The Customer of the Future: 10 Guiding Principles for Winning Tomorrow’s Business—Blake Morgan
[A note to my review readers: The Customer of the Future is a traditionally published book from HarperCollins. I typically focus on self-publishing authors for my reviews, but occasionally I like to throw in a conventionally published work.]
The Customer of the Future: 10 Guiding Principles for Winning Tomorrow’s Business by Blake Morgan is an excellent read for sales- and service-oriented businesses seeking to update their marketing strategies. It focuses on how to grow your business based on strategies involving the customer relationship.
The book provides detailed methods business leaders can learn from companies that thrive in the market today. Case studies from companies like Amazon and Sephora help illustrate and demonstrate the successful impacts of the tactics Morgan outlines in her book.
Morgan separates the book into ten chapters, each covering a different aspect of the way successful businesses use new technology to change the way they interact with customers. Examples from real-world successes help drive home the effectiveness of each strategy.
Sections are clear in what they will cover. Each of Morgan’s chapters open and close with a comfortable bracketing effect so you know you’ve finished with one topic and are moving on to the next. The general structure of the book is sound and easy to follow, allowing the reader to absorb information at a pace that matches the target audience’s fast-paced life.
Morgan seeks to impress upon business leaders the importance of thinking forward when it comes to customer experience. She makes it clear that the mindset toward customer and employee relationships must change. Businesses must successfully integrate into society’s forward-thinking model of customer experience over product sales. Interesting interviews and quotes interweave with valuable information about each topic.
The book is heavily laden with acronyms like “CFO,” “CTO,” and “C-level,” which was confusing at times. Some of the terms are such a part of the common vernacular that a layperson won’t have trouble keeping up. Others are only explained once in a long-ago chapter. They are repeated without any reminder of what the terms mean. Business leaders reading this book will have no problem with the jargon. Still, a more casual reader would benefit from reminders of what leadership role is being referenced.
I like Morgan’s down-to-earth style. Information is given in a matter-of-fact way that is still interesting and easy to enjoy. The content isn’t dry and dull. Her book focuses on how the reader is experiencing the information presented, rather than merely presenting it. Morgan is clearly following these strategies herself.
If you’re an enterprising entrepreneur (which includes self-publishers!), check out Blake Morgan’s The Customer of the Future for insights about the future of business.
Until next time,
Jenna
Jenna Justice is a fiction editor and proofreader for independent authors. She specializes in middle-grade and young adult fiction, with an emphasis on fantasy, sci-fi, and magical realism.
Visit Jenna’s website at Justice Serves Proofreading, and say hi on Twitter at @justice_proofs.