Interview: Raul Pupo, Author of America’s Service Meltdown: Restoring Service Excellence in the Age of the Customer

Book Title:
America’s Service Meltdown: Restoring Service Excellence in the Age of the Customer

Website URL:
http://ServiceMeltdown.com

Social Media Links:
Facebook: America’sServiceMeltdown

What is your book about?
The premise of America’s Service Meltdown is that companies can operate more effectively, that is to say more profitably, by focusing on the critical success factors of service:

1. Leadership  that unequivocally believes they are in business to serve the  customer
2. A business-planning process centered around the customer
3. An organizational ethic of service up and down the ranks
4. An empowered, motivated, and competent frontline organization

What inspired you to write your book?
I have been in business nearly four decades as an entrepreneur and I have never seen service to the customer in a more deplorable state. That was the motivation for writing America’s Service Meltdown.

How did you come to do what you’re doing today?
We are nearly twelve years into what is clearly the service and information century and it is similarly clear that we are not fully preparing our human capital to deal with the challenges of a new age. That we are customarily out-serviced by offshore locations is a further testament that the disconnect and its remediation is to be found in education. As a result, I decided that I would do my level best to convey what I have found in my experience to be the critical success factors in rendering excellence in service to the customer.

Can you describe a typical day in your life?
As an entrepreneur, I have many irons in the fire. My passion, however, is to work with business, government, and institutions of higher learning to drive home the point that

Service Management needs to be viewed as a discipline just as Marketing, Finance, or Economics, are disciplines with their own and respective underlying theories and practices.  Service must be understood as science and correspondingly as an academic discipline.

What do you most enjoy about what you do?
As I have built businesses from scratch I am now motivated to see a curriculum of Service Management principles and practices incorporated in universities accross the nation.

Are there any people and/or books that have inspired you along your journey?
The archetypal silly question: Yes, of course, among them Lord Acton, F.A. Hayek, Henry Mintzberg, Samuel Huntington, Robert Solomon, James Hillman, David landes, Howard Gardner, Robert Sternberg, Milton Friedman, and many others of great wisdom but of little repute.

Can you share some business tips for our readers?
In the 21st century price and product features are commoditized. The only sustainable competitive advantage left to any business is Service. Service can be a great lever. This is more than just a metaphor: it is a call to action. But Service has to be baked into everything the organization does. This will require breaking bad habits and overcoming a great deal of inertia. It is either that, however, or throw away the key.

Can you share something that people might be surprised to learn about you?
I came to this great country at the age of five. My back has been on the canvas once, twice, or more. Great opportunities alight if only we seek to find them. I have found many and many more are to be had.