Customer Astonishment: 10 Secrets to World-Class Customer Care

Darby Checketts
Robert D. Reed Publishers (2006)
ISBN 1931741689
Reviewed by Olivera Baumgartner-Jackson for Reader Views (2/07)

Darby Checketts’s “Customer Astonishment: 10 Secrets to World-Class Customer Care” is another of the many “how-to” books geared towards anybody dealing with customers; which in today’s business world is nearly everybody. Most people would agree that it is relatively easy to get a new customer, but much more difficult to keep them – and that’s where Checketts provides some very interesting and useful insights.

The book is divided into several sections, starting with an introduction and preview of the 10 secrets to world-class customer care. This is followed by the author’s special note on how to use this book. Section I, which consists of the next five chapters, is entitled “Get Ready” and it sets the stage for Section II: 10 Secrets. Each of the secrets is illustrated with several examples, with the companies doing a great job being named and those that do not kept anonymous. Checketts helps us find our own path by providing examples, key words, catchy slogans and numerous questions to be asked of ourselves.

The last few chapters, Conclusion, Epilogue, Recommended Books and Appendix with the Additional Friendly Tips were some of the most powerful pages in the book as far as I am concerned. The final example of customer service that truly cares about the customer, described in the Epilogue, should be a must read for every entrepreneur.

Checketts clearly shows which factors are the deciding ones when it comes to gaining a customer’s loyalty and he explains how any company, whether large or small, could achieve similar results with small, oftentimes extremely inexpensive changes. Numerous examples quoted in the books should give any company owner, manager or just an employee a great starting point for developing a similar winning strategy for their company. One of the points that Checketts stresses repeatedly is that EVERYBODY is responsible and everybody should own up to it. The “I just work here” attitude does not produce results. The success is only guaranteed when each and every person working for a company takes responsibility and shows initiative. Oftentimes the smallest changes could lead to the biggest shifts in customers’ loyalty, as Checketts illustrates perfectly when describing a hotel where they washed his car’s dirty windows for him and doing so, they saved him a trip to the nearest service station and gained a loyal customer.

Although the entire book reads a little bit like a cheerleader’s manual, very “rah-rah, let’s go…” I do have to admit that some of the ideas in it are quite valuable and they seem to be really easy to implement. The writing style is easier to take once you learn that Checketts is a motivational speaker. Although I did not find any radically different and novel ideas in it – maybe I’ve listened to too many motivational speakers already? – I would still recommend “Customer Astonishment” to anybody who is looking to improve their customer care. It has the potential to make your workplace happier and your company more successful.

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