UPDATE: Congrats to Mary Cavanaugh for winning the signed copy of The Hidden Power of Your Customers! Thanks to everyone for the great comments and discussions!
As those of you that have read MackCollier.com for any amount of time know, I rarely do book reviews here. But I wanted to let you know about the first book from one of my oldest blogging friends, Becky Carroll. Becky has been blogging for the last 5 years on the power of embracing your customers. She’s also been consulting companies of all sizes on how to do this, and does it every day in her role as Community Manager for Verizon.
So I was thrilled when she sent me a copy of her first book, The Hidden Power of Your Customers. This is the book Becky was meant to write. So often I see that someone has written a book that doesn’t really seem to speak to their core expertise, but not so with The Hidden Power of Your Customers!
Becky explains that the 4 keys to unlocking the power of your customers are based on R.O.C.K.:
R = Relevant marketing. Creating marketing that customers want, and that resonates with them.
O = Orchestrated customer experience. Creating a customer experience that’s viewed through the eyes of the customer, not the company.
C = Customer-Focused Culture. It is in the company’s DNA to delight and excite their customers.
K = Killer customer service. Be consistent, and focus on getting the ‘little things’ right every single day.
What I love about The Hidden Power of Your Customers, is that it gives you solid business strategy and advice, then tells you how to EXECUTE that advice. Too many marketing/social media books will give you ‘common sense’ business platitudes that might make for a good RT, but they actually tell you HOW to do what they are suggesting. Becky does. For example, the book is organized into 4 sections, each one covering one of the letters in her R.O.C.K. formula. I was particularly interested in the C, or Customer-Focused Culture. Now a TON of marketing books have talked about the value of having a customer-focused culture, but few tell you how to actually GET there.
Becky talks about having customer-centered values, and how to track and MEASURE metrics that are associated with your goal of creating a customer-focused culture. She walks you through the type of employees you should be hiring to help you develop a customer-focused culture. She gives you an actual plan for creating a customer-focused culture, rather than saying you need to do so, then sending you on your merry way without any direction on how to get there.
And Becky does something else that I love: She uses case studies to illustrate the points she is trying to make. People LOVE case studies! And I have found from my work and presentations that people can understand the concepts you are trying to relate much easier if you can tell them a story of how a real company has done what you are suggesting they do. It really helps the ideas resonate, and Becky has dozens of case studies sprinkled all throughout this book.
So I love this book, and I think you will as well. If you want to buy a copy of The Hidden Power of Your Customers, then head on over to Amazon. BUT, since Becky rocks so much, she has given me a SIGNED copy to giveaway here on my blog!
So if you want to win a signed copy of The Hidden Power of Your Customers, simply leave a comment telling us about an amazing experience you have had with a company or organization. One that you think did a great job of focusing on you as a customer and truly made you feel appreciated, and made you want to tell others about your amazing experience. And it doesn’t have to be a one-time event, it could be about your favorite business or organization that you love because they consistently give you amazing service and truly appreciate you and you can tell they appreciate all of their customers.
That’s all I need, and I’ll pick one winner to receive the signed book by next Saturday, the 22nd! And you can live anywhere in the world, I’ll mail it to you where ever you are, all you need to do is share your story with us! Good luck, and thanks again to Becky for writing such an amazing book!
Pic via Flickr user MelonieG