Overpromise and Overdeliver: How TouchPoint Branding Brings Customers

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Summary: Principles Apply To and Extend Beyond Customer Service
Review: Companies identified in Overpromise and Overdeliver are recognizable and well known for providing what the Author defines as TouchPoint Branding. The use of short case studies helps readers understand how and which TouchPoint(s) make each company successful.

What challenged my thinking was how the 3 Touchpoints (product, systems, and human) apply to other elements of business (internal department relationships for example) and personal relationships.

Excellent read to stimulate thinking!

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Summary: Sage advice
Review: I agree with Barrera that customer service will drive many if not most American businesses from now on. The era of cost-cutting that we went through in the 90s is gone, where profitability was driven by becoming lean and mean. This is actually most of what drove the great bull market of the 90s, at least in the non-tech companies, and it even had an effect there too. After the last bear market, the worst since 1929, U.S. companies are about as lean and mean as they're ever going to get. One of the few ways they can increase market share and profitability is to improve customer service. This book looks at a number of outstanding success stories and analyzes how they were able to beat out the competition to establish their own preferred brands. There is a lot of good advice here for both big and small businesses. Increasing and improving customer service is also one way American businesses can stop the exodus of customer service type jobs to countries like India. Also, as a small businessman who started up or worked in several customer service oriented businesses over his career, I can tell you that if someone likes you, they'll tell 5 people, but if they don't like you, they'll tell more like 15-20 people. You can't afford to have that sort of negative word of mouth advertising if you're going to be a success. Barrera's book has some sage advice on how to avoid the pitfalls and how to do things right when it comes to customer service.

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Summary: A great read
Review: My husband bought this book, and I intended to pick it up just to see what it was about. But once I started reading it I became more and more interested and didn't want to put it down. I found it facinating to read about companies and products that have been successful and WHY! Mr. Barrera examines a broad array of companies, from Southwest Airlines to TiVo to The Container Store, and presents a compelling argument that they all have the same, two prong reason for success: (1) OVERPROMISE, by offering a unique product and (2) OVERDELIVER, by living up to your promise all the time. I found this book extremely interesting and exceedingly accessible to read. I do not have a strong marketing background but Mr. Barrera presents his material so that anyone can take home his message. I think that if you are in retail or marketing or product development or the service industry OR JUST A CONSUMER, you will be enlightened by this book.

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Summary: Wonderlul book for retention of customers.
Review: The case examples in this book provide compelling reading. In particular, the study of Tivo captivated me. Barrera's principles of Overpromise and Overdeliver make sense. Having a unique selling proposition brings attention to your product and keeping your word inspires loyalty. This book reinforces what most executives know intuitively. I strongly suggest reading Optimal Thinking: How To Be Your Best Self in conjunction with this book to learn how to consistently apply the peak form of thinking that brings these principles to fruition.

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Summary: Produce Real Value
Review: The era of cost cutting is gone. Profit and growth must come by delivering outstanding value that brings deep customer loyalty, higher price points, and greater market share.

Rick Barrera provides a coherent roadmap and vivid examples of how focusing on your brand, and especially the employee behaviors that shape it, can bring immediate and lasting bottom line results.

I believe Rick represents the bleeding edge thinking that moves away from viewing brand as logos and images towards viewing brand as an organizing company-wide tool crticial to achieving a company's strategy