Customer Business

For thousands of years, customers have been individual humans, families or organizations. But soon, generative AI enabled software and hardware machines will start to act as customers. First they will shop for us, later they will act for themselves. You can’t take them to dinner, and they won’t fall for your slogans, but they might help grow your market – if you know how. Companies are already being called on the phone by software that sounds like a person. Cars will buy their own fuel and tires. That smart speaker in every home can become the housekeeper and shopper for the family it serves.

If you've ever used ZipCar, Amazon Prime, Spotify, NetFlix, Groupon, Weight Watchers, SurveyMonkey, United Mileage Plus, Pinterest, or Twitter, you are part of The Membership Economy, an increasingly popular model that author Robbie Kellman Baxter sees as the inevitable result of technological advancements, social trends, and a generation in transition. The Membership Economy argues that we are now moving away from ownership, but we still want the benefits that come with access.

What you experience is what you remember. The more emotional the experience, the deeper it is branded into your memory. Experience has a massive impact on buying decisions. Every touch point, every time you or someone in your company engages a customer, it creates an experience - something they remember. When they have a negative experience, they tend to vote with their feet (and their wallets) and head straight to your competitors.

Digital marketers tap into an unprecedented ability to discover and reach motivated customers at scale. Now more than ever digital marketing strategies are the key for emerging brands, new and veteran entrepreneurs, and businesses of all sizes to convert customers in digital spaces. Author and veteran marketer Benjamin Sweeney distills a decade's worth of marketing experience into a crash course that covers everything from marketing fundamentals to sophisticated digital strategies.

Networking is often considered a necessary evil for all working professionals. With social media platforms like LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook at our disposal, reaching potential investors or employers is much easier. Yet, these connections often feel transactional and agenda-driven, leaving professionals feeling burnt out and stressed out.

From turf wars to low morale, most companies attempt to cure what ails them with the latest management fad - and fail. They are treating the symptoms while ignoring the true problem. Success starts with knowing the kind of business you're really in.

Buyers prefer to buy from people they trust. However, salespeople are often mistrusted. Trust-Based Selling shows how trust between buyer and seller is created and explains how both sides benefit from it. Heavy with practical examples and suggestions, the book reveals why trust goes hand-in-hand with profit; how trust differentiates you from other sellers; and how to create trust in negotiations, closings, and when answering the six toughest sales questions.

How much time have you spent reflecting on the fact that revenues are generated by actual customers—the people who pull out their wallets and pay for your products and services? In The Customer-Base Audit: The First Step on the Journey to Customer Centricity, experts Peter Fader, Bruce Hardie, and Michael Ross start you on the path toward really getting to understand your customers' buying behavior as well as the health of your overall customer base.

The essential guide to marketing and building your business on Instagram - today's hottest social media platform. If you're serious about marketing, you need to tap into the power of the world's most popular photo-sharing platform. This guide offers a road map to achieving Instagram marketing success.

The fastest, easiest, and most profitable way to have a successful business is to work with your ideal customers. They value your offering and pay you what it's worth and they are a joy to serve. But how can you rise above the noise in a crowded marketplace to attract these customers? You learn to speak their lingo. In LINGO, serial entrepreneur, brand consultant, and host of Creative Warriors podcast Jeffrey Shaw reveals how to make your business irresistible to your ideal customers by showing them that you get them.

In this first-of-its-kind book, seasoned security pros Christian West and Brian Jantzen share lessons learned from years of protecting some of corporate America's most prominent people. Full of practical, hands-on information, this guide provides a comprehensive overview of how to conceive, build and run successful executive protection programs in corporate settings. With insights that only experience in all phases of program execution can provide, the authors dig into the key questions that corporations need to ask and answer.

When it comes to running a business, the most important decisions a leader makes are not about products or locations - they're about people. For the past 33 years, Dee Ann Turner has been recruiting, training, and retaining some of the best employees in the restaurant business. Now she's ready to share her secrets on how to build, sustain, and grow an organizational culture that attracts world-class talent and consistently delights customers, no matter what your industry.

Retail is experiencing a massive transition. Thousands of independent retailers have been bobbing in the ocean, clinging to planks of splintered wood and struggling to stay afloat. Today, those who remain have washed ashore on a new island, and the rules have changed. But where there’s life, there’s hope, as long as you’re willing to roll up your sleeves and do the work. In Come Back to Bed, Mark Kinsley and Mark Quinn offer strategies and principles retailers can use to forge lasting customer relationships that will weather any storm.

Keep Your Customers shares why loyalty in the business world matters and walks companies through the strategies and tactics that boost long-term customer value. It costs five to 25 times more for companies to acquire a new customer versus retaining an existing one. That means a company’s process to keep their customers is tied directly to their revenue and profitability.

Andrew Sobel offers a proven, 100-day plan for conquering 14 tough client development challenges and growing your client base. He's encapsulated 25 years of unique research, including personal interviews with over 3,000 top executives, into a practical road map for winning more new clients and growing your existing relationships. You'll learn specific strategies to move confidently and predictably from a first meeting to a signed contract, and discover the agenda-setting techniques that create a steady stream of sole-source business.

Lifelong learning has become a multibillion-dollar business, with more than 60 million adults currently engaged in webinars, webcasts, in-house training, continuing education classes, and more. But it is also an industry in flux, as newcomers topple old-guard organizations that can’t keep pace with the need for instant access to materials and flexible delivery methods, as well as demands for community and connection.

The Zappos Experience takes you through - and beyond - the playful, offbeat company culture Zappos has become famous for. Michelli reveals what occurs behind the scenes at Zappos, showing how employees at all levels operate on a day-to-day basis while providing the "big picture" leadership methods that have earned the company $1 billion in annual gross sales during the last ten years - with almost no advertising. Michelli breaks the approach down into five key elements.

From the best-selling authors of The Power of Visual Storytelling comes the highly anticipated follow-up, The Laws of Brand Storytelling - the definitive, quick rulebook for how to use the power of storytelling to win over customers' hearts, minds, and long-term loyalty.

Selling is the cornerstone of our economy and our society. Everyone sells - some just do it better than others. The million-dollar sales pros know that to sell well requires a complex set of skills, as well as the willingness to perfect relations with the customer. There is no one in the sales arena better versed on the subject of the Big C - the customer - and the significance of service and satisfaction tactics, than Barry J. Farber.

You must deliver an amazing customer experience. Why? It is the competitive edge of new-era business - in any market and any economy. Renowned customer experience expert Shep Hyken explains how consistently amazing customers through stellar service can elevate your company from good to great. All transformations require a role model, and Shep has found the perfect role model to inspire your team: Ace Hardware. Ace was named as one of the top 10 customer service brands in America by Businessweek and ranked highest in its industry for customer satisfaction.