Found Gary Keller's book on Amazon for 14.50, cost me 15 to ship to me here overseas so I hope the 30 bucks will make a good investment.

I have a ratty old paperback book from Harvey McKay, Swim with the Sharks. I thought that had a lot of good advice about taking care of customers in general. I think a useful book for beginner might be one that specifically addresses organizing your thoughts, time and the massive amount of information one will be gathering, formulating and mapping your plan, and managing all your resources. Ill spend the next two months Im stuck overseas reading, reading and reading.

Are you in the military? Just wondering since you are in Japan...

No, but I was in the Navy from 1980-1988 stationed most of the time in the Washington DC area. I am a university lecturer retiring to return to my former profession as a realtor.