Inspire!: Why Customers Come Back

by Jim Champy and James Champy

Book Overview

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• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0131361880
• ISBN13: 9780131361881
• Release Date: January 2009
• Publisher: FT Press
• Length: 176 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.9" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Inspire! Why Customers Come Back

Jim Champy, Author Inspire! Why Customers Come Back FT Press, ISBN 978-0-13-136188-1 Non-Fiction-business, marketing, self-help, customer service 176 pages including index October 2009 Review for Bookpleasures Reviewer-Michelle Kaye Malsbury, BSBM, MM Review Jim Champy, author of Inspire, is the chairman and head of business strategies for Perot Systems. He had written numerous bestsellers [Outsmart!, X-Engineering The Corporation, Reengineering Management, and the Arc of Ambition). In Inspire he interviewed several business leaders from various industries to help translate the theories he writes about into real life scenarios that can help organizations learn how to make the most out of our bad economic times. (2009, insert) Inspire opens up with taking your organization "from tired to inspired". (2009, p.6) Here Champy writes about how your marketing efforts should define your target audience by considering what you have in common with your customer. (p.10) If you can see yourself as the customer you can create a plan to sell your goods and services to them/you with greater ease. Champy says that [paraphrase] the customer drives the company image. Highlights of this chapter are convenience, affordability, authenticity, value, and purpose. Some organizations have made their mark by championing a specific cause, i.e. organic products without pesticides. Using a cause to create or supplement your image is a good thing for some products or services because they can be inspirational. Causes are emotional and make your customer feel good about using your product or service. (2009, p.30) Highlights from this chapter hinge on reinforcement, experience, advocate, appeal, and truth. Can convenience save you money? Champy says yes! Do not overstock your product or service, but have enough in the right locations to service your customers conveniently is the key. (2009, p.42) Convenience translates into every part of your business from how one selects the product or service down to where they go to get it. Simplicity in every facet coupled with good service can help streamline that process and keep your customers coming back for more. The healthcare and pharmaceutical industry can provide consumers with good service, quality care, and affordable prices without sacrificing the bottom line. (2009, p.59) How can this be achieved? Insurers can cut through the layers of red tape by partnering with the federal government, bundling or layering services/benefits that provide additional discounts to the customer, going paperless to streamline processes and procedures, and placing more emphasis on prevention and wellness instead of after the fact treatments. Market differentiation is important to getting a leg up on the competition. How can you define your organization better? Your organization can stand out from its competition by being straightforward, uncomplicated, and customer focused. (2009, p.84-5) Good service brings customers back. Select a message

Good weekend book

This is a good weekend book, to reinforce some things taht we are already aware but do not take into practice, and realise that customer is 1st.

Authenticity in action

Jim Champy's latest book, Inspire!, is a highly valuable read for business leaders, providing actionable examples of what it takes to keep customers continually engaged and excited in their relationships with businesses. Arguably, this is the most important aspect of business at any level. The book provides clear, concise lessons that can be applied readily to any organization, regardless of size or kind. Many of these lessons focus on internal company cultural attributes such as "risk calmly accepted as necessity" and "innovation viewed as everyone's business". A refreshing theme of Inspire! is communicated "authenticity", the quality and characteristic of being honest with customers and stakeholders. According to Mr. Champy, it "illuminates a company's sense of purpose". Mr. Champy's advocacy of corporate authenticity is actionable and provides clarity for contemporary managers who can take advantage of seemingly endless opportunities for success in today's global economy by being honest with customers and themselves. An appealing aspect of the authenticity theme in Inspire! is that it provides actionable examples of business success achieved through integrity from notable companies, such as Stoneyfield Farm, Zip Car, Go Daddy and Honest Tea, among others. One striking aspect of Inspire! is the learning derived from it does not depend on any economic or business trend. Mr. Champy's thoughtful journey into reigniting and maintaining customer loyalty is as applicable in a recession as it is in a booming economy. The lack of trend-chasing concepts makes Inspire! a book that will be relevant for years to come. You will want to reread this book periodically as new economic and business cycles evolve.

