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Indispensable: How To Become The Company That Your Customers Can't Live Without
A five-step strategy for turning a commodity into a necessity
When products and services become interchangeable, price becomes the ultimate determinant for consumers. Indispensable shows businesses how to break out of that cycle by using The Five Drivers-a strategy that takes companies to the next level of performance. Renowned business consultant Joe Calloway looks at how real companies have made their product or service "mission critical," and satisfied customers in the process.
Indispensable goes straight to the heart of the issue and reveals how successful companies-of any size, in virtually any manufacturing, selling, or service endeavor-achieve market leadership through The Five Drivers of fierce customer loyalty. Indispensable shows readers how to:
* Create and sustain momentum: overcome organizational inertia and keep moving forward
* Develop habitual dependability: make consistency of performance a defining characteristic
* Connect continuously
* See the Big Picture Outcome: create compelling customer experiences
* Engage, Enchant, Enthrall: make magic in the marketplace
With interviews, detailed case studies, and dozens of real-world, effective customer service ideas and initiatives, Indispensable is just what today's forward-thinking businesses need.
When products and services become interchangeable, price becomes the ultimate determinant for consumers. Indispensable shows businesses how to break out of that cycle by using The Five Drivers-a strategy that takes companies to the next level of performance. Renowned business consultant Joe Calloway looks at how real companies have made their product or service "mission critical," and satisfied customers in the process.
Indispensable goes straight to the heart of the issue and reveals how successful companies-of any size, in virtually any manufacturing, selling, or service endeavor-achieve market leadership through The Five Drivers of fierce customer loyalty. Indispensable shows readers how to:
* Create and sustain momentum: overcome organizational inertia and keep moving forward
* Develop habitual dependability: make consistency of performance a defining characteristic
* Connect continuously
* See the Big Picture Outcome: create compelling customer experiences
* Engage, Enchant, Enthrall: make magic in the marketplace
With interviews, detailed case studies, and dozens of real-world, effective customer service ideas and initiatives, Indispensable is just what today's forward-thinking businesses need.
240 pages, Hardcover
First published April 29, 2005
20 people are currently reading
3255 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
June 23, 2020
The most straightforward book on business value delivery you will ever read!
Joe Calloway tells readers directly and with such casual language the importance on delivering value to customers in your business. He first outlines some simple steps on the process of doing so, then he provides some great case studies and interviews with business persons to further illustrate the successes and failures of applying the steps.
Mr. Calloway fully understands exactly how it feels to be a customer expecting proper procedures from companies. He insists that companies need to stop beating around the bush and give customers exactly what they need, and he gives his own tips on how to do it. And the tips he provides the reader are so simple and workable that there is no way they cannot be implemented. They can be used creatively by anybody who is working in a company, be it customer service or senior manager.
Most importantly, he stresses the idea of "thinking within the box before thinking outside of it." This means that before companies try new strategies to improve how they deliver business value, they must first improve the system of doing so within. Even a small improvement can lead to great results, such as in some mentioned scenarios where members of companies satisfy the customer even when the method they use is outside their job description. Such actions can build customer loyalty for the long run and bring in more business of the company as a result.
Overall a wonderful business book that explains value delivery in a short and sweet fashion. The author talks to the reader as a good friend would; a tone of explaining business concepts that is a rarity in the business book genre. Highly recommended!
Joe Calloway tells readers directly and with such casual language the importance on delivering value to customers in your business. He first outlines some simple steps on the process of doing so, then he provides some great case studies and interviews with business persons to further illustrate the successes and failures of applying the steps.
Mr. Calloway fully understands exactly how it feels to be a customer expecting proper procedures from companies. He insists that companies need to stop beating around the bush and give customers exactly what they need, and he gives his own tips on how to do it. And the tips he provides the reader are so simple and workable that there is no way they cannot be implemented. They can be used creatively by anybody who is working in a company, be it customer service or senior manager.
Most importantly, he stresses the idea of "thinking within the box before thinking outside of it." This means that before companies try new strategies to improve how they deliver business value, they must first improve the system of doing so within. Even a small improvement can lead to great results, such as in some mentioned scenarios where members of companies satisfy the customer even when the method they use is outside their job description. Such actions can build customer loyalty for the long run and bring in more business of the company as a result.
Overall a wonderful business book that explains value delivery in a short and sweet fashion. The author talks to the reader as a good friend would; a tone of explaining business concepts that is a rarity in the business book genre. Highly recommended!
January 6, 2018
The book have many relevant element of consulting company, It is pity that not much helpful information go into my memory, But the name of the book, indispensable is really a very important and very difficult objectives to achieve.
To face the tough client and in fierce competition, how to avoid price erosion in commodity product, how to leverage strength and contribution into business edge is really a interesting and difficult task to achieve. I am still in the journey.
To face the tough client and in fierce competition, how to avoid price erosion in commodity product, how to leverage strength and contribution into business edge is really a interesting and difficult task to achieve. I am still in the journey.
July 17, 2019
Some of his ideas may seem like such a no-brainer, but as you read more and more of this book you begin to realize as a customer this is what you really want companies to do. I wish I would have read this book earlier in my career as it definitely would have served me well in previous jobs.
February 24, 2022
Not my normal type of book, I read this for work. It had some highlights and I did gain a few things from it. The Beer Guy story was the highlight, page 208. If you read just that section you will get the best parts of the book.
February 18, 2017
Some of his ideas may seem like such a no-brainer, but as you read more and more of this book you begin to realize as a customer this is what you really want companies to do. I wish I would have read this book earlier in my career as it definitely would have served me well in previous jobs.
January 4, 2011
Some of his ideas may seem like such a no-brainer, but as you read more and more of this book you begin to realize as a customer this is what you really want companies to do. I wish I would have read this book earlier in my career as it definitely would have served me well in previous jobs.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews