What do you think?
Rate this book
Reinventing the Wheel: The Science of Creating Lifetime Customers
When Chris Zane bought his bicycle shop at age 16, his business struggled until he discovered the secret that catapulted his store into one of the largest in the country. His secret? Provide unbelievable, over the top, excessively generous customer service.
Chris Zane isn’t a management consultant or professor preaching a theory of customer service; he’s a hands-on entrepreneur whose customer service approach has yielded enormous success. Zane has become a business celebrity, including being featured in the most recent round of American Express television ads.
Featured in the New York Times and in Associated Press articles and bestowed numerous awards for its unique business practices and outstanding customer relations, Zane’s Cycles has produced ideas thought by many to be pie-in-the-sky. But these counterintuitive concepts have proven to be hard-headed and effective. For example, Zane’s offers a trade-in program for families who can turn in bicycles their kids have outgrown for a 100 percent credit toward new ones. Initially thought impossibly generous, this program has proven to be good business. Experience and a clear understanding of the lifetime value of a customer makes this program, and many others Zane’s implements, work.
In Reinventing the Wheel, commonly overlooked elements that make a business exceptional are revealed. Zane produces a case study unlike any other—one that shows the importance of investing in customers and employees and how businesses are really selling experiences, not products. His philosophies and tried-and-true methods of guerilla marketing will show entrepreneurs and business owners how to knock out the competition while thriving in any kind of economy and doing good for the community along the way.
Chris Zane isn’t a management consultant or professor preaching a theory of customer service; he’s a hands-on entrepreneur whose customer service approach has yielded enormous success. Zane has become a business celebrity, including being featured in the most recent round of American Express television ads.
Featured in the New York Times and in Associated Press articles and bestowed numerous awards for its unique business practices and outstanding customer relations, Zane’s Cycles has produced ideas thought by many to be pie-in-the-sky. But these counterintuitive concepts have proven to be hard-headed and effective. For example, Zane’s offers a trade-in program for families who can turn in bicycles their kids have outgrown for a 100 percent credit toward new ones. Initially thought impossibly generous, this program has proven to be good business. Experience and a clear understanding of the lifetime value of a customer makes this program, and many others Zane’s implements, work.
In Reinventing the Wheel, commonly overlooked elements that make a business exceptional are revealed. Zane produces a case study unlike any other—one that shows the importance of investing in customers and employees and how businesses are really selling experiences, not products. His philosophies and tried-and-true methods of guerilla marketing will show entrepreneurs and business owners how to knock out the competition while thriving in any kind of economy and doing good for the community along the way.
- GenresBusiness
240 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2011
8 people are currently reading
47 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
July 29, 2014
This book made it immediately into my "favorite business book list". If you have a customer-facing company, this is a must-read.
April 20, 2018
Thought provoking regarding customer experience and customer service without being obvious or preachy.
January 25, 2015
although grounded in a customer-centric & service sentiment a lot of the book reads like how to beat the competition / put your competitors out of business. the ideas are solid when it comes to how to change your mindset about making experiences though, & so shifting how you think you operate. some points get a little redundant but the book isn't very long & reads quickly so it's okay. it also kind of made me want to buy a bicycle so i would count that as a pretty good selling point.
August 14, 2016
I am not particularly enamored of business books, I do like the practices he is encouraging but the very form requires a flattening of the world (and a tooting of one's own horn) that makes me anxious to get back into something meatier.
August 29, 2013
On one hand--I love Chris Zane, and I love his philosophy. The stories are great. On the other hand, this book was seriously in need of an agressive editor.
August 30, 2012
For anyone interested in moving their business forward this is a great book.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews