Book excerpt: Customer Service For Dummies, Third Edition integrates the unbeatable information from Customer Service For Dummies and Online Customer Service For Dummies to form an all-in-one guide to customer loyalty for large and small businesses alike. The book covers the fundamentals of service selling and presents up-to-date advice on such fundamentals as help desks, call centers, and IT departments. Plus, it shows readers how to take stock of their customer service strengths and weaknesses, create useful customer surveys, and learn from the successes and failures of businesses just like theirs. Karen Leland and Keith Bailey (Sausalito, CA) are cofounders of Sterling Consulting Group, an international consulting firm specializing in quality service consulting and training for such clients as Oracle, IBM, Avis, and Lucent.