"I Love You More Than My Dog": Five Decisions That Drive Extreme Customer Loyalty in Good Times and Bad

by Jeanne Bliss

Hundreds of businesses have customers who admire them, but only an elite few have true advocates— passionate, loyal, vocal fans—who rave about them to anyone who will listen. Jeanne Bliss, who served as a senior customer executive at five major companies, says there’s no shortcut to becoming beloved—you can’t hire a fancy marketing firm to get there. You earn it by how you decide to run your business—as Wegman’s and Harley-Davidson have for decades and as relatively new companies like Zipcar and Zappos are doing right now. After studying and working with dozens of beloved companies, Bliss has identified five key decisions that lead to customer • Decide to believe • Decide with clarity of purpose • Decide to be real • Decide to be there • Decide to say “sorry” Her examples and advice will help readers sustain growth and profit even in a tough economy.

Genres: Business

219 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[Erik Johannessen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to like I Love You More Than My Dog, I really did. I love the premise of the book, and I think that Jeanne Bliss has some very good ideas about how to orient a company towards customer satisfaction, earning their love and loyalty along the way. However, actually reading this book left me rather disappointed.

First, the good. Jeanne's message about how decisions company make reveal what and how they think about their customers is a powerful one, and she gives plenty of examples of how those decisions play out in a wide variety of industries. The concrete examples of how companies with extremely loyal customers (you could almost call them "fan bases") got to earn that loyalty is both interesting and instructive, and thought-provoking for anyone involved in trying to build the same kind of love for their business. It is a powerful, motivating message.

However, reading through the book was tough for me. The chapters are pretty short, but they feel long on touchy-feely and short on specifics. The case studies are both the best part of the book and the worst. Walking through each decision various companies made and seeing the effects is really valuable, but it's set up in a limiting, one-page format that often doesn't give proper space for many of the decisions. Moreoever, there's often a rush to jump to big conclusions; a naïve reader would assume that, for each of these companies, their one big customer-facing decision led them on the path to massive growth and financial success. While these sorts of decisions are important, the bigger picture that seems to be glossed over is that the really important factor is the customer-focused attitude and mindset that enables a whole series of decisions like this that orient the company towards its customers.

Furthermore, while extreme customer loyalty will drive growth and financial success, it is not the simple cause-effect relationship this book would have you believe. Plenty of companies with extreme customer loyalty never grow big, and plenty of companies that customers actively dislike nevertheless grow and thrive (cable companies come to mind here). Perhaps to make its point clearer, the book extremely oversimplifies the relationship between single decisions and overall business results, ignoring the hundreds or thousands of other decisions the business made over the same time period.

Another point that irked me was the use of the phrase "earned the right to grow". Growth and business success are the results of smart decisions and hard work, but they are not a "right" to be "earned". That sort of thinking is compelling, but it can also lead to a misplaced sense of entitlement.

Finally, I don't normally get annoyed at things like typesetting and layout, but reading this book really did get to me. Much of it is set in a magazine style, with quotes from the book emphasized on the same page in large type. Important points are emphasized again and again entire pages devoted to a couple sentences. I understand what the author is trying to accomplish, but it is though she doesn't trust her readers to have sufficient reading comprehension to pick out the important points and remember them -- the book might as well have come with all the topic sentences pre-highlighted.

Four stars for the ideas, two for execution. A disappointed three stars overall.

[Omar Halabieh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Below are key excerpts summarizing the main concepts advanced by the book:

1- "Your decisions reveal who you are and what you value...When you make a decision, it results in an action. And the accumulation of those decisions and actions become how people describe you and think of you. It becomes your "story.''"

2- "The Five Decisions Made by Beloved Companies: DECISION 1: Beloved Companies Decide to Believe. DECISION 2: Beloved Companies Decide with Clarity of Purpose. DECISION 3: Beloved Companies Decide to Be Real. DECISION 4: Beloved Companies Decide to Be There. DECISION 5: Beloved Companies Decide to Say Sorry."

3- "Companies have been able to suspend the cynicism. They have diminished the rules. And instead, they have decided to believe: in the good judgment of the people they hire. that trust is reciprocated between companies and their customers. in the honesty and integrity of their customers. that honoring the intelligence of employees grows their business."

4- "Decide with clarity of purpose...Beloved companies take the time to be clear about what their unique promise is for their customers' lives. They use this clarity hen they make decisions so they align to this purpose, to this promise. Clarity of purpose guides choices and unites the organization. It elevates people's work from executing tasks to delivering experiences customers will want to repeat and tell others about."

5- "Decide to be real...Beloved companies establish lasting bonds with customers—by deciding to blend their personalities with their business decisions. In the beloved companies: Leaders blend who they are as people with how they lead. Business decisions combine purpose and passion. Leaders give employees behaviors to model and permission to be 'real." Relationships are between people who share the same values."

