Customer Reviews

Loyalty.Com: Customer Relationship Management in the New Era of Internet Marketing

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I had not read any marketing books for a while and I was curious to discover loyalty.com. A study of the impact of the Internet on Customer Relationship Management looked promising. All in all, this book is quite interesting but I expected more. The focus is more on the benefits of CRM than on the impact of the Internet on the field. If you are already convinced that successful companies treat their clients personally and adapt their marketing campaigns to their profiles, you already know the main message of the book. The numerous examples mentioned in the book will confirm what you thought and believed in. What about the Internet? Well, it appears that CRM still relies on old recipes like loyalty cards, call centers and personalized mail. Of course, gathering information about customers visiting a web-site helps and e-mails are a new and cheap way of communication. Finally, CRM seems more appropriate to B2C than B2B. Most examples in the book are companies selling to individuals. The only chapter dealing with B2B is not very detailed. I cannot say that I did not enjoy reading this book even though I did not learn much. Marketing books are often refreshing readings for people not actively involved in sales and marketing. loyalty.com is well written and properly documented. It is a good introduction to CRM.

This superb work clearly shows why customer loyalty cannot be bought but can be earned. The book ties together concepts of customer permission, loyalty programs, and database marketing. The main premise is simple: if a marketer can understand what a customer values and then delights her by giving it to her, when she wants it, in a way she desires it, the results will be amazing. Not only will the customer pay full price, but the marketer can win the customer's loyalty to a depth that cannot be achieved with points programs alone. The relationship will be enriched by the marketer's attention to and action on what the customer thinks is important. Newell gives plenty of anecdotal examples taking into account electronic marketing in both the B2C and B2B spaces, as well as brick and mortar cases.

The book is chock full of examples and anecdotes but really has no new worthwhile conceptualizations or insights to make it worth reading. If you don't know anything about database marketing, then you will get something out of this book. If you are familiar with the basic concepts of customer database analysis, loyalty programs and relationship marketing, there is nothing new here. In fact a much better introduction to all those concepts is The Loyalty Effect by Reichenheld or Customer Connections by Wayland and Cole. The subtitle mentions the dot com world, but the book has little to say about the Internet. The book really does not cover CRMs (as oppsed to database marketing) in that it fails describe how CRM systems work and what database, modeling and communications platforms are required to implement them.

I was looking for a book that would guide me through the maze of CRM but instead I got alot of examples of marketing under the guise of CRM. It wasn't focused enough into this exciting field. The .com was to entice readers, but there really wasn't much new.

I start a lot of business books and am rarely compelled to finish them. But this was different. Very, very well-written with excellent case studies and examples thorough -- for every industry imaginable. From the history, to the practice of CRM today, to the cases, I enjoyed this book and found it very helpful.

Finally, a book on customer relationship management for the web! All this and in a writing style that is easy to understand. This should be at the top of every retailer's reading list.

Having lived through a .com start up, I thoroughly enjoyed this book as it explains how to be a successful one! Everyone who is involved with a .com this should be a must read.

Wow. This book really shook some of my assumptions and prejudices about CRM. I've been consulting for businesses about how to build market share and brand value for sixteen years, but I feel as if I've only just learned how loyalty actually works. I don't think anyone can claim to understand customer relationships until they've read this book. Plus it's clearly, succinctly and memorably written. A real gem, and a must-have for everyone in marketing.

This book is a delightful result of Frederick Newell's recent indoctrination in marketing through the World Wide Web. Newell is an internationally acclaimed professional and part-time academic who specializes in database marketing. He admits in his preface that he's a bit of a "geezer" - because his 1997 book, The New Rules of Marketing, lacked a Web component, which undermined its newness. In an effort to rectify that, he reconciles the impressive database-mining and customer relationship concepts from his earlier book with today's rapidly changing cyber-marketing theories and practices. Newell clearly is excited by what he has belatedly learned about the Web's potential, and provides on-target case studies to support his points. We [...] recommend this book to all marketers - especially to those in retail. Those who are new to Web business will find it particularly useful.

This book is a must have for all business professionals. Newell brightly explains the fundamentals of CRM in an eye opening way, giving the reader lots of valuable points to use in your own business/career.