While at the bookstore the other day, I was again surprised to see a new genre of books in the business area. My curiosity piqued, I grabbed one of them and read a little of it at their coffee bar. Don’t tell them I did that, it’s against the rules. I was fascinated by just how insightful the genre was, and felt that maybe I ought to recommend some of this reading to you, my brilliant readers. These are customer satisfaction books.
I often openly scold myself out loud for not thinking of really good literary resources to recommend related to topics we discuss here, and it’s become a situation where the moment I walk into the book store, I flinch, expecting to discover I’ve done this again. Customer satisfaction books, though, I didn’t expect there to be much of. Was I ever wrong.
So, let’s look at three of the best titles out there, and see if we can’t inspire everyone to read this very useful information. No business professional who even remotely deals with customers visibly should be without this insight.
#1 – Customer Satisfaction is Worthless, Customer Loyalty is Priceless (Jeffery Gitomer)
Yeah, this is the one I saw myself and snuck a glance at when the manager wasn’t looking, because the title is pretty brazen. However, Gitomer doesn’t say what it sounds like he is, because he pretty much illustrates how customer loyalty -is- customer satisfaction more or less.
He then, having enlightened you on this fact, goes on to show how to earn this loyalty in a very formulaic and logical procedure that I won’t spoil here. His writing is very friendly but professional, and unlike some authors in business writing, he’s not full of himself. This is the one you should read if you read only one of these.
#2 – Customer Satisfaction: The Customer Experience Through the Customer’s Eyes (The Leadership Factor)
We’ve talked about customer empathy in the past, and this book pretty much quantizes, measures and illustrates it for us. This one’s a bit more of a handbook, though it has a linear narrative. If you’re interested in the power of empathy with customer relations, then this is something I recommend reading, but not in one sitting. It’s a little heavy handed with the writing style, though not unpleasant.
#3 – Measuring Up! (Anne Miner)
Busy executives looking for a power book on customer satisfaction to pump some muscle into their business need look no further than the 120 page stick of dynamite that is Miner’s work. Fast, condensed and emphatic, this book will tell an executive, who has no time for fluff or jargon, exactly what’s up with customer satisfaction as a science of logistics, psychology and sociology.
Her style is pretty good, but she tells you a lot of stuff at a fast pace, so you’re absorbing a lot of information. If you don’t like power books, then this one might be a bit too quick hitting for you.
Customer satisfaction books offer us a lot of insight into the most important part of our businesses – our customers themselves. We can learn to think outside the box and broaden our horizons, and maybe even learn some customer empathy from these skilled writers.
