Building Great Customer Experiences

Building Great Customer Experiences is by the fresh and exciting team of Colin Shaw and John Ivens who are being called the gurus of the Customer Experience. It examines the new and emerging area of the Customer Experience, exploring how it can be used as a competitive weapon as well as a means of reducing costs. Many business books look at new companies and how they have become successful. This book bases itself in the reality in which most business people find themselves daily - working in companies which have been established for some time and who are faced with legacy people, legacy processes, legacy systems, legacy channels and an existing culture. It focuses on how you can change an existing organisation in order to build and deliver Great Customer Experiences. The book captures the thoughts and views of over 20 senior business leaders on the Customer Experience, including: * Andrew Rolfe, Chairman and Chief Executive, Pret A Manger * Barry Herstein, Chief Marketing Officer, Financial Times Group * Ian Mc Allister, Former Chairman & Managing Director, Ford UK * Mike Ashton, Senior Vice President of Marketing Worldwide, Hilton International Hotels * David Mead, Chief Operating Officer, First Direct * Robin Terrell, Managing Director, Amazon.co.uk It explores why they now see the customer experience as a sustainable differentiator. With the use of compelling examples and cases the authors show that Building Great Customer Experiences is critical for all companies and organisations.

Table of Contents:
The Customer Experience is the Answer to Life, the Universe and Everything Differentiating on the Physical is no Longer Sustainable The Customer Experience is about Emotions So Unknowingly we are Actually Causing a Poor Experience The Customer Experience is the Personification of the Brand So we can Increase Loyalty by Emotionally Engaging with our Customers We can Break Down the Elements of the Customer Experience and then Effectively Manage Them So you have to Measure the Emotional Impact So we are Actually Targeting and Paying our People to Deliver a Poor Experience So Leadership and Culture Effects the Customer Experience My Customers Receive There is No-one in My Organisation who has Overall Responsibility for the Customer Experience We Don't Have a Customer Experience Strategy What Next?

About the Author :
COLIN SHAW is a Founding Partner of Beyond Philosophy, a consultancy company focused upon the customer experience and was formerly Director of Client Experience at BT with overall responsibility for the concept of corporate customer relations in a global context. He has previously worked for Xerox and Mars and speaks regularly at conferences on Customer Experience and Emotional Intelligence. JOHN IVENS is also a Founding Partner of Beyond Philosophy. He was previously Head of Customer Experience Futures at BT with responsibility for defining the Customer Experience for Business Customers and implementing programmes to improve the Experience. He has also worked for NatWest Bank and Midlands Electricity.

Review :
'There are not many people who understand the new paradigm of the Customer Experience. The emerging gurus on the subject are Colin Shaw & John Ivens with their holistic approach. We will all have to embrace the paradigm they are unlocking and focus on our Customer Experience if we are to be successful in the future. At Microsoft we understand the importance of this and are committing ourselves to this new world.' - Steve Harvey, Director of People, Profits & Loyalty, Microsoft 'This book hits the strikezone of how marketers, and organizations overall, need to be thinking to win today. It's a clear roadmap for building a high performance organization crystallized around the customer. Importantly, Shaw and Ivens recognize that emotions are at the core of all relationships - it's no different with customers than our family & friends - and truly engaging and successful brands.' - Barry Herstein, Chief Marketing Officer, Financial Times Group, New York 'John and Colin's innovative approach deserves applause - their thought-leading book is at the cutting edge. Their Seven Philosophies for Building Great Customer Experiences underpin Hilton's own philosophy on how to delight our customers. My endorsement reflects the importance I personally place on the Customer Experience.' - Mike Ashton, Senior Vice President Marketing Worldwide, Hilton International Hotels 'No matter what you are selling - a product or a service, a commodity or a differentiated product - customers are both judge and jury when it comes to deciding whether or not a company succeeds. This book helps companies understand that in order to win in the court of public opinion, they need to build a high-performance organization focused on the customer. Colin Shaw and John Ivens make their case with the best kind of evidence - common sense real-life examples.' - Mohan Kharbanda, Vice President, Customer Experience, Americas, Dell Computers, Texas 'Customer Delight is the great Holy Grail for all of us involved in service or consumer industries but it is all too easy to overcomplicate your approach to achieving it or to finding out what your customers really want. This book by Colin Shaw and John Ivens is packed with clear, common sense advice, analysis and real-world experiences which would help anyone to develop a more effective approach and improve their business as a result.' - Steve Nash, After Sales Director, BMW 'Shaw and Ivens are the gurus of the Customer Experience. Whilst we have all recognised the importance of service in the past, their book moves business thinking on apace. It is about more than just customer service, it is about the whole Customer Experience. Their Seven Philosophies for Building Great Customer Experiences explicitly outline the building blocks that are the foundation of good business.' - Liam Lambert, Director & General Manager, Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park 'John & Colin's approach is the most exciting, practical and effective I have seen in the whole area of becoming a customer focused organisation. We have all talked about the why for years, but now there is no excuse, this is the how.' - Ayes Amewudah, Vice President Marketing Operations EMEA, Lucent Technologies 'A well researched, well written, well presented and thought-provoking read.' - Financial Adviser 'Building Great Customer Experiences does exactly what it says on the tin...Overall, this is a well researched, well written, well presented and thought-provoking read.' - Simon Ashmore, Financial Adviser 'The truth it contains and the challenges to current dogma are brilliant and fundamental to everything we should be doing in marketing.' - Stephen Pidgeon, Markeing