As the managing editor of CRMGuru.com, the largest online community of business professionals focusing on customer loyalty and related issues, my bookshelves are overflowing with review copies of books on CRM, loyalty, customer centricity and the like. Jill's book does not reside on these bookshelves. Her latest second edition sits next to my computer monitor, within easy reach. I use it frequently as one of my "customer loyalty bibles" when looking for case studies and working examples to weave into our numerous newsletters and online forum discussion board topics. Jill goes beyond information; she allows the reader to engross herself as a customer of the book. It is a win-win situation for all customers. A must read in my book! So much so that I list it in my suggested reading for students in my entrepreneurial classses that I teach on the college level.

Carol Parenzan Smalley
Managing Editor
CRMGuru.com

Jill Griffin delivers what today's companies desperately need: a business management and customer service improvement guide that is easy to understand and interesting to read, with tons of advice and tips for building customer loyalty. Her work is among the earliest to discuss the difference between customer satisfaction and customer loyalty, and her theories and anecdotes from actual companies are useful, relevant and right on. I would recommend this book to owners of businesses of all sizes as well as anyone involved in marketing, sales and customer service within a company. Jill Griffin's unique, loyalty-focused approach, her strategic ideas and her storytelling style make this more than a must-read -- it's a fun read, and most importantly, it is a handy reference tool that readers will turn to long after they've finished the book. Because, what is more important to businesses today than customer loyalty? It's the holy grail and we're all after it. Griffin's analysis of loyalty and how to earn/keep it can get you that much closer.

I first read Jill's book over a year ago after hearing her speak at a DMA event. Customer Loyalty is packed with simple, basic principles that cause us to remember what is important to us as consumers and subsequently as business owners. I urge those in our employ to read the book when looking to add value and/or long term "life time value" to any campaign. In discussing the book recently it caused me to review it again...her first hand knowledge and actual client case studies make Customer Loyalty, not only a great read, but a great teaching and training tool!

Customer Winback, authored by loyalty experts Griffin and Lowenstein, is an important new book in the field of customer loyalty. Published in 2001, Customer Winback is packed with information, examples and practical advice about how to improve sales and profits by re-acquiring lost customers.

Customer re-acquisition is an area that has not been well explored before this book. Most companies don't even track lost customers, much less try to win them back. Yet, as the authors point out, your chances of converting a lost customer are usually much better than your chances of converting a new prospect. This simple fact is a good economic justification for developing a winback program.

How do you win them back? The authors don't offer a magic solution. Instead they provide a business process you can use long term, which is of course much better than a silver bullet. It starts with learning why you lost them in the first place, and then deciding who you want to win back. The authors provide some useful tools for approaching each winback situation. One I like is "Second Lifetime Value" which is sort of a reincarnation of the lifetime value concept.

In the USA, the timing of this book (Spring, 2001) couldn't be better. When the economy is shaky, companies want to do everything they can to keep their customers, or win them back.

Chapters:

1- Why Customer Win-Back is Critical to Your Success

2- Managing the Big Three: Acquisition, Retention and Win-Back

3- Winning back a Lost Customer

4- How to Save a Customer on the Brink of Defection

5- Mobilizing and Managing a Win-Back Team

6- When You Think Your Customer is Safe from Defection

7- Building a Customer Information System that Drives Loyalty

8- Targeting Prospects with Strong Loyalty Potential

9- Leveraging the Power of Customer-Focused Teams

10- How to Build a Fiercely Loyal Staff

Gary Kopacek, CEO, Mill City Marketing

Jill Griffin's and Michael Lowenstein's insightful book, Customer WinBack provides a different perspective to Customer Loyalty that many businesses had not considered. That is, some lost customers can be won back! The book provides a practical, research-based guide with several examples and stories on how not only to get customers back, but first determining which customers are worth retaining. The book offers logical and highly readable ways for organizations to structure their Winback programs. The book addresses all aspects of this structure from the team composition and dynamics, to training, and information systems required for successful customer winback and retention. My hats off to these authors for another valuable lesson in customer loyalty and how it impacts profitability.

Carol A. Gonzalez Ph.D. President CG Biomedical Associates

With annual churn rates for most companies in the range of 10% to 40%, and staff turnover an equal problem, customer loss has become a major priority and cause for concern. Yet, few companies have programs to save or recover at-risk and lost customers. Customer loss and win-back is not only a critical challenge, it is a significant revenue opportunity. My colleague, Jill Griffin, and I have explored the dynamics and treatment of customer loss, the sales and profit represented by winning back customers, how to regain attractive former customers, and how to make your company defection-proof in the first place. We've included the results of groundbreaking original research, for instance, which uncovered the relationship and value disconnect that often exists between suppliers and their customers. The book provides scores of powerful how-to's and examples of the ways successful companies have included win-back in their CRM programs. For every individual, manager, group, or company wanting to understand customer lifetime value, customer life cycles, and the full spectrum of customer loyalty, this is a must read!