The Welcomer Edge: Unlocking the Secrets to Repeat Business

by Richard R. Shapiro, Robert Spector (Foreword)

The Welcomer Edge is a business book that unlocks the secrets to repeat sales. Its principles are appropriate for all sales and service environments. It’s about four distinct categories of service professionals -- the people that will make any customer service function or department a success. The author provides real life examples and anecdotes to help transform this concept into action. Welcomers are a rare breed of friendly and engaging people. Most importantly, they are innately intuitive, and understand that customers are people first. Identifying and recruiting welcomers is the key to a healthy consumer base. The book provides practical recommendations and strategies so that any company -- regardless of industry or size -- can maximize the quality of its customer service and the quantity of its loyal consumers. The book describes the four categories of frontline associates. Understanding that each category has definitive service personalities will help optimize your business at its most crucial the encounter that brings two people together to make a purchase, subscribe to a service, provide praise, or raise a concern . The bottom line shows how sales and customer associates have a powerful impact on sales because they determine the outcome of the all-important first impression, and this translates into whether or not a company will achieve its most important repeat business.    

Genres: Business, Nonfiction

215 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2012

Reviews

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Full disclosure, my father-in-law wrote this book! But I swear I constantly refer to customer service agents as one of the 4 categories enumerated in the book, it really makes you think about your personal interactions.

[Roger Haskins · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was pretty disappointing in the book based on the referrals I had received for it. The book doesn't break any new ground, but renames an extrovert a "welcomer" and leaves little hope for everyone else to succeed in customer service.
I found the research lacking, seemingly based solely on anecdotal notes from previous shopping trips to local stores. There was no evidence that the author considered the business rules in play. A standardized training to create a consistent consumer experience across multiple channels and retail locations does not kill customer service, but rather helps build the brand through clear expectations, accountability and consistency. And holding one bad experience with a sales rep up as a representation of a company culture is not necessarily fair to the company. I understand that many consumers will follow that logic, but as a business, the book does not provide answers or strategies to overcome that.
Too much of this was biased to the shopper and not helpful for a business. When compared to the standard of research for business books, like a Jim Collins text, there was nothing here. No retail financial records, training curriculum, no stock valuations, nothing. The primary goal of the firm is to maximize the wealth of the owner, not the customer. Certainly that can be achieved through tapping into the lifetime value of the consumer, but this book did not provide any new and valuable insight to accomplish that.

[Cam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perfect customer service book. Must read for employees and owners alike.