Customer Experience 
With endless options available to your customers, your customer service determines whether they will return to you. It’s not just about the products or services you offer; it’s about the experience you create.
Exceptional customer service sets a business apart, turning a good company into a great one.
But where should you start?
This article covers the best customer service books that show how to build strong customer loyalty, lead service teams efficiently, and embed a customer-centric mindset into your organization. These books cover everything from big-picture leadership techniques to practical approaches that can help you drive customer satisfaction and long-term business growth.
1. Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose by Tony Hsieh
In his book Delivering Happiness, Tony Hsieh, the former CEO of Zappos, shares his journey of building a customer-obsessed company culture that prioritizes service.
He recounts how a relentless focus on customer satisfaction helped Zappos go from a small online shoe retailer to a billion-dollar brand. You’ll also learn how this service-centricity became a key differentiator in the company’s success.
The central theme of the book is that exceptional customer service starts with happy, engaged employees. When employees feel valued and fulfilled, they are more likely to deliver outstanding customer experiences. This ripple effect is only possible when companies create a positive culture that empowers employees to elevate customer experience.
Tony’s customer service book is a must-read for leaders and managers looking to:
- Instill a service-driven mindset within their teams
- Deliver actionable strategies to prioritize employee happiness
- Create a profitable business strategy by putting people first
2. The Service Culture Handbook: A Step-by-Step Guide to Getting Your Employees Obsessed with Customer Service by Jeff Toister
To understand service culture, there’s no better place to start than the Service Culture Handbook by Jeff Toister. You’ll learn how making exceptional service a core value influences every company’s operations and improves how you serve customers.
You’ll also learn the importance of aligning employees with the company’s vision for improving customer service. Toister explains that it’s not enough to tell employees to provide good service; you must make it a part of how the company operates.
This approach involves creating a clear service vision, regularly reinforcing it through training, and recognizing and rewarding behaviors that put customers first.
You will:
- Discover essential tools and techniques to build a lasting, customer-focused culture
- Learn how excellent service delivery isn’t just a policy but a shared passion among all employees
- Identify a clear plan to achieve long-term success in customer service
3. The Nordstrom Way to Customer Service Excellence by Robert Spector and Patrick McCarthy
Nordstrom, the American luxury department store chain, is famous for its top-notch customer service. The Nordstrom Way to Customer Service Excellence shows you the principles and practices Nordstrom uses to deliver this.
The book explains how Nordstrom built its customer-first culture, giving readers a clear framework for applying these lessons to their businesses. By sharing real-life examples, Spector and McCarthy show how customer satisfaction became the foundation of Nordstrom’s success, helping readers see how they can create similar lasting impacts in their organizations.
This book remains the go-to for agents and managers looking to:
- Empower employees to take the initiative with customers
- Design systems that keep the customer at the forefront of every interaction
- Access straightforward and easy-to-apply strategies for modeling their service approach after one of the best in the industry
4. Be Our Guest: Perfecting the Art of Customer Service by The Disney Institute and Theodore Kinni
Be Our Guest provides a detailed look at how Disney has mastered customer service, creating magical experiences that exceed expectations.
Explore the ”Disney magic” behind every guest interaction, from theme parks to hotels, and see how Disney delivers exceptional service at every touchpoint.
What sets this customer service book apart is its focus on the operational strategies that have turned Disney into a leader in customer service. It guides readers through Disney’s attention to detail and employee empowerment, showing how they train cast members to create memorable moments.
Be Our Guest teaches business leaders and managers to:
- Apply practical insights from Disney’s service principles
- Empower teams to deliver exceptional experiences that build customer loyalty and set a company apart from its competition
5. Hug Your Haters: How to Embrace Complaints and Keep Your Customers by Jay Baer
Jay Baer’s Hug Your Haters provides a fresh and powerful approach to handling customer complaints. It urges businesses to see complaints not as obstacles but as golden opportunities to improve and innovate.
Baer shares that negative feedback is one of the best ways to gain insights into customer expectations. This perspective allows companies to refine their offerings and enhance the customer journey.
You’ll also get practical, real-world strategies for addressing online and offline customer feedback. Baer’s advice will teach you to:
- Respond promptly and with empathy to customer complaints (publicly when necessary)
- Strengthen relationships with your customers and turn critics into advocates
6. The Effortless Experience: Conquering the New Battleground for Customer Loyalty by Matthew Dixon, Nick Toman, and Rick DeLisi
The Effortless Experience is perfect for anyone looking for a research-based guide on how to build customer loyalty by making it easier for customers to solve problems.
The authors explain that, instead of focusing on delighting customers all the time, the natural way to keep them returning is to make their interactions as easy and hassle-free as possible.
This book is an excellent guide for customer service managers looking to:
- Make processes more efficient and reduce the frustrations customers face
- Identify and fix the issues that lead to customer dissatisfaction
- Improve customer support while making procedures easier for customers and support staff
7. Your Customer Is the Star: How to Make Millennials, Boomers and Everyone Else Love Your Business by Micah Solomon
If you’re facing trouble catering to the needs of different generations, you’ll love Micah Solomon’s Your Customer Is the Star. This book provides valuable lessons on how to adopt a customer-first mindset for each age group, from millennials to baby boomers, and their preferences and behaviors.
Solomon emphasizes that a one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t work in today’s diverse marketplace. Success depends on adjusting your service strategies to match each generation’s expectations.
