Clientes.Com: Como Crear una Estrategia de Negocios Rentable Para la Internet y el Futuro = Customers.Com [Paperback]

CLIENTES.COM is a very valuable book in that it focuses both on how to serve customers on-line as well as how to make money doing so.

Like a good consultant, the author systematically looks at best practices from each of 16 cases, and combines the lessons into a vision of the future best practice (in 2-3 years) that no one is yet doing. This is an outstanding accomplishment, that is not matched in most best practice books.

I also visited the CUSTOMERS.COM Web site to register for the free booklet that is offered, and was pleased to get many ideas to improve our own electronic commerce. Be sure to check here from time to time, because the author updates the 16 case histories in the book on the Web site so that you can keep up-to-date. That is an especially nice touch.

Ms. Seybold does a nice job in CUSTOMERS.COM of critiquing each case history for ways that organization could improve. Let me do the same for her book. Several things stand out. First, the book does not go into enough detail about how to find the weaknesses in current operations that will permit greater profitability through changed processes facilitated by electronic commerce. There is a lot of best practice work needed in those areas before you start thinking about electronic commerce. Second, she does not address the question of what the ideal best practice of electronic commerce is. You might think of a well-informed concierge in a great hotel who knows you well as the model for this ideal best practice. Third, more needs to be done to help you learn how to facilitate the change process. The steps she describes would be very difficult for many organizations to implement that are beset by severe stalls in the form of tradition, disbelief, misconceptions, bureaucracy, avoiding the unattractive (such as customer problems), procrastination, and miscommunication. Fourth, the book highlights a lot of very interesting case histories and shows their successes. I was struck that although I am a heavy Web user and a substantial customer of many of these organizations, I did not know about the electronic services they offer. It sounds like many of these organizations still have a communications problem with their customers. Fifth, the available technology will advance a lot in the next five years. I felt the book does not do enought to make people aware of how technology that is not yet available can facilitate the future success of their electronic commerce.

No book can serve all needs in an area, so we can look forward to Ms. Seybold's next book. I enjoyed the personal touch as she described her own experiences with many of the companies involved. I hope she keeps in touch with them and us. I suspect she will based on the e-mails I get from her after registering on her site.

Una nueva forma de pensar el marketing en la era de internet! Estoy muy sorprendido acerca de como Patricia Seybold ha podido sintetizar de manera tan simple los conceptos básicos para llevar adelante iniciativas de CRM en esta nueva era de interactividad permanente entre una empresa y sus clientes. Lo más valioso del libro: la manera en que cada uno de los factores críticos de éxito en este tipo de iniciativas están asociados a ejemplos muy bien desarrollados y explicados. Para aquellos como yo, interesados en la influencia que internet está teniendo y va a tener sobre la manera de interactuar con sus clientes, este libro es una pieza imperdible.

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