Customers for Life

In this completely revised and updated edition of the customer service classic, Carl Sewell enhances his time-tested advice with fresh ideas and new examples and explains how the groundbreaking “Ten Commandments of Customer Service” apply to today’s world.

Drawing on his incredible success in transforming his Dallas Cadillac dealership into the second largest in America, Carl Sewell revealed the secret of getting customers to return again and again in the original Customers for Life. A lively, down-to-earth narrative, it set the standard for customer service excellence and became a perennial bestseller. Building on that solid foundation, this expanded edition features five completely new chapters, as well as significant additions to the original material, based on the lessons Sewell has learned over the last ten years.

Sewell focuses on the expectations and demands of contemporary consumers and employees, showing that businesses can remain committed to quality service in the fast-paced new millennium by sticking to his time-proven approach: Figure out what customers want and make sure they get it. His “Ten Commandants” provide the essential guidelines, including:

• Underpromise, overdeliver: Never disappoint your customers by charging them more than they planned. Always beat your estimate or throw in an extra service free of charge.

• No complaints? Something’s wrong: If you never ask your customers what else they want, how are you going to give it to them?

• Measure everything: Telling your employees to do their best won’t work if you don’t know how they can improve.“The book of the year . . . I cannot imagine any business or businessperson who could not benefit from this book . . . it could invigorate any enterprise. Sewell’s approach to service will work equally well for companies big and small. I encourage you to dig in, chuckle, ponder—and take action now.”—Tom Peters

“Giving customers what they want is essential to achieve extraordinary success. Carl and his team have set a new standard for all of us.”—David Glass, chairman of the board of directors’ executive committee, Walmart Stores Inc.

“There is not a single page without an instructive lesson for managers striving to achieve competitive advantage through service. It is truly a gem!”—Professor Leonard A. Schlesinger, Harvard Business School

“If you don’t learn from this book, it’s your fault.”—Stanley MarcusCarl Sewell is the owner of one of the largest car dealerships in the United States, with more than one billion dollars in sales. He lives in Dallas, Texas, and speaks regularly to prominent executives and top corporations nationwide.

Paul B. Brown, a long-time contributor to The New York Times and a former writer and editor for Business Week, Financial World, Forbes, and Inc., is a bestselling author who has collaborated on numerous business classics including Customers for Life and Your Marketing Sucks. He lives in Duxbury, Massachusetts."The Bestselling Classic, Revised and Updated, Featuring 5 New Chapters