Customer Reviews

The Customer-Centered Enterprise: How IBM and Other World-Class Companies Achieve Extraordinary Results by Putting Customers First

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Mr. Thompson has developed a framwork that is a formula for success in the new century. His principles call for developing a clear understanding of your high-value customers and then aligning all processes and infrastructures in order to deliver value at each interaction. Not only does he define what to do, but each chapter concludes with a management discussion on how to operationalize the principles.

As a Management Consultant, I provided a copy of this book to an Executive Vice President of a top 5 US financial institution. She was so impressed with the book that she ordered copies for each member of her senior leadership team. Better still, this team is committed to using this roadmap to differentiate the company in the marketplace.

The book is well-organized, full of real-world examples and actionable. It has immediate application in any area that is charged with driving significant organizational results - marketing, finance, information technology, etc.

The person with the cash in hand is the real boss, according to Harvey Thompson, proponent of Customer Value Management (CVM). You can make your company more customer-driven using CVM, which he developed at IBM and then implemented at other U.S. and international companies. Thompson identifies the customer's vision of ideal value, and tells businesses to use that as their guiding star. If you can integrate the best customer value in every system, your company can retain customers, sell more and increase profits. This is not a new theme, but Thompson takes it a little deeper than most as he discusses ways to strategically incorporate CVM, from top management to the front desk. If we were telling him about his reading customers, we'd ask him to shake some dust off the dense, academic language, but otherwise we... recommend to most business leaders this solid book about strategic customer management.

Mr. Thompson really shows us the whole meaning of Customer Value, teaching about the linkages between customer targeting, process, organization and technology. The way he drives us in the real world while he focus on what is important (high ROI) and what is less important, is a very valuable driver to the correct use of the scarce resources (human, assets and dollars) to sustain and growth the business dramatically. This metholodogy, applied with success in IBM and in many other companies around the world, demostrates that is not a mere theory but a real life experience. Strongly recommended to be used as an educational material and as a base in a your methodological project approach. World class reading.

Companies have known for years that customer loyalty is key to their success, but the way to foster that loyalty has perhaps been missed. By shifting management's focus away from internal issues and onto the customer's desires and concerns, Thompson has given businesses not only a way to survive, but to thrive in rapidly changing times. The anecdotal information about IBM is fascinating and timely. When it seems all else about the business world is changing, Thompson has hit on the one stable premise: make the customer happy and he or she will be back. Highly recommended for any businessperson interested in their company's success, and their success in the company.

A very solidly written look at the Customer Value Management system-- complete with explanation, examples, and exercises that can be applied by the reader. Thompson makes the critical and, in my experience, all-too-misunderstood point that while using customer input in product development has long been a fact within companies, positioning the things a customer values at the center of developing services and processes is not standard in most industries. And it should be.

The distinction in the Kano framework between basic expectations, satisfiers, and attractors is very well explained here and put in the kind of way that should make consultants and managers alike understand its relevance to their clients and companies. I've far too often seen clients trying to overperform on aspects of service where they just should be looking for parity and the requirements of most projects do not have a good way of seeing the difference between what their customers find simply nice to have and between the aspects of service that will truly drive the decision to buy from or remain a customer of the company in question.

Highly recommended.

Customers can get just about any product they want from a choice of producers at about the same price. The days in which you could compete for customers by price or uniqueness of product are over. If you want to be able to distinguish yourself from your competitors, you will need to do so by offering superior service, by giving the customer exactly what he wants, when he wants it.

To do this, your organization will need to become customer-centered. Harvey Thompson outlines a step-by-step process called Customer Value Management (CVM), to organize your company around the needs of your customers. CVM requires you to take an outside-in (instead of an internally driven) perspective of what the customer wants. To do this you must be able to identify:
· What the customer gets out of interactions with your company
· The minimum value needed to retain customers
· The optimal value level the customer imagines
· The customer's vision of the ideal company, delivering ideal value

The steps needed to implement Customer Value Management are:
1. Visioning: Let customers set the goals. Traditional management starts with where you want to be and how to get there. However, these are your objectives, not your customers'.
2. Focus: Listen to the right customers. Market to desirable market segments, instead of trying to be all things to all customers.
3. Scope: Focus on improving the interactions with the customer that will have the most impact on retention and growth.
4. Value: Keep tabs on customer expectations of value, so that you can exceed them whenever possible.
5. Prioritization: Make investment decisions based on buying behavior. Know which customer needs will boost your bottom-line.
6. Design: Align your infrastructure and capabilities to meet customer needs.
7. Implementation and Maintenance: Take a holistic approach, incorporating customer-centeredness into your company's values, vision and mission.