine sales and credit units into financial customer service departments that make the joint functions of satisfying customers and protecting the business work as one. Through a series of probing questions and practical insights, he shows the way toward making this happen, helping managers evaluate their resources, integrate effective change on all levels of the organization, and then successfully sell those changes to top management. Practical and process oriented, his book is brightened by the occasional flash of wit and by the author's clear passion for identifying and satisfying all the intertwined (and often conflicting) demands of superior customer service.