Customers: Please Them or Lose Them (But We Already Knew That)

Clearly, the message delivered in this book is one of "common sense". Wouldn't every company in the world trying to be a successful enterprise already understand this common sense approach to maintaining customer loyalty? Well, maybe they "understand" the message, but don't really "get it". Concepts like creating an environment of enthusiastic employees embracing innovation and intuition, fearlessly taking calculated risks to advance the overall success of the company---may sound good to the CEO. But the reality is quite the opposite for most companies these days; especially the very big ones. Who's responsible? Wasn't it Harry Truman who once said, "The buck stops here!" (Yes it was.) In other words, the CEOs actions (implied or direct) send the message down the company ladder, all the way to the hard-working front-line employees: "Don't screw up, don't have fun, and you'd better make me some money! Or else!" In this environment of chaos confusion and fear, the end result is usually unfavorable for everyone concerned---unhappy employees providing bad service for their disatisfied customers. Soon, the employees become ex-employees and the customers become ex-customers. But the CEOs are still in charge and now they're really upset; to put it mildly. So, as more heads roll, and ineffective replacements are brought in, the company continues to fall deeper into the abyss. Good word; abyss. It suggests that something is really going wrong, and the answer is usually found at the top of that bottomless pit; our hero, the CEO. Jim Champy's "Inspire!" might also be called "Fire the CEO! Maybe the Customers Will Come Back". But getting a lost customer to come back is not a realistic scenario; unless they're getting even worse service than before. More than likely, the smart customer will try "door number three"; usually a smaller, leaner, and more progressive company, able to provide precisely what customers need, and have them come back over and over again. And more than likely, the head of that company has either read this book, or knows what it's all about, already. Sometimes "common sense" can be found in various parts of society. Those who possess it are the new leaders of the business world, conveying a clear and consistent set of core values for their employees to enthusiastically embrace; and sooner or later, the "abyss" will be gone; hopefully, forever. In the long run, as the weak companies fall by the wayside, the end result is a happy ending for the customer---great service at a fair price. And of course, they'll keep coming back; after all, there's no reason for them to want to leave. The really good news is the positive effect this scenario has on our economic well-being. Budget deficits a thing of the past? Let's hope so; the sooner the better.

Customer acquisition and retention through natural selection

Those who read Jim Champy's previous book, Outsmart!, know that in it he drew metaphorically from Charles Darwin's theories of survival that are, and I quote, "Species always breed beyond available resources," "Those species with favorable variations have a greater chance of survival and pass on their variations to their offspring," and "Adapted species force out weaker ones, producing whole new species." These theories help us to understand the strategies of successful, fast-growing organizations. "Inspire! Picks up where Outsmart! leaves off, showing how these kinds of organizations have been able to increase their market share." In it he explains why customers come back to businesses that know how to deliver on their promises. "That is why the next book in the series will focus on how companies achieve true operational excellence. Like Outsmart! and Inspire!, it will have a simple, direct title: Deliver! That's because delivering is what every successful business does every day, in good times and bad." Customer "satisfaction" is based on a single transaction and customer "loyalty" will continue from one transaction to the next only so long as each is satisfactory. Presumably Champy agrees with Ben McConnell and Jackie Huba that the objective should be to create customer evangelists who will not only "come back" but also bring others with them and, whenever possible and appropriate, function as an extended sales force. What will inspire customers to become evangelists? Champy suggests eight factors and devotes a separate chapter to each. Here are the first three: 1. Engage customers with a cause that will enable them "to identify with your mission and will happily pray a premium for the emotional connection they get from supporting it." 2. "An engagement strategy of convenience requires a deep understanding of how your product or service will fill a customer need. And what works for one group of customers might not work for another." 3. "Most companies don't [but should] give enough thought to their market channels and channel partners, and how those partners can enhance a customer experience." The other five factors are simplifying complexity (as Albert Einstein once suggested, "Make everything as simple as possible...but no simpler."); being completely honest (i.e. authentic in that, what is affirmed and what is done are seamlessly consistent); interact with your company the same way your the customer does (i.e. "being your own customer"); balance enthusiasm with reality and, as Jason Jennings suggests, "nail the fundamentals" every time; and finally, re-energize product mix with unusual combinations (e.g. "cool and sport") that surprise and delight. In each chapter, Chapter provides a reader-friendly section, "Rules of Engagement," that I really appreciate. It consolidates specific considerations and suggestions for each of the eight factors. In the final chapter, for example, "What Could Be More Inspiring than the Melding of Cool