I love you more than my dog: five decisions that drive extreme customer loyalty in good times and bad

The book identifies a number of key components of relationship centricity through each of the five decisions companies make in regards to both customers and company culture. There are examples that range from single-store companies to huge corporations like Apple and Southwest Airlines. Not only does the book discuss retail operations, but it discusses online sales, the healthcare industry, and financial institutions which typically are not customer oriented. As a leader for customer experience and loyalty in many companies, the author provides firsthand insight on the rationale companies have behind different loyalty strategies.

While the book does discuss how companies have established behaviors that connect the business with the customer, it does not identify methods of customizing the experience for the customer. Instead, it highlights success stories that target the entire customer base as a whole while omitting examples of failures. Readers would benefit from books researching and analyzing the topic further, such as The Experience Economy, that outline the concepts and how they affect the customer relationship.

Lots of businesses are respected, but only an elite few have passionate, loyal, vocal fans. The kind of customers who not only come back time and time again, but rave to friends, family, and even strangers. The kind who can drive explosive growth via e-mail, blogs, Facebook, and Twitter. Jeanne Bliss is an expert on what it takes to earn that kind of customer.

Bliss has studied and worked with many beloved companies, from longtime successes like Wegmans and Harley-Davidson to relatively new companies like Zappos and The Container Store. They all make the same five fundamental choices. Their reward: an army of fans who say things like, “I’d marry them if I could,” and “I love you more than my dog!”

The book cites many examples of how to engage the customer and establish a relationship through business operations and customer interaction. The five decisions represent a framework for establishing a corporate culture centered upon customer and relationship centricity. Given that it presents a framework, the actual application of the concepts can be customized to suit the company in question.