andreweverett360 Book Review, Marketing

Fans Not Customers

fans-not-customers

Fans Not Customers: How to Create Growth Companies in a No Growth World

by Vernon W. Hill II with Bob Andelman

Vernon W. Hill II founded Commerce Bank in 1973. In 2007, the bank “was sold to Toronto-based TD Bank for $8.5 billion, producing a 30-year, 23 percent annual shareholder return. Everyone profited, including shareholders and team members.” In 2010, he co-founded Metro Bank, bringing the same service culture to British banking. In Fans Not Customers he reveals the secret sauce of his business model. This book is about branding, differentiation, corporate culture, and organic growth, but the dominant theme is providing exceptional customer service. Continue reading “Fans Not Customers” →

andreweverett360 Book Review, Marketing

Treat Your Customers

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Treat Your Customers: Thirty Lessons on Service and Sales That I Learned at my Family’s Dairy Queen Store

by Bob Miglani

Miglani uses situations from his parents’ Dairy Queen store as the basis for customer service lessons applicable to business in general–including Fortune 500 companies like the one where he works as a sales executive. Thirty bite-size chapters in plain English make this a quick read.

The common thread throughout this book is a mindset focused on pleasing customers and earning their repeat business.  Topics include customer service, up-selling, work ethic, leadership, and supplier relationships. Continue reading “Treat Your Customers” →

andreweverett360 Book Review, Marketing

Uncommon Service

Uncommon Service: How to Win by Putting Customers at the Core of Your Business

By Frances Frei and Anne Morriss

Customer service is not an afterthought. In order to provide consistently excellent service, it must be baked in to the business model. In Uncommon Service, authors Frances Frei and Anne Morriss explain that great service is “made possible—profitable, sustainable, scalable—by designing a system that sets everyone up to excel.” Continue reading “Uncommon Service” →

andreweverett360 Book Review, Marketing

The Paradox of Excellence

The Paradox of Excellence: How Great Performance Can Kill Your Business

by David Mosby and Michael Weissman

When a company consistently provides excellent service it can become “invisible” to the client until something goes wrong. This book illustrates the problem through a parable about a trucking company. Their largest and most profitable customer has given notice to terminate their contract due to a botched delivery. Management is shocked, as there had been no previous problems with this client over the many years they have done business together. Continue reading “The Paradox of Excellence” →