Synopsis

Organizations worldwide have used a groundbreaking tool—the service-profit chain—to improve business performance. In The Ownership Quotient, the authors reveal the next level of thinking about the service-profit chain based on recent research into exemplar companies.

Heskett, Sasser, and Wheeler extend the service-profit chain to include customer and employee "owners." Customer-owners are so satisfied with their experience that they relate their stories to others, persuade them to try a product, and provide constructive criticism and new product ideas. Employee-owners exhibit such enthusiasm for their organization that they infect customers with similar satisfaction, loyalty, and dedication.

The lifetime value of a customer-owner is equivalent to that of a hundred merely typical customers. That makes the value of employees who promote customer-ownership priceless.

Citing companies as diverse as Harrah's Entertainment, ING Direct, Build-a-Bear Workshop, and Wegmans Food Markets, this book shows you how to:

• Identify your customer-owners
• Delight them by consistently exceeding their expectations in ways they truly value
• Foster an ownership culture throughout your company
• Measure and grow your "ownership quotient" among customers and employees

Powerful and practical, The Ownership Quotient is your playbook for pushing performance to unprecedented levels.

Biography

James L. Heskett and Earl Sasser are both Baker Foundation Professors at Harvard Business School. They were coauthors with Leonard Schlesinger of The Service Profit Chain and The Value Profit Chain. Joe Wheeler is the Executive Director of the Service Profit Chain Institute, a consulting firm that helps organizations achieve dramatic business results by implementing service-profit chain concepts.