Book Review: “How to Win Customers and Keep Them for Life” by Michael LeBoeuf

“How to Win Customers and Keep Them for Life” by Michael LeBoeuf was a great business read with a lot of application for a church with a passion to create environments where people who are curious about Jesus will explore and want to return

My Top 10 Takeaways:

1. The rewarded customer buys, multiplies, and comes back.
2. After seeing a very knowledgeable sales agent in action get turned down for a sale, the very passionate owner of the business with slightly less expertise, stepped in and got the sale. The reason? People are far more persuaded by the depth of your beliefs and emotions than any amount of logic or knowledge you posses. While I don’t hold that as a law, I certainly find value in that statement. Truth that has impacted your brain and your heart will cause you to be passionate. People respond to that kind of truth.
3. Use problems as opportunities to demonstrate just what great service your company gives.
4. Excellent service isn’t the result of doing any one thing 1,000% better. It’s the result of doing thousands of things 1% better.
5. “You get more of the behavior you reward.” I’m convinced this is why a lot of churches fail…because subtle relational manipulation is rewarded instead of an undying, unflinching devotion to the mission of Jesus.
6. How customers get treated is a direct reflection of how management is treating employees.
7. Nothing is more confusing than people who give good advice but set bad examples.
8. Organize the business around the customer. MY NOTE: It is not the job of the church to have high customer service if the customer is the regular church attender/member. But, if the customer is the community, we have to bend over backwards in posturing ourselves with a bias toward our community.
9. Get out of the office and find out what’s happening. Doing life in community with people is one of my favorite things about the Church. Getting so busy in administrating the church is to get away from the calling of the church.
10. Think long term and keep the big picture in mind. George Bernard Shaw said, “When I was young, I observed that 9 out of 10 things I did were failures, so I did ten times more work.”