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Customer Is King: How to Exceed Their Expectations (Virgin Business Guides) Kindle Edition

4.3 out of 5 stars 13 ratings

Updated eBook edition

What happens to your customers when you do business with them? Customer is King helps you to approach the problem from the point of view of the clients and work towards the level of customer satisfaction that makes them come back to you again and again.
Practical and packed full of easy-to-understand advice, you'll find:
* checklists and worksheets
* case studies of real businesses
* frequently asked questions

Product description

From the Publisher

One of the more successful titles in the Virgin Business Guides is Robert Craven’s first title, KICK-START YOUR BUSINESS. He has a hands-on, practical approach to making businesses succeed and in this latest book shows a passionate concern for that least-understood area of the businessman’s armoury – marketing, and its role in the relationship between businessman and customer. Robert’s advice and examples show the reader how to initiate their own ways of improving their relationships with their customers – without having to undertake vastly expensive marketing drives.
Of KICK-START, the Independent newspaper said: ‘This is the book for you ... inspirational Stuff.’

About the Author

Mentor and consultant Robert Craven has worked on the Marketing Council's Grow with Marketing' programme to develop materials for business advisers and their clients. His booki Kick-Start Your Business is aslo published by Virgin.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00755HVI2
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Virgin Digital; New Ed edition (29 Feb. 2012)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 1.1 MB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 240 pages
  • Customer reviews:
    4.3 out of 5 stars 13 ratings

About the author

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Robert Craven
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Robert is one of the UK's best-known and sought-after speakers on entrepreneurship and innovation.

He is not full of theoretical rhetoric; he offers practical solutions - tangible business results.

Robert's work on marketing and strategy has been widely published and acted upon by thousands of growing businesses.

Robert has not one but two areas of international expertise:

He is the go-to expert on growing digital agency businesses – in Q4 of 2016 he spoke to over 4,000 agencies from Sarajevo to Singapore, Athens to Amsterdam

He is the go-to expert for planning and creating results in your business and your personal life with the launch of the acclaimed CheckIn Strategy Journal

A first-class, international Keynote business speaker, author and business growth consultant who enthusiastically shares his ‘free of nonsense’ approach with his audiences.

Testimonials

"… fundamental in improving our understanding of what it really takes to set up and run a business. In particular, it was great to see the customer satisfaction scores improve materially."

Jerry Blackett, Sales and Performance Director, Barclays Bank plc

“His animated action-packed style demands participation. Robert does not give his audience the option of sitting back and merely reflecting.”

Professor David Storey, Warwick Business School

“Robert Craven says that ‘your whole business hinges on what your customer gets from you’. I wholeheartedly agree.”

Sir Richard Branson

“One of the UK’s best-known and sought after speakers on entrepreneurship; anyone who has experienced one of his impactive presentations will know exactly why.”

Professional Consultancy Magazine

“… will turn your business into a powerhouse.”

Sir Richard Branson

“The Entrepreneurship Guru.”

Financial Times

“Inspirational Stuff.”

Christopher Browne, The Independent

Robert has worked on designing and implementing business strategy and marketing projects with household names such as Virgin, Barclays and BlackBerry and has contributed to success stories such as Nando’s, Mitie and Dickies.

Setting up and running his first business, age 21, and now advising PLCs and multinationals, Robert has seen almost every aspect of running and growing a business.

He now specialises in working with digital agencies but also uses this expertise to spread his message (“how to design and get the results you want in your business and personal life”) to all types of business audiences.

His books have been described as 'truly inspirational' by The Independent.

Robert Craven

rc@directorscentre.com www.robert-craven.com +44 (0)1225 851044

Customer reviews

4.3 out of 5 stars
13 global ratings

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Top reviews from United Kingdom

  • Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 15 December 2015
    Excellent, perfect background reading. www.homeopathy-heals.com
    One person found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 19 January 2013
    It was a good reminder, but did not uncover any earth shattering new ideas. I would be unlikely to read again and with other books I have earmarked pages to refer back to.
    One person found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 16 June 2007
    Customer is King How to exceed their expectations By Robert craven

    I am a voracious consumer of business books. The problem is there is a lot of them. The market is massive so the publishers like to keep producing them. Similar to self help books they can become addictive. The answer to "what do you do after you have read a self help book ?"is

    "Read another one."

