Customer Chemistry: How to Keep the Customers You Want--And Say Good-Bye to the Ones You Don't [Hardcover]

Mary Naylor (Author), Susan Greco (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 2002

This book explains a proven program for identifying - and focusing on - your best customers. It's the classic business paradox. You know you could get more business from your best customers, yet you devote the majority of your resources to pursuing the wrong prospects and demanding, unprofitable customers. "Customer Chemistry" introduces an innovative approach for identifying your best customers, then presents a systematic program for focusing on them to strengthen and benefit from your relationships with them - and increase your incremental profits!'Backed by first-hand experience and rich case studies, this book is packed with the best practices and strategies to educate start-up and CEO alike' - Don Peppers and Martha Rogers, Ph.D., Founders, Peppers and Rogers Group, authors of "The One to One Future" and "One to One B2B". 'Simple rules - with lots of examples - that reap big results. A mind-changing book that could just save your company' - Nancy Evans, Cofounder and Editor-in-Chief, "iVillage".' Many companies are clueless about the importance of chemistry but, after reading this remarkable book, they'll see their new wisdom reflected in their cash flow' - Jay Conrad Levinson, author of the "Guerrilla Marketing" series. 'The vast majority of businesses and other organizations are still fixated on selling their commodities, while ignoring their customers as human beings. Mary Naylor and Susan Greco provide an ideal model for developing long-range customer loyalty' - Dan Sullivan, President, The Strategic Coach. '"Customer Chemistry" is ...an honest and inspiring must-read for anyone whose business success depends on keeping customers happy' - Mario Morino, Chairman, Morino Institute.'"Customer Chemistry" nails the concept of what it takes to maintain and cultivate customer relationships and maximize their value." - Harry L. Geller, President and CEO, "Deutsche Post". 'The truth is many companies - let's venture to say most companies - don't know who their best customers are. They may not have a clue which ones consistently contribute to the company's net profits or which bring the most referral business...If you don't know who your customers are, how can you possibly have any kind of relationship with them? ' - From Chapter 1."Customer Chemistry" turns conventional marketing wisdom on its head. While most marketing books focus on pursuing and landing every possible new customer, this profit-focused book shows you how to identify your A-list customers and strengthen relationships with them - instead of wasting time and money on high-maintenance, low-margin, B-list clients. Before you begin, however, you must answer two fundamental, yet occasionally painful, customer questions: Which customers have made you the most money? Which consistently promise you the moon but fail to deliver? "Customer Chemistry" shows you how to uncover and focus on the former as you recognize and discount the latter, tightening your entire marketing and customer relationship program.Written by a seasoned chronicler of today's top customer relationship innovators, along with the founder of one such organization, this fascinating book transcends marketing initiatives to explain how you can: sidestep emotion to calculate each customer's impact on your bottom line and then allocate your resources accordingly; develop meaningful bonds with customers that lead to greater satisfaction and increased referrals; and, reject one-size-fits-all prospecting formats in favor of individualized plans tailored to the needs of key prospects. "Customer Chemistry" shows you how to recognize and reward your best customers - just as you do your best employees - and gently but firmly discard your worst. From a clear-eyed customer review process to techniques for reviewing and renewing constantly changing aspects of customer chemistry, it outlines a step-by-step process for taking the customer relationship from the initial courtship phase to a deeper professional friendship, rooted in respect and shared interests but based on achieving your bottom-line financial goals.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Mary Naylor is the founder and CEO of Capitol Concierge, listed by Inc magazine as one of the nation's fastest-growing companies, and of VIPdesk, the leading provider of "live" Web-based concierge services. She is a top expert and lecturer on relationship marketing and customer profitability. Susan Greco is senior writer for Inc. Through her regular coverage of America's fastest growing companies and contributions to "The Whole New Business Catalog" column, she is well-versed on today's most innovative sales and marketing practices.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill Companies (March 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0658001442
• ISBN-13: 978-0658001444
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,128,481 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Essential Insight for Any Marketing Professional, June 16, 2002

By 

Michael Lowenstein (Collingswood, New Jersey USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Customer Chemistry: How to Keep the Customers You Want--And Say Good-Bye to the Ones You Don't (Hardcover)

I can always tell how useful and informative I consider a book by how much page dog-earing, highlighting and underlining
I've done. This book looks like it has been through a major battle.

So many things impressed me. On page 111, for example, they give a 'top of mind' marketing success story for a mortgage lender. This is an industry that loses two-thirds to three-quarters of its borrowers when they refinance or take out a new mortgage. Creating programmatic value for borrowers should be at the top of their agenda; but the industry is tough to budge from their old, reactive forms of relationship. They tend to see themselves solely as bankers, order-takers. Susan and Mary offer an example of a concrete, creative way to both have customer involvement and generate valuable customer insight.

On page 157, they do a succinct, focused job of presenting Customer Life Cycle as a concept. Applying life-cycle to customer relationships is a platform in everything I write about and do for my clients, so I was really glad to see it in their book.

I'm particularly interested in how they recommend generating customer data, as well as storing and applying it. While, based on my background, I have pretty strong views on market research as a tactical and strategic tool(which differs somewhat from their opinions and experiences), I appreciate their methods for contacting and debriefing customers in Chapters 4 and 8.

Bottom line: Customer Chemistry is crisp, professional and easy to read

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Customer Chemistry Has The Winning Formula, April 28, 2002

By 

Craig Rhinehart (Leesburg, VA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Customer Chemistry: How to Keep the Customers You Want--And Say Good-Bye to the Ones You Don't (Hardcover)

Mary and Susan really have found the winning formula for maximizing business relationships. The book is loaded with valuable advice and techniques all designed to reach, keep and expand your relationships with your best customers. The book even has actual forms and plans that Mary uses in her businesses -- which obviously work. I found the ratings systems to be particularily useful. Keep this book close to your desk, you'll be referring to it often. I made many notations as I read it.