marketing and sales

Exceptional research and detailed case analyses make Creating Customer Evangelists a required read for any astute business manager. If traditional marketing channels fail to establish a clientele who believe in your product or service, let this book be your guide toward converting regular customers into delighted evangelists.

Geared toward both employees and managers, the text provides the psychological underpinnings of a "delightful" customer experience, the attributes necessary for such an experience to occur, and plenty examples of companies successfully deploying a customer-centric enterprise. Answering both the questions "what" (types of experiences nurture customer evangelism) and "how" (do I foster such a culture within my organization), McConnell and Huba have successfully developed a tool that is easily aligned to any business environment.

Beginning from their manifesto of customer evangelism, the text introduces novice readers to the fundamental changes transforming marketing theory, including the expansion of McCarthy's "4 P's" concept, the unhealthy notion of "marketing as advertising", and the failure of mass marketing. Citing multiple research studies, evidence is clearly presented linking sales dollars to word-of-mouth, or evangelistic, sources. Not a terribly surprising fact on its own, however, McConnell and Huba dig deeper to understand the particular nature of the evangelists' psyche.

Six tenets are presented in successive chapters, each representing one major theme common to those companies already enjoying successful customer evangelism. More than simple rules-of-thumb, each concept is more of a philosophy, coupled with brief anecdotes describing those practitioners who have blazed the trail proving its value. You must listen to your customers, determine what they need, and adjust marketing efforts accordingly. You must generate a buzz, not necessarily through guerrilla marketing efforts, but through high visibility in targeted markets conducive to spreading the word. You must build a community of customers and create a cause for which they will support.

More than half the text is dedicated to an in-depth examination of seven companies who have built success upon the foundation of customer evangelism. From the old (IBM) to the new (Southwest Airlines), both famous (Krispy Kreme Donuts) and quirky (SolutionPeople), compelling evidence is provided to both substantiate the customer evangelism framework and to demonstrate its applicability in practice. The final chapter provides a comprehensive scorecard for benchmarking your own efforts while promoting customer evangelism.

A refreshing combination of theory and practicality are offered throughout this book, making it an essential addition to the collection of any business manager.

Joshua A. Gerlick

I believe you've come across excellent writing at one time or anther. This is one of those books that's easy to read and provides concepts for immediate use.

When you first open the book, you'll learn the six tenants of customer evangelism.

One of these tenants is Napsterize your knowledge (give to receive) - sharing your intellectual capital in ways that are easily passed onto others. By sharing information, you actually increase the demand for your product or service.

One interesting thing I noticed, a great deal of the knowledge in this book can be applied at the corporate level or by you individually - for personal development. We've all known people at work who seldom share their knowledge. I think you'll agree that these people have less influence in the corporation and thus fewer opportunities for career advancement.

After you finish reading about the six guiding principals for creating customer evangelist, you can look forward to seven interesting case stories. These stories highlight companies that have used customer evangelism to delight customers and create memorable customer experiences. In turn, the customers are happy to tell their friends about that company and why they should buy their products.

You will retain a clear image of the guiding concepts because stories are used to impart lessons learned.

When Dallas Maverick's forward Dirk Nowitzki shaved his head before a game because his hair kept getting in his eyes when he shot the ball, the Mavs improvised and created a promotion based on a fan's e-mail suggestion.

75 fans shaved their heads before a home game in exchange for a free ticket to the game. Here's one of several lessons from that story:

* Use a responsive and flexible marketing strategy.

At the end of each story you'll find an Evangelism Scorecard describing how the company used the six tenants in their business.

A brief workshop at the end of the book brings it all together. You answer questions that help you devise actions for each of the six tenants.

How Can You Try These Concepts With Little Risk?

Simply use the concept of bite-sized chunks that's described in the book.
Bite-size chunks allow your customers an easy and affordable way to experience your products or services.

Don't take the author's word for it, try a concept from the book and see if it works.
When you read this book and apply the concepts, you'll delight your customers.

What does it take to get your customers to see the light, to praise your product like evangelists selling their creeds? How do you create customer evangelists whose word of mouth will convert other acolytes to your product? Authors Ben McConnell and Jackie Huba offer chapter and verse. They tell you how to encourage customers to preach your message for you. However, before consumers will take to the pulpit, you must have an excellent product or service that converts their thinking. There's good information here, though not much new. The last chapter sums everything up as nicely as a homily, and the appendix provides additional tips on e-mail marketing and jump-starting the evangelical process. The authors' penchant for name-coining adds little; at best it's confusing and at worst downright annoying ("word of mouse" is cute, but "Napsterizing"? "Customer Plus-Delta"?). We are is glad to see someone preaching the cause of being customer-oriented - we're already pretty faithful about that.