WebWord.com > Reports > Book Review: Customers.com (15-May-99)

Book Review: Customers.com

by John S. Rhodes
15-May-99

I’ve been searching for a good book about how business practices need to change in response to the Internet onslaught. I’ve read several technology books, but they tend to neglect the necessary and immediate changes needed in many businesses. And, I’ve read plenty of business books, but they tend to overlook the importance of various Internet technologies and opportunities. It is painfully obvious that there are few books available that successfully merge both the technological opportunities of the Internet and effective business practices. In fact, until recently, I would not in good conscience recommend any Internet oriented business books to my friends or colleagues. Fortunately, Customers.com was able to change my negative attitude.

Patricia B. Seybold had been a name I’d heard. I had some vague knowledge of her consulting work and seminars. I guess that this was enough to get me to purchase her book. Completely on a whim, I decided to throw Customers.com into my shopping cart, after I decided to buy several books on JavaScript, Perl, usability, and general web design. So, my purchase of the book was purely a matter of serendipity. However, like all great and interesting discoveries, this was the best book of the entire lot. I learned an incredible amount about technology management and effective business strategy in this book.

Her book, written with the aid of Ronni T. Marshak, is a great introduction to the way business is being conducted now by several powerful and profitable companies. Patricia Seybold provides a vision of how business via the Internet is being be conducted now and how it will be conducted into the future. The core focus, as the title vaguely implies, is all about focusing on your customers. The key is usability (although she doesn’t use this word). If sounds like old news to you, then I think you’re absolutely right. However, and this is important, knowing your customers is not just about conducting market analyses. And it isn’t only about reading your sales reports. The Internet has fundamentally changed the way that you can interact and serve your customers.

Now let’s get to the details. Customers.com is a solid book because it takes an approach that many businesses don’t like. The approach is to focus on the customer. Everywhere and always. This core idea, to create and recreate a business for the customer, is very hard to accept. It is much to easier to focus on the internal machinations of a company. When problems are addressed in many companies, they are internal problems, not the problems that customers care about. Customers don’t care about your accounting system, they don’t care about your commission structure, they don’t care about what server software you use. Customers want their problems solved.

Customers.com is a roadmap to success. Patricia Seybold spends the first 80 pages of the book on the Five Steps to Success in Electronic Commerce:

1. Make It Easy for Customers to Do Business with You

2. Focus on the End Customer for Your Products and Services

3. Redesign Your Customer-Facing Business Processes from the End Customers Point of View

4. Wire Your Company for Profit: Design a Comprehensive, Evolving Electronic Business Architecture

5. Foster Customer Loyalty, the Key to Profitability in Electronic Commerce

With these concepts in your back pocket, more than 260 pages of the book are dedicated to profiling 16 highly effective companies. These are excellent and useful case studies of companies such as Dell, Amazon, Wells Fargo, Dow Jones, Boeing, Cisco Systems, and Hertz. Each case study offers a concise picture of useful several Internet-driven business practices, which are labeled as "critical success factors". Importantly, each case also was supplemented with information about the technology behind the scenes with specific references to software, hardware, and general networking technologies. These definitely could have been more detailed, but they nevertheless point you in the right direction.

There are some limitations with this book. I do highly recommend it to those people that need to get a global understanding of doing business using Internet technologies. And, for folks that need to get an understanding of customers’ real needs, this is a must buy. However, if you need nuts and bolts advice you aren’t going to get it. You won’t be able to suddenly make great technology choices. Sorry, but you’ll still need to do your homework and you’ll still need to find out for yourself how various products solve your problems. This is a limitation, but it is very reasonable in my opinion.

[Addition 19-May-99: According to Stephen Wands, Senior Marketing Manager at the Patricia Seybold Group, they do offer strategic planning services to clients. These are subscription-based research services targeted at companies who are serious about doing business in the highly competitive e-business world. - John, WebWord.com Editor]

The other limitation of the book is that it is very difficult to know what to do next. You read the book and then you scratch your head. There are many ideas and it is hard to get them to come together. At the end of the book there is some advice about tackling this challenge. But, a specific battle plan is not available. The accompanying web site, with the same name as the book, is rather useful and it does address this general concern. I do wish it was a bit less commercial though. However, this really isn't a fair criticism since the book is not meant to give you the details. That requires knowledge of your business, and your goals.

[Addition 19-May-99: According to Stephen Wands, Senior Marketing Manager at the Patricia Seybold Group, a Free Handbook is available for developing a battle plan. The handbook is for those who want to take the next step and implement the Customers.com philosophy. Stephen guaranteed me that this document is not some "marketing fluff piece" but a thorough guide that contains the information you need to take the next steps. I signed up for the handbook, but didn't like that I had to divulge so much personal information - John]

All in all, you can’t go wrong with this book if you want to know how your company should be using the Internet. If you want a broad view of the usefulness of Internet technology and of user-centered business design, then this is your book.

Quick rating (1=horrible, 10=outstanding):

Readability 9
Originality 9
Organization 8
Accuracy 9
Consistency 7
Depth 8
Timeliness 10
Editing 9
Design 9
Overall Value 9

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Setting the Stage

Part One: Five Steps to Success in Electronic Commerce

How to Create a Profitable Electronic Business Strategy

Step 1: Make It Easy for Customers to Do Business with You

Step 2: Focus on the End Customer for Your Products and Services

Step 3: Redesign Your Customer-Facing Business Processes from the End Customers Point of View

Step 4: Wire Your Company for Profit: Design a Comprehensive, Evolving Electronic Business Architecture

Step 5:Foster Customer Loyalty, the Key to Profitability in Electronic Commerce

Part Two: Eight Critical Success Factors and Case Studies

How to Assimilate the Critical Success Factors and Case Studies

CSF 1: Target the Right Customers

American Airlines

National Semiconductor

Lessons Learned

CSF 2: Own the Customer’s Total Experience

Hertz

Amazon.com

Lessons Learned

CSF 3: Streamline Business Practices That Impact the Customer

Babson College

National Science Foundation

Lessons Learned

CSF 4: Provide a 360-Degree View of the Customer Relationship

Bell Atlantic

Wells Fargo

Lessons Learned

CSF 5: Let Customers Help Themselves

Dell Computer

iPrint

Lessons Learned

CSF 6: Help Customers Do Their Job

Boeing

PhotoDisc

Lessons Learned

CSF 7: Deliver Personalized Service

Dow Jones

General Motors

Lessons Learned

CSF 8: Foster Community

Cisco Systems

Tripod

Lessons Learned

Synthesis of Best Practices: Next Steps

Index

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