Whether you’re managing a team or interacting directly with customers, Your Customer Is the Star equips you with tools to:
- Ensure every customer feels valued, no matter their age
- Improve service delivery for different customer groups
- Build stronger relationships with a broad range of customers
8. The Customer Service Revolution: Overthrow Conventional Business, Inspire Employees, and Change the World by John R. DiJulius III
John R. DiJulius’s The Customer Service Revolution lays a bold framework for transforming company culture and customer interactions, making service the driving force behind business success.
DiJulius stresses that extraordinary customer experiences don’t happen by chance — they result from a deep-rooted cultural shift that prioritizes service at every level. DiJulius provides practical strategies for inspiring and empowering employees to go above and beyond to deliver top-notch service.
This customer service book is a must-read for leaders determined to build a customer-centric organization that rises above the competition. By following DiJulius’s approach, you will be able to:
- Create a culture that meets and exceeds customer expectations, turning exceptional service into a differentiator
- Adopt a new blueprint for sustainable success in the service-driven marketplace
9. The Thank You Economy by Gary Vaynerchuk
You have probably seen how one customer’s bad experience can go viral on social media, resulting in serious negative publicity for a company.
That’s why companies must provide exceptional service to every customer every single time. Gary Vaynerchuk’s The Thank You Economy shows how brands can use exceptional customer service to differentiate themselves.
Vaynerchuk also highlights how authenticity and empathy can transform customer interactions, showing that caring for customers builds lasting relationships and loyalty.
The book is packed with:
- Practical insights for everyone, from leaders to frontline staff, on creating a customer-first culture
- Helpful takeaways for handling customer conversations with empathy
10. The Best Service Is No Service: How To Liberate Your Customers From Customer Service, Keep Them Happy & Control Costs by Bill Price and David Jaffe
The Best Service Is No Service offers a unique perspective on customer service, suggesting that the best way to improve it is to reduce the need for it altogether.
The aim is to fix problems before customers even know they exist, reducing their need for help. Companies can minimize customer frustration and increase satisfaction by:
- Identifying common problems
- Eliminating unnecessary complexities
- Offering self-service solutions.
You’ll also gain valuable insights into how to improve service delivery while cutting operational costs.In the end, Price and Jaffe present actionable strategies for:
- Streamlining processes and improving the overall customer experience by making services more intuitive and hassle-free
- Reducing the need for reactive customer service for higher efficiency
- Encouraging customer loyalty through smooth, effortless interactions
11. Exceptional Service, Exceptional Profit: The Secrets of Building a Five-Star Customer Service Organization by Leonardo Inghilleri and Micah Solomon
If your aim is to build a customer service organization that consistently delivers high-quality experiences, Exceptional Service, Exceptional Profit is the perfect guide.
The book offers practical advice on cultivating a service culture where excellence is at the heart of every customer interaction. Inghilleri and Solomonprovide clear, actionable strategies to ensure each touchpoint leaves a lasting and positive impression on customers.
The book equips you with:
- Tools to inspire, train, and develop employees so that exceptional service becomes second nature
- Strategies to build a customer-centric organization or refine an existing one
12. Zingerman’s Guide to Giving Great Service by Ari Weinzweig
Zingerman’s Guide to Giving Great Service by Ari Weinzweig is a short but powerful book that shares lessons learned from Zingerman’s Deli, a small business famous for its outstanding customer service.
Although it’s a quick read, the book is packed with valuable tips and real-life examples that show how Zingerman built a loyal customer base by consistently delighting people. It’s an excellent resource for any business, big or small, that’s looking to improve customer service.
Weinzweig clarifies that excellent customer service isn’t just for big companies with huge budgets. He explains how any business, from a small deli to a large corporation, can use Zingerman’s approach to create memorable customer experiences.
With simple strategies and inspiring stories, the book shows that even small businesses can make a big difference by offering a personal and thoughtful service that keeps customers returning.
The book:
- Demonstrates how to create memorable, personalized customer experiences that consistently exceed expectations, building stronger loyalty and satisfaction
- Teaches the power of empathy and active listening to understand customers better
13. Mastering the Customer Experience by Edwin Margulies
At the heart of this guide is an eight-step discovery process, which provides a structured approach to understanding and improving every aspect of the customer journey.
The process includes critical tools such as customer journey mapping, transaction taxonomy, and workflow automation, which are all designed to align customer service strategies with broader organizational goals. With these steps, businesses ensure customer interaction is intentional, streamlined, and strategically aligned with delivering value.
A key strength of Mastering the Customer Experience is its convenient approach.It offers detailed templates, worksheets, and best practices to help businesses implement a customer-centric strategy.
These resources make it easier for leaders and CX teams to translate insights into actionable steps, enabling them to design and execute effective customer experience initiatives.
It’s ideal for CX managers and business leaders responsible for driving customer experience initiatives within their organizations.
Mastering the Customer Experience equips managers with the tools and insights to improve their customer service systems and create a seamless experience across every touchpoint.
Elevate Your Customer Service Efforts With Nextiva’s Unified CX Platform
Nextiva’s unified CX platform makes it easy to implement the insights you get from reading a few books on the above list. It facilitates seamless collaboration among your team members while allowing you to cater to customers on different channels like VoIP phone, chat, email, or social media.
The platform offers real-time CX insights, empowering service and customer success teams to make more informed decisions when supporting customers. Nextiva keeps the whole team aligned and lets them deliver top-tier service consistently.
Learn more about how Nextiva’s unified CX platform makes your service memorable. 👇
Build Amazing Customer Experiences
Transform customer experience on a Unified Customer Experience Management platform designed to help you acquire, retain, and grow your customers.
