Kevin Hall
MOULTRIE — It may be hard to make a business book entertaining, but Moultrie native Sharon Burton set that as her goal.
Burton, who has worked in operations banking for several Fortune 500 companies as a human resources business liaison and project manager, said she has succeeded with “Quality Customer Service: Rekindling the Art of Service to Customers.”
“[It] is a dynamic and easy to read book,” Burton said in a press release to The Observer. “It provides exciting, reflective and easy-to-read narratives of customer service through the lens of seven characters that individually represent a different business industry.”
Burton, who lived in Moultrie as a small child, said she still has relatives here, including Richard Hewett and Sarah Sutton. Her path, however, has led her to a variety of places around the country. She is currently an administrator at Community College of Philadelphia as well as a guest lecturer.
“Quality Customer Service” was released March 17. Burton said it uses her own observations as well as studies, but it’s presented as a series of stories.
“Instead of using bullet points, I allowed a character to tell it,” she explained in a telephone interview last week.
She said she chose that format to help reach readers in all four working generations: the Matures, Baby Boomers, Generation X and Generation Y.
The biggest customer service challenges businesses face involve communication, Burton said. Younger people process information differently from older generations, she said, and that affects the way they talk to one another. The book encourages employees to ask appropriate questions and to listen to learn what the customer is really concerned about. They must also use language the customer understands — not slang, the industry’s jargon or technobabble.
“For some reason, people have lost the art of thanking the customer,” she added.
Each chapter involves different industries, but all address these issues, she said.
“So that the reader has a well-rounded understanding once they get to Chapter 8,” she said.
“Quality Customer Service” is available through Burton’s website, www.slburton.com; on eBay; and on Amazon.com. Burton said the publisher promised it would have worldwide distribution by the end of July, so if someone asks a bookstore for a copy the clerk will be able to order it if it isn’t on the shelf.
