Best Face Forward: Why Companies Must Improve Their Service Interfaces With Customers

In Best Face Forward, Jeffrey F. Rayport and Bernard J. Jaworski argue that as this "front-office automation" revolution unfolds, competitive advantage will increasingly depend on deploying the right mix of interfaces with customers - human, automated, and hybrids of both - to surpass current levels of performance and service. Based on extensive research inside both start-up and established businesses, Best Face Forward proposes guiding principles and a practical auditing tool for determining how humans and machines can best collaborate in mediating critical customer interactions. Far from dehumanizing the workforce, the authors show how this revolution will create a "people-rich" workplace - one that combines the unique capabilities of humans and machines to create a better world for all of us.