The Cult of the Customer: Create an Amazing Customer Experience That Turns Satisfied Customers Into Customer Evangelists »

Author Shep Hyken has spent twenty years studying great companies and the evangelists they create. In The Cult of the Customer, Hyken shows you how to design a strategy that leads both customers and employees through five distinct cultural phases—from "uncertainty" to "amazement." By presenting dozens of case studies that show how great companies made this same journey, Hyken identifies the critical internal and external changes that allowed them to build a Cult of the Customer—and shows you how to do it too.

Hyken's message is both powerful and timely: the happier your customers and employees are, the more successful your company will be. The Cult of the Customer is your guide to creating a customer-focused culture that turns satisfied customers into customer evangelists.

Shep Hyken is a speaker and author who helps companies build loyal relationships with customers and employees. He is the author of Moments of Magic and The Loyal Customer, as well as the creator of The Customer Focus program, which helps clients develop a customer service culture and loyalty mindset. His wide variety of clients range from smaller companies to such corporate giants as American Airlines, General Motors, IBM, Kraft, Marriott, Toyota, Verizon, and many more.

No matter what you sell, who you sell it to, or how much (or little) of it you sell, your business revolves around customers. Keeping customers happy, keeping them coming back for more, and keeping them loyal to your brand are the most basic ingredients of business success. The Cult of the Customer shows you how to create the kind of customer experience that leads to endless loyalty and constant referrals.

In today's competitive business climate, you can't just satisfy your customers. You have to be better than that, giving them experiences that they won't forget. You must amaze them with "Moments of Magic" that transform them into customer evangelists—customers who go out of their way to tell the world about you and your business.

Read This First ix

Part 1 The Purpose of Your Business

Chapter 1 The Genie and the Ice Cream Shop 3

Chapter 2 Do You Need This Book? 5

Chapter 3 The Three Forces 19

Part 2 The Five Cults

Chapter 4 Uncertainty 31

Chapter 5 Alignment 43

Chapter 6 Experience 53

Chapter 7 Ownership 63

Chapter 8 Amazement 73

Part 3 The Journey to Amazement

Chapter 9 What the Journey Looks Like from the Inside: The Internal March to Amazement 89

Chapter 10 What the Journey Looks Like from the Outside: The External March to Amazement 105

Chapter 11 Launching the Amazement Revolution 123

Part 4 Amazement in Action

Chapter 12 Little Things: Snapshots of Organizations and People Who Get the Little Things Right 143

Chapter 13 Problem Solving and Recovery: Snapshots of Organizations and People Who Solve Problems and Recover Well 153

Chapter 14 Opportunity Knocks: Organizations and People Who Look for Opportunities to Be Better Than Average 171

Chapter 15 Proactive Service and Follow-Through: Snapshots of Proactive Organizations and People in Action 179

Chapter 16 The Art of Wow: Snapshots of Truly Amazing Organizations and People 189

Part 5 Creating the Cult of the Customer

Chapter 17 Tools for Success 205

Epilogue 227

Notes 231

Acknowledgments 235

About the Author 237

Index 239