The Cult of the Customer: Create an Amazing Customer Experience That Turns Satisfied Customers Into Customer Evangelists

by Shep Hyken

In today’s competitive business climate, you can’t just satisfy your customers. You have to be better than that, giving them experiences that they won’t forget. Author Shep Hyken has spent twenty-five years studying great companies and the evangelists they create. In The Cult of the Customer , Hyken shows how to design a strategy that leads both customers and employees through five distinct cultural phases – from "uncertainty" to "amazement." By presenting dozens of case studies that show how great companies made this journey, Hyken identifies the critical internal and external changes that allowed them to build a Cult of the Customer – and shows how you can do it too. Hyken’s message is both powerful and the happier your customers and employees are, the more successful your company will be. The Cult of the Customer is your guide to creating a customer-focused culture that turns satisfied customers into customer evangelists.

Genres: Business, Nonfiction, Leadership

261 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

The "Official" (and somewhat boring) Shep Hyken Bio...

Shep Hyken, CSP, CPAE is the Chief Amazement Officer at Shepard Presentations. As a speaker and author, Shep works with companies and organizations who want to build loyal relationships with their customers and employees. His articles have been read in hundreds of publications, and he is the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and USA Today bestselling business author of "Moments of Magic," "The Loyal Customer," "The Cult of the Customer" and "The Amazement Revolution." He is also the creator of The Customer Focus program, which helps clients develop a customer service culture and loyalty mindset.

In 1983 Shep founded Shepard Presentations and since then has worked with hundreds of clients ranging from Fortune 100 size organizations to companies with less than 50 employees. Some of his clients include American Airlines, AAA, Anheuser-Busch, AT&T, AETNA, Abbott Laboratories, American Express - and that's just a few of the A's!

Shep Hyken's most requested programs focus on customer service, customer loyalty, internal service, customer relations and the customer experience. He is known for his high-energy presentations, which combine important information with entertainment (humor and magic) to create exciting programs for his audiences.

(CPAE, or the Council of Peers Award for Excellence, is the National Speakers Association's Speaker Hall of Fame award for lifetime achievement in the area platform/speaking excellence. CSP is the international designation for Certified Speaking Professionals and is awarded to individuals for certain achievements and education in the speaking profession.)

Reviews

[Jim Serger · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Cult is to B movies as it is to customer service, B movies have a huge following, and people love to recommend them for a reason. This book exemplifies the same features as does recommending a movie or following to friends and co-workers. The author an expert himself in the field shares with us the reader how to move a business into a sought after need or want--it is moving customer service from average/acceptable to outstanding/AMAZING all in the way we the business handle our patrons/customers - how we talk to them/ respond to them-- great book for ALL- because WE all are in customer service. 5 stars across the board. People will want to come back for more and will bring their friends and talk about what they experienced in a positive manner for all too hear.

[Deepak · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book offers a powerful of framework to shape your customer experience journey. The second half of the book is somewhat superficial though.

My notes from the book:

Amazement = consistent sequence of moments of magic (above average experiences). Better than average most of the time, with occasional bursts of superior experiences. Even if customers have an issue, a good resolution reaffirms their faith in the company.

Satisfying customers is not enough; satisfaction does not build loyalty.

Cult of uncertainty: most org sit here. There are some happy customers, but most not loyal (category freq vs company). Here, most customers dont know what to expect, and also expect the worst at times.

It’s said that only 10 percent of customer complaints are ever articulated.

The first phase of moving beyond uncertainty is admitting that you are in it.

Symptoms you are in cult of uncertainty
- Service is inconsistent
- Processes / comms are inconsistent
- Customers and employees not sure of company’s brand promise
- Retention is not where it should be

Alignment / mantras
- Ritz - employees working there are ladies and gentlemen, serving ladies and gentlemen
- Outback steakhouse - great food, no rules
- Avis - we try harder

Cult of experience vs ownership - hope the experience happens, vs expect it to happen (since the company has delivered it a few times with predictability)

Move from a culture of blame, to a culture of celebration

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence is not an act, but a habit

Companies to benchmark for customer experience - Zappos, Ritz, Nordstrom, Virgin atlantic, american express

Do you have brand evangelists? How do you identify them and build on the traction via them?

Keeping employees at the level of amazement (where independence / contribution to company / respect and recognition are stressed) is a pre requisite to keeping customers at the level of amazement. Employee satisfaction must precede customer satisfaction.

Hire the attitude, train the skills

Customers in zone of amazement are less price elastic.

Solve two types of problems for a customer - complaints and needs. Complaints are our fault, needs are not (eg lost credit card).

Giving away credit instead of giving away refund, to make the customer return. What are those situations where we can move to credit mode rather than refund mode?

