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The Ultimate Question: Driving Good Profits and True Growth (精装)
by Fred Reichheld
| Category:
Sales, Selling skills, Business, Business growth |
| Market price: ¥ 288.00
MSL price:
¥ 258.00
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| Stock:
Pre-order item, lead time 3-7 weeks upon payment [ COD term does not apply to pre-order items ] |
MSL rating:
 Good for Gifts |
| MSL Pointer Review:
This surprising book offers a powerful message based on common sense: Companies that treat their customers ethically and honestly will build a dedicated client base, and thus grow steadily and earn "good profits. |
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AllReviews |
1 Total 1 pages 5 items |
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Publishers Weekly (MSL quote), USA
<2008-03-27 00:00>
Almost everyone appreciates the importance of customer satisfaction in business, but this book takes that idea to two extremes. First, it claims that customer satisfaction is more important than any business criterion except profits. Second, it argues that customer satisfaction is best measured by one simple question, "Would you recommend this business to a friend?" Pressure for financial performance tempts executives to seek "bad profits," that is, profits obtained at the expense of frustrating or disappointing customers. Such profits inflate short-term financial results, Reichheld writes, but kill longer-term growth. Only relentless focus on customer satisfaction can generate "good profits." One unambiguous question, with answers delivered promptly, can force organizational change, he claims. Reichheld makes a strong rhetorical case for his ideas, but is weaker on supporting evidence. The negative examples he gives are either well-known failures or generic entities like "monopolies," "cell phone service providers" and "cable companies." When presenting statistics on poor performers, the names are omitted "for obvious reasons." On the other hand, the positive examples are named, but described in unrealistically perfect terms. Believable comparisons of companies with both virtues and flaws would have been more instructive. (Mar.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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David Siegel (MSL quote), USA
<2008-03-27 00:00>
The key to this book's central idea is that you can REPLACE a large handful of other questions with this single question, so people will actually give you feedback. With a longer set of questions, you only get answers from people who enjoy filling out questionnaires! With this single powerful metric, you can watch your company go toward or away from customers. I plan on aiming part of my business in this exciting direction. |
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David Laws (MSL quote), USA
<2008-03-27 00:00>
If it was author Fred Reichheld's intention to generate discussion and debate around the benefits of customer loyalty then this book has proven to be the ideal way to achieve that.
Look at the variety and range of perspectives offered by the reviews and articles this book has generated and the emotions attached.
So, if you want to understand the hype you have just got to read the book and make your own judgment. But it really depends on what perspective you bring to the opening pages.
I `buy in' to the argument that loyalty is great for business, so I found the book easy to read and understand and incredibly helpful. The argument is well crafted and supported, and with enough `detail' and case studies to support and reinforce my point of view. The underlying concept being that every organisation has both `detractors' and `promoters' and the objective of every company should be to grow the number of promoters whilst eliminating detractors. Those organisations with many more promoters than detractors tend to be more successful than others.
But many simply don't buy into the underlying premise that building customer loyalty is achievable, even desirable, in today's business environment. I'm not sure that this book will change their perspectives. Much of the data could be described by some, as `soft', `open to misinterpretation' even questionable but it is certainly an intriguing proposition.
Then of course, there is the whole concept that by merely asking one question - The Ultimate Question - will give you a useful insight into the health of your company. Is it really that simple?
Make your own judgment. For me though, The Net Promoter Score is a useful measure that has application in most industries and could be a terrific lead indicator. Would I `bet the farm' on this as the only measure? I don't think so!
Do I want to know the ratio of my company's Promoters to Detractors? You bet.
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Eric Bauswell (MSL quote), USA
<2008-03-27 00:00>
The Ultimate Question is compelling to read. Alright, so I listened to it. Then I went out and bought five more copies for the senior people on my team. This question (and the supporting elements) have already begun to ripple out and have an impact upon our organization. Would you refer us to your friend or family member? It places accountability upon the person being asked at a completely different level. Talk about amping it up.
The second, and in many way more important element, is tracking this effort with the same level of dilligence and seriousness of your accounting or financials. Actually making this a metric you track with results that work their way toward forecasted revenue is huge. It justifies the effort of trying to track it in the first place.
And of course at the end of the day we get to delight our customers which is why most of us started our businesses in the first place. We're learning what we can do better and reacting to it more quickly...probably because we respect the NPS system more than we ever did our customer satisfaction surveys.
I can only imagine how our organization and our work product will be over the long term.
An excellent cornerstone element! |
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U. Jonsson (MSL quote), USA
<2008-03-27 00:00>
I got this book as a member of the word by mouth marketing company, BzzAgent. I started to read it and I got captured and finished 2/3 the first night and the rest the following night. The book deals with the value satisfied customers bring to the company by referrals and also the cost of dissatisfied customers. "How many good things do you need to hear about a dentist for each bad thing you hear before you would go there?"
The book deals with many of the frustrating experiences we all had with cellphone companies, airlines, banks etc when they treat us with unfair junk fees and surcharges.
This is the obvious part but then the author bone this fish further and describes how to implement methods that help improving customer satisfactions and increase the numbers of promoters, how to measure the customer satisfaction in a very effective way. The book is well written and easy to get the core out of. I think it is only worth reading but also a book that could be shared with people at all level in the organization and be given to front line workers that seem to have a clue of what their real job is....
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1 Total 1 pages 5 items |
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