Customer Loyalty, A Guide for Time-Travelers

In their book on customer loyalty Lyn Etherington and Sionade Robinson present their view that even in the internet age, customers still love to find organisations to which they can be loyal.

The book discusses the relationship between businesses and their customers and investigates the reasons why customers want to be loyal. Lyn and Sionade provide examples of practical steps commercial organisations can take to win and maintain customer loyalty, and how this will maximise profitability. They dentify how to increase the liklihood of customers being prepared to recommend to others through the development of Loyalty Building Experiences™.

What is customer loyalty? The crucial question asked by loyalty guru Frederich F Reicheld, and referred to in this book, is: "Would you recommend this organisation to a friend, relative or colleague?"

The concept of building customer loyalty was well thought-through and is based on practical experience and research in a variety of sectors. The most suitable audience for this book is probably senior people in larger service businesses, but there is also applicability to smaller organisations.

The authors clearly feel that it's not just the services a customer receives that are significant but how a customer feels at the end of the transaction. Many services are delivered through myriad small interactions, "and it is at each and every one of these interactions that customers are, often subconsciously, deciding what they feel about the company and its brand", they say.

From their research, the authors have devised eight loyalty building experiences (LBEs) that are key to keeping your customers. They describe these in more detail towards the end of the book--many of them are reasonably obvious, as a customer, but their point is that you need to have them all in place in order to create long-term loyalty.

There were some particularly useful features of the book, such as some worked examples and a very handy summary of key points at the end.

This book is billed as 'A Guide for Time Travelers' (sic), which got me all fired up as I thought it would offer some lively metaphors and memorable insights into customer loyalty. Sadly, I was disappointed by the subtlety of the metaphor and didn't really feel it lived up to its promise on that score. There were a number of interesting stories about how businesses built loyalty through the 19th century, and a feature at the end of the book about key future business developments up until the London Olympics in 2012. But somehow I just didn't get to feel like a time traveller.

Would I recommend this book to my friends, relatives and colleagues? Yes, but with reservations.

 

Published by Palgrave MacMillan
Recommended price: £25.00.
ISBN:1-4039-9763-2 

Автор книги: Lyn Etherington, Sionade Robinson

Где купить: http://www.amazon.com/Customer-Loyalty-Guide-Time-Travellers/dp/1403997632/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1228749391&sr=8-1