Customer Reviews

Overpromise and Overdeliver: The Secrets of Unshakable Customer Loyalty

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"Under promise and over deliver." That phrase has been around long enough to become a cliché. Cliché concepts get old, unless someone comes along with a radical change and turns the cliché inside out. Enter Rick Barrera, a well-known marketing guru. People like this stretch our thinking, pushing us out of the envelope and tromping on the box in the meantime. If you listen to their messages, you will have difficulty staying "inside the box."

Barrera does not disappoint. Emphasizing "touch points," the intimate contact with the customer that can win-or lose-the day, he demonstrates how companies can go beyond the ordinary and fulfill the expectations they create in the mind of the consumer.

This book is organized into two sections: Overpromise and Underdeliver. The first section engages the reader in a discussion of brand promises, how they drive company growth, and ways that well-framed brand promises differentiate companies in the marketplace. Barrera's educational writing is well-seasoned with recent real-world examples.

In the opening pages of his book, Barrera introduces the concept of touch points-those special, meaningful moments where the customer comes in contact with the company. Three types of TouchPoints (Barrera's spelling) are presented. "Product TouchPoints occur where customers interact with the product or service a company is selling." "Human TouchPoints occur when the customer directly interacts with an organization's people." "System TouchPoints include all other points of contact between a company and its customers." The author explains each type of interaction and his views about their importance. "All three TouchPoints are vital to an organization's success, though to differing degrees. All three require a substantial and continuing investment of funds and managerial energy if they are to do their job properly..." The TouchPoint concept reminded me of Jan Carlson's work with Scandanavian Airlines years ago. Good lessons bear repeating.

The second section concentrates on meeting and exceeding customer expectations with each of the categories of TouchPoints. Two case studies, Washington Mutual Insurance Company and Lexus, illustrate the concepts before a concluding chapter and close into the index at the back of the book.

The book is filled with advice, examples, and inspiration that will be valuable to anyone in marketing today. Beyond this highly appropriate reader group, I would recommend that corporate executives pay careful attention to the book's messages. The concepts will be valuable to recruiters-corporate, college, and military-as well as to educators in all environments. The lessons conveyed in "Over Promise and Over Deliver" will be valuable to many people for many years. This is a book for our times.

Companies identified in Overpromise and Overdeliver are recognizable and well known for providing what the Author defines as TouchPoint Branding. The use of short case studies helps readers understand how and which TouchPoint(s) make each company successful.

What challenged my thinking was how the 3 Touchpoints (product, systems, and human) apply to other elements of business (internal department relationships for example) and personal relationships.

Excellent read to stimulate thinking!

My husband bought this book, and I intended to pick it up just to see what it was about. But once I started reading it I became more and more interested and didn't want to put it down. I found it facinating to read about companies and products that have been successful and WHY! Mr. Barrera examines a broad array of companies, from Southwest Airlines to TiVo to The Container Store, and presents a compelling argument that they all have the same, two prong reason for success: (1) OVERPROMISE, by offering a unique product and (2) OVERDELIVER, by living up to your promise all the time. I found this book extremely interesting and exceedingly accessible to read. I do not have a strong marketing background but Mr. Barrera presents his material so that anyone can take home his message. I think that if you are in retail or marketing or product development or the service industry OR JUST A CONSUMER, you will be enlightened by this book.

The case examples in this book provide compelling reading. In particular, the study of Tivo captivated me. Barrera's principles of Overpromise and Overdeliver make sense. Having a unique selling proposition brings attention to your product and keeping your word inspires loyalty. This book reinforces what most executives know intuitively. I strongly suggest reading Optimal Thinking: How To Be Your Best Self in conjunction with this book to learn how to consistently apply the peak form of thinking that brings these principles to fruition.

