Would You Do That to Your Mother?: The "Make Mom Proud" Standard for How to Treat Your Customers

There’s nobody quite like Jeanne Bliss to put forward a beautifully written, incredibly persuasive and evidence-based case that, in business, to do good is to do well.Shame on me for not having reviewed her earlier wonderful books (particularly Chief Customer Officer and Chief Customer Officer 2.0). But this offering hit me hard because as much as I’m afraid I inadvertently give her a hard time, I am blessed with a simply incredible mother (and father) and thinking about my own mom (and other moms that are near and dear to my heart) really does bring this text home in a uniquely visual and emotional way.The argument here isn’t new – though Ms. Bliss has been always at the forefront of innovation in the “CX” space, the overarching thesis here may not be brand new, but she’s a pioneer of that original thesis – doing right by your customers, going the extra mile in terms of customer outcomes, memories and experiences redounds to the benefit of a business’s brand equity and, most importantly, its bottom line.While Ms. Bliss and others have elsewhere made what I consider to be an incontrovertible quantitative case that in customer-centric industries, at least, great service is linked with each of sales, sales growth, run rate sales, customer lifetime value, customer retention, referral rate, viral coefficiency – and done really well, believe it or not, it saves on the expense side too, given that a retailer’s largest expense are returns, and great CX is linked with fewer returns – the focus here is on drawing out the wonderfully stated principles and lessons via terrifically detailed case studies that make a point of touching on the real world outcomes.Folks can guess at the book’s premise: run your business how your mom (or your treasured caretaker of choice) raised you. And imagine your mom being the customer. In looking at business practices, think about whether it’s a practice you’d subject your mom to.The book offers 32 specific #MakeMomProud lessons, each with a full accompanying casestudy, organized into four major themes:• “Be the person I raised you to be. Empathy and humanity in how you serve.” These best practices focus on finding company team members whose values align with those of the company and on empowering those team members to do right by the customer.• “Don’t make me feed you soap!" Work to eliminate the avoidable moments of frustration in customers’ experiences. The focus here is on empathy, stepping into customers’ shoes to imagine those terrible moments of frustration – be it “tough luck” for a warranty that expired yesterday, or mountains of forms, etc. – and using that empathy to eliminate these type of regrettable, unfortunate moments – which for the record, can and do lead to lost sales.• “Put others before yourself. Achieve your goal by helping customers achieve theirs.” The big idea is simple but so many struggle to do it in real time – prove with actions, not words, that customers’ interests are first and foremost. All the evidence, by the way, indicates that this effort is well worth the trouble when it comes to the firm’s financial health.• “Take the high road. Choose how you will and will not grow.” The crux is that the most successful businesses “slow down” as needed to grow together with customers, establishing co-creating, balanced relationships, where both the business and the customer are better off for having each other.As noted, within each of these categories are 32 specific lessons. The lessons are wide-ranging. In many cases for me, I may have had the notion, but wouldn’t have known exactly how to phrase it. Here are my own favorites:• Trust the front line to extend grace (I particularly love the concept of making every employee specifically a “caregiver” – read the wonderful Cleveland Clinic case study).• No survey score begging.• No rules that inhibit people’s ability to serve.• Run the business on customer time.• Reduce service exhaustion.• Take disruptions in customers’ lives personally.• Let customers depart gracefully.• Don’t make customers feel like hot potatoes.• Start with customer lives, not action items.• Allow for customer human error.• Walk customers out of trouble spots.• Honor customers as assets.• Deliver “we’ve got your back” moments.The book itself is a wonderful read, with terrific natural flow, able to go into detail without getting bogged down.A wonderful quality is the mechanisms the book uses to drive the lessons home. The lesson will be articulated at the start of the section. It’ll then be brought to life in a case study, with a slightly different articulation. At the chapter’s conclusion, it’ll be rephrased again and finally, posed as a question.Take, as an example, the lesson “Give Me Choices that Jibe with My Life. One size does not fit all customers.” In the corresponding (and terrific) case study on Sephora, the lesson is phrased as “be part of customers’ lives in a fun, natural way.” Next, it’s “Giving Customers Choices That Are Right for Them #MakesMomProud.” And finally, the questions, “Do You Give Customers Choices that Jibe with Their Lives? Does Your Experience Show Up as a Respect Delivery Machine?” Love it. These are lessons built to remember via the verbiage, the text, the stories, the evidence and the follow-through.The case studies as, a whole, are delightful. I love the way they’re all framed in three parts. First, “Decision Intent.” Why did Company X take Action Y? Next, “Action to #MakeMomProud” elaborates on Action Y and connects it to the premise. Finally, “Impact”: here, the proof is in the pudding, as the reader is treated to the actual business and financial results of the course of action.There’s a terrific summary section at the conclusion that poses a series of checklist questions that every manager ought to employ to both improve customer service and to keep themselves honest.Finally, Ms. Bliss has worked to make her concepts a social effort, with contributions welcome, and the vibrant #MakeMomProud hashtag.If you truly need a step-by-step manual on precisely how to implement great CX, read Chief Customer Officer (both versions) – really, read them anyway – and listen to the author’s weekly podcast. If you’re looking for “simply sophisticated” or “elegant common-sense” taken a step beyond where most go - expressed with unmatched charm and grace - as to how to conceptualize great customer service at both macro and micro-levels, this is your stop.I have only had the pleasure of exchanging a few tweets with Ms. Bliss, but I finally want to note that she comes across as every bit practicing what she preaches – smart, warm, eager to be helpful, crazy intelligent, and as kind as they come. I can’t think of another author who could write this book this way and have it turn out so wonderfully. Well done, thanks to my mother and Ms. Bliss. #MakeMomProud.

