Kismet Arts Tangent

All Customers Are Irrational by William J. Cusick

Summary: This book might be the most boring way to cover the same information that’s in a Communication 101 class. Priming, Framing, and Customer Testing, you want your customer to look at you (your company) and feel important and cared for. He addresses the new importance of customer service due to the way that complaints about companies can be spread over the internet. Yay, Consumer-Power!

Review: Terrible prose. Written by a guy who might have been schooled in business, but knows nothing about eloquence or good anecdotal writing. It’s a small book that one could seriously read in 5 hours or skim with the eye for content in 2. I skimmed. There were way too many bolded headings as if he thought he was actually being helpful. There was a certain lacking in the relevance to what I do, but I was hoping for some insight that is applicable to personal branding and blogging.

Favorite parts:  Towards the end of the book, Cusick says that when a customer first signs up or whathaveyou, you should have a good “onboarding” process, to make them feel connected and cared about and trusting of the new thing they just signed up for.

Rating (1=regretful read…10=My New Favorite Book): 1.5 customer questionaires

Wine-pairing:  http://www.ted.com/talks/barry_schwartz_on_the_paradox_of_choice.html I think this TED talk is better worth the time than this book. If you want to learn about how consumers are beyond simple facts about a product, look towards yourself or your friends and analyze their brand loyalties, imagine how it drives them late at night, and how they (you) are never really satisfied.