I agree with Barrera that customer service will drive many if not most American businesses from now on. The era of cost-cutting that we went through in the 90s is gone, where profitability was driven by becoming lean and mean. This is actually most of what drove the great bull market of the 90s, at least in the non-tech companies, and it even had an effect there too. After the last bear market, the worst since 1929, U.S. companies are about as lean and mean as they're ever going to get. One of the few ways they can increase market share and profitability is to improve customer service. This book looks at a number of outstanding success stories and analyzes how they were able to beat out the competition to establish their own preferred brands. There is a lot of good advice here for both big and small businesses. Increasing and improving customer service is also one way American businesses can stop the exodus of customer service type jobs to countries like India. Also, as a small businessman who started up or worked in several customer service oriented businesses over his career, I can tell you that if someone likes you, they'll tell 5 people, but if they don't like you, they'll tell more like 15-20 people. You can't afford to have that sort of negative word of mouth advertising if you're going to be a success. Barrera's book has some sage advice on how to avoid the pitfalls and how to do things right when it comes to customer service.

Author Rick Barrera presents a credible, reasonably creative perspective on how your business can distinguish itself in a market that is saturated with advertising. The fastest-growing firms, he says, have learned to generate massive consumer buzz by making bountiful promises about their products and then overdelivering on those promises. Do that, he says, and you'll generate a wealth of free promotion as consumers talk with their friends and refer them to you. Barrera's "TouchPoint" system is a useful way to articulate standard business fundamentals that, properly executed, add up to strong customer satisfaction. Although Barrera uses some very good case studies, a few of them are probably a stretch. For instance, the average manager may not learn many lessons from the Blue Man entertainment group. Overall, however, we find that this book and its accompanying CD-ROM are useful references for executives and managers who are responsible for branding and strategic product positioning.

I saw Rick speak at a conference and I got his book shortly after. The content it good. He's right in that creating a series of TouchPoints in your business is necessary. As a marketing consultant working with small businesses, one of the things we talk about is how their current TouchPoints add or take away from their brand.

What this book doesn't do is explain marketing at a higher level. TouchPoints are one way to keep our current customers, but they don't really help us get more customers. For that, I really liked the Rules of Attraction by Mark Deo. Deo goes through and explains the 14 ways to build attraction into a business. TouchPoints are one of the ways, but there are a lot more as well.

We've all heard the slogan, "underpromise and overdeliver"--but Barrera points out that doing so weakens the marketing. It's OK when you already have the customer, but to bring in the business, you must promise the moon--and deliver the moon and stars. The companies that make a bold brand promise, and follow through, are sitting pretty (as I point out in my own book, Principled Profit).

"A true brand promise would describe what the product or service will do for your target audience, how it is different from competing offers, and why a customer should buy it."

Where do you get your core brand promise? From your customers! The better you listen and observe, the more you can understand why people come to you, and how to create an environment that so deeply addresses their issues that they won't want to go anywhere else. This can help you actually reinvent your company in the marketplace.

And look for the hidden failures in other people's brand promises, as in the hair salon owner, faced with another salon's loss-leader, who put out the word that "we fix $6 haircuts."

Whatever you do, avoid at all costs making a brand promise and then failing to deliver. As one example, Barrera cites continuous passenger snickering when dealing with rude and surly employees of the well-known airline that boasts, "Fly the friendly skies."

One of the things I really like about this book is the way it translates specific initiatives to dollars saved and/or revenues earned. It shows the dollars-and-cents value of superior promising, and using "touch points," both human and automated, to deliver--or overdeliver--on those promises.

Shel Horowitz's award-winning sixth book, Principled Profit: Marketing That Puts People First, demonstrates how to build a business around ethics, environmental sustainability, and cooperative practices--and how to develop marketing that highlights those advantages.

I first read Rick's book about a year ago. Since then, I have referred to it on several occasions. The information he offers is applicable now and will be just as valuable as the years progress. I highly recommend this book to those who want to see their companies grow based on the customers' needs, wants, and desires.

The era of cost cutting is gone. Profit and growth must come by delivering outstanding value that brings deep customer loyalty, higher price points, and greater market share.

Rick Barrera provides a coherent roadmap and vivid examples of how focusing on your brand, and especially the employee behaviors that shape it, can bring immediate and lasting bottom line results.

I believe Rick represents the bleeding edge thinking that moves away from viewing brand as logos and images towards viewing brand as an organizing company-wide tool crticial to achieving a company's strategy