books

What's in your library?

I still love to hold and read physical books (as opposed to audible, Kindle, etc.). I don't know how many books I added to my library this year, but it was a lot. I thought I'd share some good ones that I'd recommend you add to your reading list for 2019.

These books are not customer experience books per se - but the outcomes of implementing what you learn in them will certainly lead to better experiences for employees and for customers. Let's dive in.

 After nearly seven years writing this blog, I’ve decided to start work on a book about innovation. While there is certainly no shortage of great innovation books on the market, I feel strongly that the time has come for a different approach and I think there is much I can add to the discussion.

I enjoyed reading Richard Shapiro’s first book: The Welcomer’s Edge. In this book Richard, set out a 3 step model (the greet, the assist, the leave-behind) for making a human connection with customers through every customer interaction.

Customer experience is one of those terms that mean different things to different people. Like “brand,” “marketing,” and “customer centricity,” the understanding and practice of customer experience varies greatly depending on who you ask.

The book: Dare to Serve: How to Drive Superior Results by Serving Others — part memoir, part business school case study, and part leadership inspiration and instruction text.

Each of us has our own favourite stores; we all have those restaurants that we keep going back to. Some restaurateurs and retailers have managed to cultivate our loyalty and we love going to them. We tell our friends about them, we “like” them on Facebook, we gather groups to go to their stores with us.

Here’s my latest Brand Book Bite, a write-up on and interview with the author of a book I recommend for brand-builders:

Ah, summer! Great time to catch up on some reading and learn how to build a brand, do better marketing, run a business, improve yourself, lead effectively, and think differently. Here are nearly 30 recommended business books that I’ve written up and talked with the authors about in my Brand Book Bites. All of the books are worth checking out, but I’ve featured one in each category in case you want a short list.

The book: Organizations in the Face of Crisis: Managing the Brand and Stakeholders — a thorough text on a tough topic

Where do you think that attitude comes from? If attitude is defined as: a manner of thinking, feeling, or behaving that reflects a state of mind or disposition (according to The Free Dictionary), I suppose we need to change the thinking to be: hire for people skills and train for technical skills... or hire for soft skills and train for hard skills.