Take Their Breath Away: How Imaginative Service Creates Devoted Customers

Praise for Take Their Breath Away

"Are you bored? We're so spoiled that when something is merely good enough, we just walk away. Chip and John explain that the surefire method for growth and customer loyalty is simple: don't be boring."
—Seth Godin, author of Purple Cow and Tribes

"Take Their Breath Away shows how legendary customer service delivery can win and keep devoted customers for life. I LUV this fantastic book."
—Colleen Barrett, President Emeritus, Southwest Airlines Company

"No one knows more about creating profit through service than Chip and John. If you want to know the best way to do it, read Take Their Breath Away. The examples in this book will certainly start your creative juices flowing and help your organization take your customers' breath away.
—Howard Beharformer, former president, Starbucks Coffee International.

Unless you have a patent on the rocket car or the secret formula for chewing gum that makes you smarter, you probably haven't cornered the market on the products or services you provide. In fact, no matter what kind of product or service you sell, there's probably someone else trying to sell it faster and cheaper. In order to get ahead and stay ahead, you have to keep customers coming back by giving them something they can't get anywhere else.

Take Their Breath Away shows you how to create exuberantly devoted customers by providing peerless, mind-blowing customer experiences that leave them stunned. Like casting a magic spell, inventive customer experiences transform people from simple buyers into faithful brand advocates. In an era when value-added has gotten way too expensive, value-unique can provide a fresh approach to getting bottom-line impact.

Using real examples, this provocative guide shows you how the best brands create unique, customer-endearing practices that lead to irrational loyalty. The book reveals twelve amazing and imaginative strategies, explaining how they work and how to implement them. Whether you operate a giant corporation, a small business, or the department down the hall, these strategies will amaze you and surprise customers.

There is a huge difference between good customers and those who are truly, passionately devoted to a brand or organization. The kind of customers you really want are those who forgive your brand when it makes mistakes, recommend your business to everyone else, and defend it when others are critical. Those aren't just customers; those are devoted followers-and they can make all the difference between chasing after your competitors or leaving them in the dust.

Take Their Breath Away gives you the inspiration, practical strategies, and creative ideas to enchant, surprise, and treat your customers to something more than just an encounter. Learn to take your customers' breath away and they'll take your brand to heart.

Chip R. Bell is founder and Senior Partner of The Chip Bell Group, a consulting firm that helps organizations create sustainable long-term customer devotion. He has served as a consultant or trainer to such major brands as Ritz-Carlton, the USAA, Hertz, Microsoft, and GE.

John R. Patterson is founder and President of Progressive Insights, a Chip Bell Group alliance partner. With more than twenty years of leadership experience, his consultingpractice focuses on helping organizations create and sustain incredible customer experiences.