I Love You More Than My Dog: Five Decisions That Drive Extreme Customer Loyalty in Good Times and Bad. Jeanne Bliss. Portfolio. 198 pages.

If advertising is becoming increasingly diffuse and ineffective, and marketing has to go into stealth mode to have any effect, how the heck do you promote your business? Maybe by doing what you're supposed to do in the first place: taking care of your customers.

During the last century, I had a management gig at a wildly dysfunctional production house. It was a bizarre experience that had all the makings of an HBO comedy series (outline and treatment available upon request). I was struck by how they burned through customers, with little regard to building relationships by over-delivering -- or just delivering -- on promises and expectations.

This scorched-earth policy was extremely bad business given the cost of client acquisition versus retention. Whenever I grabbed the phone and tried to soothe a seething customer by listening to their concerns and providing solutions, they were palpably astonished and grateful just to be treated like human beings. It was a great (and thankfully brief) lesson.

Bliss began at Land's End, the Wisconsin-based mail order (later online) clothier renowned for superior customer service. She writes effusively of her experiences there and how management treated its employees extravagantly well, which sent a message that soon spread to its customers. Now, Land's End is considered the paradigm of consumer service, engendering fanatical and devout buyer loyalty, which also made the company an extremely profitable enterprise.

In addition, Bliss writes of other companies that decided to listen closely to their customers and bond with them by providing what they want and need in a manner that transcends the typical anonymous and soulless commercial transaction. It's not a matter of being obsequious or touchy-feely; of course the goods and services need to be of superior quality. But managing the experience surrounding the selection and purchase of the product can elevate the exchange into something more than a sale. This transcendence is nice, but the loyalty that results can often transform a business into something much more -- a cult, even.

What's required, Bliss says, is a series of decisions involving belief, clarity of purpose, ``being real,'' ``being there'' and a willingness to say ``sorry,'' if and when necessary.

When companies embrace these elements, amazing things happen, she writes. Like the town that asked specialty grocer Trader Joe's to open a store in their area and when the retailer demurred, the mayor presented them with a petition signed by thousands of its residents. Also recounted is Zappo's, the online shoe retailer, recently acquired by Amazon, that famously offers new hires a $2,000 spiff to leave their jobs to weed out those who don't buy into the company culture. The reaction of Old School drug company Johnson & Johnson to the Tylenol poisoning incident is also cited as an example of a firm whose commitment to customers required a leap of faith that ultimately paid off in enhanced reputation and revenues.

Consumers complain about having their service issues handled by phone personnel in foreign lands whose expertise -- let alone their command of English -- is questionable. This is a problem for companies that view service as an expense rather than an opportunity to promote and catalyze loyalty. But those that recognize and embrace the prospect of turning a customer into a fan are profiting richly from the experience.

To receive business book reviews by e-mail or join the Business Monday Book Club, e-mail Richard Pachter at rap@richardpachter.com. To read more of Pachter's musings, go to www.richardpachter.com and follow him on Twitter @rpachter.

Join the discussion

The Miami Herald is pleased to provide this opportunity to share information, experiences and observations about what's in the news. Some of the comments may be reprinted elsewhere in the site or in the newspaper. We encourage lively, open debate on the issues of the day, and ask that you refrain from profanity, hate speech, personal comments and remarks that are off point. In order to post comments, you must be a registered user of MiamiHerald.com. Your username will show along with the comments you post. Thank you for taking the time to offer your thoughts.

     Showing: Oldest first Newest first Most-recommended first Least-recommended first

@Nyx.AuthorDisplayName@ wrote on @Nyx.PostedAtTime@:

@Nyx.repliedToText@

@Nyx.replyAnswerText@

Reply to this Comment @Nyx.Recommender@ @Nyx.AbuseReporter@