    Some are "look at me how clever I am having left school at 15 with no education and now I am a millionaire many times over. If I can do it so can you. The only reason that you are not a success like me is that you are too lazy. I may not be clever but I can work hard. " These are more like novels and can be interesting if the business man concerned has something to impart and appears to have an endearing personality.

    Others are more like manuals or how to do it.

    Do any of them work . I doubt it as the television shows people trying to start businesses without the first clue of a plan or trying to make a business pitch without any prior preparation.

    I know a couple of people who have read all the books ,know all the theory of business but have never ever run one for themselves and are afraid to start one. If you read all the books you can convince yourself that it is not the right time or place to start a business. In any event you need a USP, unique selling proposition. All you need is to start now and copy someone else's winning formula.

    None of the recent crop of British businessmen have actually invented anything. They have just stuck at a well worn formula and made money.

    I read them for two reasons

    1 will I learn even one small thing from the whole book that might give me a good business idea

    2 I would like to write one.

    This one is written by a mentor and consultant Robert Craven according to the jacket. He may or may not have run his own business. Usually when these authors have run businesses they are usually marketing companies not "real" companies.

    Marketing is a great subject to talk about as it is so imprecise that anyone can be an expert at it.It is like advertising no one really knows what works for your business but there are plenty of people out there who are prepared to accept fees to tell you what the answer is.

    The book is divided into three sections and 28 chapters.

    A lot of it is the blindingly obvious such as Put your customer first. under why marketing sometimes fails and one of the five reasons marketing fails is lack of commitment.

    Understand what people want. In my profession ( the law) many practitioners come out with cliches such as to what the customer wants without any real idea if it is true. Recently I spoke to an estate agent who could give me work and our theory that agents wanted solicitors who would get them to their commission fees as quickly as possible didn't register at all.

    They wanted me to give them commission !

    Chapter seven Is there a secret of customer service?

    Their answer is good service is very hard to do and treat the customer as you would like to be treated yourself .

    Chapter 8 Take on the mindset of the market leader.

    That is learn from the best Again in my job the market leaders are easy to deal with but the also rans are hard work.

    Chapter 10 Working the law of the vital few

    This reminds us of Pareto principle that is the 80/20 rule .

    20 per cent of inputs cause eighty percent so outputs. That is concentrate on what produces the results.

    I applied this a few years ago and cut down on too many areas of unprofitable work which in turn doubled my profits.

    Why customers quit

    10% are chronic complainers

    68% go elsewhere because the people who serve them are indifferent to their needs; they just don't car

    Chapter 17 The seven Point customer King Plan

    1 Redefine your business as a problem solver

    2 Understand the real scope of your business

    3 Get under each customer's skin

    4 Stand out in order to be outstanding

    5 Develop a strategy to define your position

    6 Calculate just how much a customer is worth to you

    7 Select your weapons.

    The last chapter 27 is Delivering the Promise.

    Marketing courage: enthusiasm, energy and passion.

    Not a bad book, not a gripping read but some good points. It lets your know one thing that is that there is no one answer. If you undertook a handful of the points in this book you would become successful.

    The best two points were copying the market leader and applying the 80/20 rule.

    The another one would be one of my own " Answer the phone when a potential customer rings" I find it works for me.
    9 people found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 25 October 2002
    Like his previous Virgin work, Craven has produced an excellent common-sense guide. Many people prattle on about customer-focus but this book actually has a lot of thought provoking material and can be practically used. Buy it!
    6 people found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 15 October 2013
    I run a small business and read business books to educate myself on best practice. These said books often overwhelm me, but i found this particular book very accessible. It taught me without overloading me. I have already put the books teachings in place and am looking forwarding to seeing the results. Very much recommend this and will be looking to read more from Robert Craven.
    One person found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 10 October 2013
    I am a great fan of Robert Craven, in fact my bookshelf groans with 3 of his books! This is another excellently written informative book with very useful worksheets. I highly recommend. AR.
    One person found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 9 October 2013
    Customer is king is a great read, directly to the point and with many very useful tips to help your business. Highly recommend read as lots can be learnt from it. Enjoy
    One person found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 8 June 2013
    I found this book really helpful. Relevant and readable. Excellent worksheets. I would recommend this book to anyone trying to get a better grasp of this subject.
    One person found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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    4.0 out of 5 stars Four Stars
    Reviewed in India on 5 December 2016
    Nice read!
  • Paul Australia
    5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic book
    Reviewed in Australia on 5 June 2015
    This is one of the best business books I have ever read. I would, and do recommend it to everyone.

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