Jeanne Bliss has written another fantastic book. Her perspective here on customers and how companies should be treating their customers rings with the clarity of a fine brass bell. This is a fast-paced treatise through the lens of a cherished customer such as a proverbial kindly mother. Make no mistake, this is a serious management prescription and is packed with good advice, case studies, words of wisdom and well placed cartoons to illustrate her points. My favorite example is the question, if the customer were your mother, would you ask her to provide her account information three times in the same call, an experience we have all had with virtually every credit card company, health care insurer or cable company. Silicon Valley is very good at looking at things entirely through the lens of customer needs and high growth is a frequent outcome. The lens of how you would treat your mother is easy to visualize and jargon free. Whether you read it cover to cover or dip into your favorite chapter, you will get a lot out of it. I believe every sales leader and every customer care leader should be giving this book out to their employees and testing for comprehension.

This most recent book authored by Jeanne Bliss is outstanding! I purchased the book for each member of my team and we are using it to fuel conversations on how we can improve the experience we provide to our customers. What I love about the book is that it is packed with fresh examples of companies that are modeling service that would make your Mom proud along with advice and tips on how to apply the principles in your own organizations. Jeanne also keeps the reading entertaining by inserting cartoon illustrations, either highlighting the insanity of poor customer experiences or providing examples of passionate "Make Mom Proud" service! The book wraps up with a very powerful tool . . . "Make Mom Proud" assessment where you can identify where your greatest strengths and weaknesses are in the current customer experience you are delivering. With the knowledge you gain from the book and assessment . . . you can then go dig into and apply her suggested actions to make your company "Mom Proud"! This book is definitely one than anyone interested in improving their company's customer experience should pick up and read! You won't be disappointed!

When you set the bar putting my Mom in my head and the cover screams humor, it takes a lot to write meaningful prose that is not gimmicky, Jeanne Bliss does just that. Jeanne Bliss is the Master on the topic of capturing the client voice and executing against it within an organization. She can write with straight out knowledge, disciplines, methodology and ideas for delivering value in an easy to read understandable manner. She can also illustrate with simple, witty, and memorable expression with equal authority and strength. This book is chuck full of knowledge of how customers should be treated in their interactions, needs and demands on an organization and with 3 to 4 healthy tip summaries at the back of each chapter there is plenty to remember. However, the title is the master umbrella that no matter the situation start there and the right thing to do will follow. To not make the book too light the case studies are written professionally and with purpose to accent a diverse group of companies already applying the principals outlined in the book with positive results.

I highly recommend Jeanne Bliss' latest book for anyone interested in delivering great customer experience (CX.) She provides excellent insights for CX leaders told through warm hearted stories taken from all walks of life. These are lessons every CX leader can apply to their business!

This is a fun, informative and approachable book to make everyone a better business owner! Delivered in a fun and easy to read way and loaded with case studies. I've recommendedd this to at least 5 people already!

Simple book, lots of anecdotes. But does not go too deep. Good for a layman to understand what customer experience is all about.