FINALLY! A BOOK FROM J.D. POWER EXPLAINS CUSTOMER SATISFACTION

"J.D. Power and Associates revolutionized the automotive industry by advocating a seemingly simple premise—listen to your customers. It then went on to do the same thing throughout the entire business world. In Satisfaction, J.D. Power explains what it's learned over the years, using compelling anecdotes and irrefutable data. It's a lesson any business leader would do well to take to heart."

—Bill Ford, chairman and CEO,
Ford Motor Company (Photo: JD Power)

Maybe Bill Ford should have read this new book from Dave Power BEFORE he took on the CEO job of his eponymous company (that means it was named for him; well, not exactly him, but his relatives).

But here's a book we'll recommend to all our BLOG readers. It will give readers a rare look at the "insides" of how the auto industry has based its existence for over a decade on the "Customer Satisfaction Index", a polling method developed by J. David Power (yes, he really exists) which, for the first time, quantified the differences in quality between different makes and models.

J. D. Power is the person single-most responsible for the ongoing increase in quality among the major car companies worldwide. Like your car? Thank Dave Power should you ever meet him. We definitely do not mind giving him a free plug for his book, either. Here are some tidbits on the book from the Power website (www.jdpower.com):

J.D. Power and Associates began measuring customer satisfaction nearly four decades ago. What began as a small family run business has grown into a global marketing information firm that is universally recognized as the leader in customer satisfaction research and consulting services. After surveying literally tens of millions of consumers, J.D. Power and Associates is opening the vault on its vast database of information in its first book. In SATISFACTION: How Every Great Company Listens to the Voice of the Customer, readers are shown how to:

	Quantify the elusive link between customer satisfaction and profits;
	Find the sweet spot between spending too little and too much on customer satisfaction;
	Understand exactly how the customer experience determines brand image, and more importantly, consumer behavior;
	Illustrate the key operational differences that separate the customer satisfaction leaders from the also-rans;
	Provide the key do’s and don’ts for generating great customers satisfaction, and
	Learn how to maximize profits by creating your own “voice of the customer" infrastructure.

In addition to sharing decades of research findings, we conducted in-depth investigations of some of the companies consistently recognized as customer satisfaction leaders. They found that companies such as Lexus, JetBlue Airlines, and Enterprise Rent-A-Car not only share many of the same operating philosophies with each other, but also share an uncanny resemblance to many small local companies that have built their reputations on quality and customer service.

Although J.D. Power and Associates employs hundreds of professional researchers and statisticians, SATISFACTION is written for the business professional, not the math major. We’ve kept the charts and graphs to a minimum, and there isn’t a single mathematical formula to be found. Instead, the book makes use of the real-world examples of our clients, along with numerous stories direct from consumers to bring the data to life. To see what we mean, just click on one of the links at the right of this page to read actual excerpts from the book.