Flooring The Consumer: The Hidden Power of Your Customers: Book Review

Monday, September 26, 2011

The Hidden Power of Your Customers: Book Review

Becky Carroll's new book, The Hidden Power of Your Customers: 4 Keys to Growing Your Business Through Existing Customers, is a must read for any business person serious about growing his or her business. Why? Because Becky focuses intensely on how to build customer loyalty. If you're serious about the success of your business, you need a loyal customer base.

[See The Hidden Power of Your Customers, Becky Carroll Interview for my blog interview with Becky.]

Becky, author of the Customers Rock! Blog, is passionate about customers. As she writes in Announcing my first book: The Hidden Power of Your Customers:

"The Hidden Power of Your Customers is based around the principles of Customers Rock!, and the sections of the book follow the ROCK acronym:

R: Relevant marketing – Organizations need to market to their customers in a way that is relevant to them, including recognizing them as customers, using their language, and meeting their needs.

O: Orchestrated customer experience – Every place a customer interacts with a company needs to provide a consistent, planned experience for the customer that is beneficial to both parties. We can’t leave the customer experience to chance.

C: Customer-focused culture – We can’t just expect that a company will become customer-centric because it hires a few great customer service personnel or states that it cares about customers in its marketing. We need to ensure that customers are part of everything that our company does so that customer-focus becomes part of the company DNA.

K: Killer customer service – Companies need to take customer service to the next level, and it needs to be an integral part of the customer experience. Customer service is where the rubber meets the road, as many buying and renewal decisions are based upon this critical touch point. It has to ROCK."

In addition to detailing the ROCK framework, the book offers guidelines for listening to and determining the customer point of view. Becky then integrates all of the elements to demonstrate how a ROCK based approach to business drives growth.

I particularly enjoyed the range of examples of customer-focused companies that Becky includes in her book - from well known and lesser known companies. Case studies explore best practices from Teradata, Sanuk, Marriott Rewards, Lexus, Urbane Apartments, EMC, Southwest Airlines, Salon Radius and Mighty Fine Burgers representing a wide range of industries and specialization. In addition to these in-depth case studies, she weaves in throughout the book references to other best practices, including ones based on personal experiences. Some of those include Beaver Creek Resorts, Ravenswood, Disney, Spiceworks, Jones Soda and Verizon to name just a few.

With each example, Becky highlights tips and advice on how to unleash the power of your customers. Be human. Be sincere. Listen to your customers. Internalize a customer focused attitude to inspire you and your organization! The methodical format means that you can readily figure out what's broken and how to fix it so you can delight customers and grow your business.

Two quotes from the book to think about: "it can take up to 12 positive interactions to overcome a single negative one," from page 200 and the Golden Rule for Customers: "it's not who's right, it's what's right" from page 205. Doesn't it seem a lot easier and more productive to focus on the hidden power of your customers and delight them intensely?

Let me know what you think.

To order Becky Carroll's book, click on The Hidden Power of Your Customers.

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