6- "Decide to be there...companies were able to reach uncommon decisions that connected them with customers because they: Imagined their customers' lives. Were clear on their purpose for delivering a solution to their lives. Built their experience from the customers' point of view. Executed with operational reliability."

7- "Decide to say sorry...Aaron Lazare, author of On Apology, says, "The apology is a powerful and constructive form of conflict resolution, embedded, in modified form, in religion and the judicial system. It is a method of social hearing that as grown in importance as our way of living together on our planet undergoes radical change." Moral of the story: a good apology trumps the legal system. As long as the apology is sincere and the effort to make amends is genuine...Your apology must: Be genuine. Restore confidence in being associated with you. Honor those harmed. Explain and work to resolve the problem. Be delivered swiftly and with humility."

8- "Beloved companies shed their fancy packaging and break down the barriers of " big company, little customer." The relationship is between people who share the same values and revel in each other's foibles, quirks, and spirit. And that's what draws them to each other. Beloved companies decide to create a safe place where the personality and creativity of of people come through. It makes them beloved to customers who gravitate to their particular brand of humanity."

[Chanel Baron · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very redundant, an overly proud and patriarchal tone to the whole book, and the amount of variation in text size and font was dizzying. I like the goal of this book, but it could have been better executed.

[Andrea Saez · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pretty terrible.

[Lauren Head · Rating 4 out of 5]

I reported in my BetterBookClub.com report for cj Advertising that anyone who is in a client-facing job position can really learn from this book.Rather it is a Sales Clerk to a Brand Manager to PR and Social Media Mangers. I would also recommend this book for anyone who is wanting to start their own business-rather it be a full-time venture or a small job on the side because without customers, without customers no business will succeed.

I enjoyed this book from a business stand point, but I also enjoyed it as a consumer. After reading this books I realize that I want to make more of an effort to support businesses that align with my personal values/beliefs.

People tend to love/respect/support brands that admit that they got something wrong and that they are trying to fix it. Chapter Four (Decide to Be Real) really focused on this point since it is important in a society where people will say/post/tweet/share things before thinking them through. I also could relate to Chapter Five (Decide to Be There) since it focused on being present for customers even though sometimes it can be an uphill battle. Just because a client is "difficult" doesn't mean that you should drop them and move on. Sometimes those clients will become your best customers when you hold there hand and work with them.

[Camille · Rating 3 out of 5]

As others have mentioned this book is less of a how-to and more a series of brief case studies on what others have done. That said, if you read it with your current processes in mind, you can start to look at places where your approach might be more fine-tuned or personalized. I am responsible for Customer Success at a small startup (read more from me here - https://camilleacey.com) and am acutely aware of how important interactions with our support desk are for customer retention and overall perception of our brand. Users who reach out to us and have a good experience are users who stay on and refer us to others. While not everyone can be Tony Hsieh (of Zappos) or the folks over at Trader Joes, beginning to run more company and product questions through the "customer love filter" can help you make decisions that will keep your business growing.

[Andrea · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this book because it showed great customer services driven responses to increasing loyalty of both employees and customers. Reading detailed plans of how iconic companies like Trader Joe's and The Container Store have made their businesses thrive through good decisions that prove customers are the main concern of the business. I would recommend his book to anyone who wants to make a greater impact in their organizations and believes that this only will be achieved when they learn what their customers need to keep coming back and referring others.

[Suzanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good, concise case studies of how "great" customer service looks across different business models. The intros to each chapter could feel a little preachy, but the book is laid out to be a discussion tool with the final chapter summarizing the challenge questions from the rest of the book, and so the pulpit-style messages leading into the case studies wasn't a huge surprise. Overall it posed some thought-provoking questions and would be a great tool to help any business examine how they approach customer interactions and pull out opportunities to redefine them.

[Sheri Trapp-Cordova · Rating 5 out of 5]

I rated this book highly because I think it lends itself well to starting conversations within the workplace / organization. The format is easy to read. The questions she asks organizations to think about are challenging. Do business' really put their customers first? Good stories and great for discussion.

[Elisha (lishie) · Rating 5 out of 5]

It all seems to come down to the Golden Rule, "Do onto others as you'd have done unto you." And I think all companies should read this book. It's a refreshing view on how to keep customers. Loyalty is earned!

[S · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked the book from the library only because the cover and the name sounded funny. And I thought "Why not?" Turned out to be a good read. I enjoyed reading the examples; they supported the idea quite well!

[Vanessa]

Great stories about real companies that drive customer loyalty.

[Kerrilee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great customer service book for managers and employees alike. Just reminds you what really good customer service looks like and has some really creative ideas.

[Viramunindra · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was never interested in Customer Relationship before I read this book. Insightful, really.

[Rob · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great ideas.
Poorly written.
Recommend it anyway.

[Dan MacInnis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love Jeanne. So great. Practical human advice.