Building Great Customer Experiences: Revised Edition

A good overview of the “whats” of customer experience (with less of the “hows”). As in the case of their other books, the authors promote their consulting practice and draw many real-life examples therein. Some useful diagrams and paradigms for thinking about customer experience, such as their moment mapping overview and the chapter on multi-channels and moments of contact.

Light on the “hows,” the authors do go over many concepts and even devote a chapter to “measuring the customer experience,” however this largely consists of a diagram showing measurement as a virtuous cycle. In other words, if the reader is looking for more of the “how” of implementation and ongoing management of the customer experience he should probably look elsewhere. Their subsequent book, The DNA of Customer Experience, takes a stab at this with an introduction of the Net Promoter Score (NPS-  Bain product), but even there it is merely proposed as an indicator “that correlates with revenue,” leaving the subject still incomplete. (for more on this subject see the Senteo review of The Ultimate Question 2.0)This book, like the others, also comes across somewhat heavy on the promotion of their services rather than an unbiased explanation of customer experience, which might be better found in authors such as Pine & Gilmore.

This is an updated edition of the bestselling book by Colin Shaw and John Ivens about building and delivering great customer experiences–something far too many companies neglect. The authors show that physical execution and emotional impact of customer experiences may ultimately determine customer satisfaction and loyalty, as well as the commercial success of companies and brands. With the use of compelling examples and cases, the authors show that this is crucial for all companies and organizations. In this revised edition, they demonstrate that the customer experience has now become central to the agenda for many companies and organizations.

As stated above, the book provides a useful overview of customer experience and key issues of defining and understanding it within the organization. The “7 Philosophies” provide a useful framework for what the reader needs to look for when identifying and building the customer experience. The section on moment mapping and moments of contact/multi-channels are useful paradigms for understanding the concept.