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Book Review: Blueprint for Customer Obsession

 

Author: B.A. Marbue Brown

Published: 2022, read on Apple iBooks 2023

Blueprint for Customer Obsession catalogues behaviours of Customer Obsessed “Icons” to illustrate the value that risky customer experience investments and committed culture can deliver to organisations. Read this book to challenge the commitment you have to your customers through example after example of best practice. 

Blueprint for Customer Obsession is designed for corporate leaders and managers. It aims to demonstrate the difference between “Customer Obsession” - the pinnacle - and mere Customer Obsessed or Customer Focused approaches. Specifically, it lays out the difference between these (and other) categories and the behaviours that differentiate them. Further, the book claims that investment in Customer Obsession returns a greater dollar for dollar value than paid advertising or marketing. B.A. Marbue Brown is a customer experience executive, author of 2 books and speaker.  

It’s not surprising, that the author, as a Customer Experience executive, argues for, and demonstrates, the value of investing in customer experience. Alot. Many of the examples provided in this book are from companies that the author has worked for. As an executive within these companies, the book benefits from knowledge about why decisions were taken, and how results were reviewed. The book is well structured, providing examples and insights against eight key strategies that Customer Obsessed Icons (i.e. companies known for being customer obsessed) implement. 

The illustrative companies span a number of companies across a number of industries. However, the experiences listed are largely based in the United States, and while some of the brands have a global presence (e.g. Apple), others do not (e.g. Trader Joes), which can limit the accessibility for international readers. Notwithstanding, the multiple examples of each strategy, policy, anecdote in action serve to support the author’s claims. In fact, at some points, the weight of multiple examples could be considered counter productive. “Yes we get it, lets move on”. All examples are referenced, and where statistics are quoted, these are also sourced. 

I subscribe to the the value of the customer primacy in making business decisions (I did before reading this book), but until the end of the book, I was conscious that this was a manual from a professional who has subscribed to this theory throughout his professional career. It has been the reason for his success. I imagined that a book that drew the same conclusions from someone who wasn’t originally a customer experience professional or who didn’t work at Customer Obsessed Icon companies, or who had experienced the value of the cultural pivot would be more balanced. I imagined it would be less overwhelming for the reader with the constant supporting examples, and a nuanced reasoning of the difference in the author’s “before” and “after” perspectives. 

The inclusion of the S.A.S and Continental customer experience based turnarounds, and subsequent fading at the end of the book goes someway to providing balance to the perspective.

Blueprint for Customer Obsession outlines the value of placing the highest and most specific focuses on customer experience. It challenges the reader to go beyond Customer Aware to become Obsessed. It highlights the need for strong cultures and decentralised autonomy. 

Overall I found the book easy to read with a conversational tone. The argument is organised in an easy to access structure and I would recommend it for all levels engaged with customers.