The Welcomer Edge Book Review

Richard Shapiro’s book The Welcomer Edge: Unlocking the Secrets to Repeat Business is an essential read for anyone who works directly with customers.

The Welcomer Edge is structured very similarly to many of my posts here on Return Customer. Shapiro shares personal stories of customer service interactions he has had as a customer at various businesses. He then extracts those principles that made the encounter a loyalty-building event or repeat business-killing encounter.

The book describes several types of employees that you might have directly working with customers, ranging from the Welcomer to the Hostile.

Welcomers

The Welcomers make people “feel important, appreciated, and valued as a customer and as a person.” Welcomers are those you want to have working for you and with your customers. They make personal connections with customers because they naturally want to help people.

Robots

Most sales associates are robotic in their interactions with customers. They repeat the same actions and words with every customer, regardless of circumstance. Fortunately, the Robots in your business can often be trained to be more welcoming with customers.

Indifferents

You’ve probably seen indifferent employees at many businesses. They simply ignore the customer or are not actively fullfilling their responsibilities. Be very careful not to hire indifferent employees.

Hostiles

Every so often you have a very hostile employee. These are the most dangerous type to have in your businesses. Not only do they fail to serve the customer but they alienate and offend so easily that it engenders disgust and disdain for you and your business. Avoid these types at all costs.

Creating Welcomers

You can create Welcomers and make existing ones even better by instilling in them the patterns outlined in this book. Shapiro details a three-step process (the greet, the assist, and the leave-behind) that outlines how exactly to interact with customers through each phase of the encounter such that the customer leaves with a positive impression of you and your company.

Recommendation: Read and Use this Book

If you run your own business or are on the front line with customers, The Welcomer Edge will help you better serve your customers and nurture those relationships that will drive repeat business.

Each chapter is structured with stories and illustrative examples of the principles discussed. At the end of every chapter, Shapiro offers very concise and actionable “power points” that you can practice and standardize at your company.

Pick up your copy of The Welcomer Edge: Unlocking the Secrets to Repeat Business today.

Win Your Copy of The Welcomer Edge

I’ve got a signed copy of The Welcomer Edge to give away to one of you, my loyal readers. Leave a comment on this post and you’ll automatically be entered to win. I’ll randomly draw a winner on May 1.

See the comments below: Katie is our winner. Congratulations!