Wow recovery mechanisms. Eg, spilling coffee on jacket —> promise to give it back clean in 30 minutes. Train your employees to do stellar service recovery. By sharing examples / role modeling you could actually have your employees learn how to do great service recovery (eg getting a discount on hotel car after checkout).

Rules and regulations should be written with dishonest customers in mind.

“ They didnt have to do that” experience

Proactive service - answering a customer’s questions every before they have have had a chance to ask them. Eg refunding money for poor service even before the customer asks for it

Ask yourself : what are we doing for the consumer, that the competition might find a little extreme?

[Scott Wozniak · Rating 3 out of 5]

What's the big idea and/or unique approach of this book?
There are different types of company cultures, some that create satisfied customers and some that create customer evangelists.

How am I smarter, better, or wiser because of it?
Well, not at all. Partly, that's because I know a lot about this area (I wrote my own book on it and have consulted on it for many years). But partly that's because this book is light on tactical ways to get this done.

Was I entertained/did it keep my attention?
The stories were probably the best part of the book. The language flowed well, too.

Would I recommend it to others?
Not really. Partly, that's because it didn't offer a lot of practical ways to do this. Partly, that's because I think it misrepresents the process of going from poor to excellent here. He literally says it's easy and natural, once you start asking a few questions in your team meetings. I've done too many transformations like this to believe that's true.

[Michael Shaw · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although some of the technology and companies referenced in The Cult of the Customer by Shep Hyken have changed over the years (the book was published in 2009), the concepts and fundamentals behind creating amazing customer experiences remain relevant and Hyken does an excellent job of conveying those ideas in easily absorbable ways. The Cult of the Customer is a good entry point for any company looking to transform their culture into a customer experience focused model and, frankly, every company should be doing just that.

[Jackson Thoden · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was given to me as a gift by someone who didn’t know that customer experience is different than UX design. While this book had some principles that could be built off of to make them relate to UX, it wasn’t exactly what I was looking for.

It had a few pieces of good advice for a very new beginner looking for how to create a great customer experience. I felt like there were a couple of fun stories about companies going above and beyond, but there were also a few that just felt redundant after the author had already very clearly illustrated a point.

[Cyril Danthi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Belief in certain value drive culture. For an organisation to become a cult of customer centricity or customer obsession, it needs to mature across the customer life cycle and customer journey. The book provides key insights on how an organisation can build a culture of customer centricity through internal processes and systems using a defined approach with few used cases.
Highly recommended for those who driving customer experience in organisation.

[Mauricio P Dulon · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best book in customer experience I've read so far. The cult of the customer is an easy read, full of practical advise on how to assess where you are in customer experience and tips on how to turn your customers into your evangelists. At the end of the book Shep shares some tools that are very helpful.

[Dora Farkas · Rating 5 out of 5]

excellent!!!

I am very impressed by this book. It’s such a thorough review of how to show up for the customer and create a great experience for them that also helps the business grow. Highly recommend!!!

[isabel medrano · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed reading this book. It has a lot of great examples and it is easy to follow and understand. Highly recommended for anyone looking to understand how to improve customers' experiences in any field of work.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good read with an interesting perspective on the phases of the relationship between a business and its customers. Found myself observing the business I was interacting with through he lens of the phases.

[Suzie Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s all about the experience.

I highly recommend this book for anyone looking at the employee and customer experience. This is a great ‘How to’ on getting better at both and delivering an amazing experience all round.

[Yapha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solid advice in providing excellent customer care.

[Kris Yonushka · Rating 4 out of 5]

Better than most

Author gives a simplified, but detailed purpose of “why” and “how”. It makes sense to follow the rules laid out here.

[JP · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Cult of the Customer is one of those excellent books you can read on a single plane ride, and then land with a new sense of inspiration and a set of steps to get going. Shep Hyken draws upon his broad experience to create a framework work that is straightforward and usable. I most appreciated his understanding that, while the experience begins with customer touchpoints, those touchpoints are supported by a series of steps - many behind the scenes - that also need support and innovation. These include both operational processes and the more fundamental resource of people. I also like how he advocates for treating employees the way they should treat customers. The overall framework is organized around 5 levels of customer loyalty and the process for moving them to the most successful Cult of Amazement.

[Marc Bowers · Rating 5 out of 5]

This should be a must read for any organization that is ready to take their business to the cult of amazement for their customers. I wish all companies would read this book and put a plan in place to "wow" their customers every single day. Great job by Shep with this book!

[Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good stories. Could have been tighter with fewer exclamation points.

[Li Betancur · Rating 5 out of 5]

its a good book to have a sight about the cult of.the amazament in the customer experience.
not.doubt shep is a good speaker about this topic.

[Dan MacInnis]

Started it, awesome. Want to build raving fans, read it.

[Stanley Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are some good pages.