The Customer-Driven Company: Moving from Talk to Action [Paperback]

R. C. Whiteley (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: 1991

Rated by Fortune Magazine as one of the best management books of 1991, this instant business classic and bestseller is now recognized as the Bible of customer service.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Whiteley, vice president of the Forum Corporation, has based his book on Forum's research with 563 top executives in 44 different organizations. He seeks to provide managers with a step-by-step method for investigating, measuring, promoting, and rewarding product and service excellence that can lead to real customer loyalty. He first identifies the essential ingredients necessary to establish a customer-driven company such as creating a customer-keeping vision, saturating your company with the voice of the customer, etc. Whiteley then provides a set of "toolkits" to enable managers to identify how well their company is doing in the areas identified. A timely work, well organized and presented. Recommended for all business collections.
- Michael D. Kathman, St. John's Univ., Collegeville, Minn.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Richard C. Whiteley, one of the world’s most sought-after speakers on the subject of customer service, is Vice Chairman and cofounder of The Forum Corporation, America’s leading experts on customer-focused quality.

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Perseus Books (1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0201608138
• ISBN-13: 978-0201608137
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #466,214 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A readable book on how to become a customer-driven company., January 6, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Customer-Driven Company: Moving from Talk to Action (Paperback)

The last quote in this book says it best, so let's start with that. According to retailing legend Stanley Marcus of Neiman-Marcus: "There are only two things of importance. One is the customer, and the other is the product. If you take care of customers, they come back. If you take care of your product, it doesn't come back. It's just that simple. And it's just that difficult." Richard C. Whiteley, co-founder of The Forum Corporation, a leading consulting group that works with companies on customer-focussed quality issues, has written a readable, relatively basic (that doesn't necessarily translate to simple) book on how to become a customer-driven company. Based on five years of research conducted by his company, the book reviews such maxims as "Saturate your company with the voice of the customer," and "communicate your vision constantly." While there is nothing particularly new about what Whiteley reports, he carefully catalogs the process of determining what customers want and how to give it to them. In so doing, he leads the reader along the customer's path, and provides insightful points to ponder. What's interesting about this book is the duality of the material presented. Of the roughly 300 pages in this book, one-third is an extensive appendix filled with various customer surveys, and explanations of other research tools. Need to create a histogram? No problem, it's in this book, as are explanations on force field analyses, process mapping and tracking and more. While informative as a reference tool, this last third is starkly different from the main text, which covers the message in a basic, quick-read way. In any case, reading both parts will give you a full sense of the customer-driven movement and some how-to's to begin the journey.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Should be required reading for any business manager., February 1, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Customer-Driven Company: Moving from Talk to Action (Paperback)

Simple, interesting, focused. Whiteley hits at some of the 'sacred cows' of business and challenges managers/leaders to change all that is not in the customers' best interest. Could start a revolution in 'cost-centered', narrow-minded corporations.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very practical, worthwhile to read, October 14, 2001

By 

Au Cheuk Yin (Marketing Department of City University in Hong Kong) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Customer-Driven Company: Moving from Talk to Action (Paperback)

This book is very worthwhile to read. It tells us
how important customer is. If a business only concerns
about its own product quality without placing a high
emphasis on their services to customers, that business
will not be able to success.

The book is especially useful for businessmen. It provides
7 imperatives for being a customer driven company. There
are also toolkits provided which help guiding businessmen
how to do in reality.