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Touch: Five Factors to Growing and Leading a Human Organization Paperback – Oct 4 2014

by Tod Maffin (Author), Mark Blevis (Author)
4.3 out of 5 stars 3 customer reviews
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Product Details

  • Paperback: 264 pages
  • Publisher: Dundurn (Oct. 4 2014)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1459728742
  • ISBN-13: 978-1459728745
  • Product Dimensions: 15.4 x 1.6 x 22.9 cm
  • Shipping Weight: 408 g
  • Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #565,642 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Review

"TOUCH offers a refreshing look at the humanity behind our digital-centric lives, with practical tips for putting the humanity back in business. Make these TOUCH points your guide to the business of the future." (Scott Monty Executive Vice President of Strategy, SHIFT Communications)|"It's been over a decade since social media changed the way that businesses connect with their consumers and their employees. So, where are we at? In TOUCH, Mark Blevis and Tod Maffin argue that even though technology has enabled us to connect like never before, we've actually moved in the opposite direction. We have removed the real and human connections. It's time to bring that human touch back to business. This book lays out the perfect blueprint. Want to be more human? Start with TOUCH." (Mitch Joel)|"Evidence continues to mount that customers are more likely to do business with brands that behave well. From demonstrating you're serious about sustainability to every employee engaging in customer service, from producing content that genuinely helps people to finding third-party reports of great interactions with the company, mountains of research show that success increasingly depends on taking a human approach to business. Just in time, Tod Maffin and Mark Blevis have produced TOUCH, a concise, readable, and actionable guide to making sure your company has a soul. Of all the values a company should demonstrate in these days when power has shifted to the customer, humanity should be at the top of the list. Whether your organization has been hammered for its compassionless approach to business or you're just not satisfied with the degree of humanity already evident in your operations, you'll want to not just read, but use, TOUCH." (Shel Holtz)

About the Author

Tod Maffin is president of engageQ Digital, a digital marketing firm specializing in creating human experiences for brands online. He speaks to more than forty conferences a year. He lives in Vancouver.




Mark Blevis is president of FullDuplex.ca, a firm that specializes in integrated digital communication and online reputation management. He also heads a team that researches how online information and interactions shape public opinion. He lives in Ottawa.

Inside This Book

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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index
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Most helpful customer reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 starsA book for organizational leaders who see the need for change
By Bob Ledrew on Oct. 16 2014
Format: Paperback
DISCLAIMER: I am a friend of one of the authors.

I opened up "Touch" with a bit of trepidation. As a friend of one of the authors, I was worried that I'd have to tell him that I didn't like the book! Thankfully, that wasn't the case.

First point: this is NOT a social media book. It is, however, a book about the impact of social media on organizations. And those impacts have been far-reaching. Blevis and Maffin attempt, in a relatively slim 250 pages, to help people within organizations -- companies, not-for-profits, government -- to try and keep or build a human-style voice in the wake of the change social media tools have wrought. So if you look at this book as a way of "learning" social media, you may be in for a disappointment.

The first chapter is a letter, addressed to "Dear Leader" (not, I assume, Kim Jong-un). That should be your first clue that this isn't primarily a book for the social media practitioner, but for people occupying leadership roles within organizations (or, even better, people with the ambition to do so.) The authors then outline the "five factors" they see as key to building a human organization: Technology, Outcomes, Uniqueness, Clarity, and Humanity. Then, they go through a number of functions typical of most organizations (marketing, communications, HR, legal) and explain how to apply the "TOUCH" factors to those functions.

Touch's greatest strength is its accessibility. Maffin and Blevis (undoubtedly with the assistance of their editor) have been able to write in clear, accessible, and ringing prose -- partially due to their work in podcasting and radio, which requires simple and powerful words.Read more ›
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 starsh2h asap
By David Wineberg TOP 100 REVIEWER on Oct. 2 2014
Format: Kindle Edition
Decades and decades of these marketing optimization books, and still, the marketplace is filled with arrogant, obnoxious customer service, impenetrable access for customers, dense customer service policies, and less and less human intervention every day. Touch takes on that last factor as the lynchpin to fixing it all.

Along the way, we travel through the same old shopping list of do’s and don’ts that marketers and CEOs should be shot for not knowing:
-What’s the difference between good customer service and great customer service? Good service is wholly unacceptable.
-Don’t sell the product, sell the dream.
-Don’t push the features, display the benefits.
-Technology is only as good as the people deploying and operating it.
-Offer prospects the path of least resistance.
-Provide value, don’t just tout yourself.

The most useful chapter is on social media, in which the authors give concrete examples of dustups they have defused, and the tactics to do so yourself. Most of the book is a primer on handling issues by using your people in place of software, and how social media melts at the human touch (a real name, a face, conversational language).

There’s a chapter on HR where Maffin and Blevis offer advice in hiring. If the CEO and CMO are so out of touch to begin with, no amount of HR advice is going to change that firm. They give lots of examples of wonderful firms doing things so innovatively. Unfortunately most people are stuck in dead end jobs at dead end firms. But at least the examples are not the same old tired ones. They are new, and largely Canadian firms trying to do better.

Maffin and Blevis love acronyms.Read more ›
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5.0 out of 5 starsRead, learn, move forward.
By Hugh Culver-author Give Me a Break on April 24 2015
Format: Kindle Edition Verified Purchase
Another great piece of work from Tod Maffin. Read, learn, move forward in the social world.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)

Amazon.com: HASH(0xa4a3ba98) out of 5 stars 2 reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
HASH(0xa4ad92e8) out of 5 stars h2h asap Oct. 2 2014
By David Wineberg - Published on Amazon.com
Format: Paperback
Decades and decades of these marketing optimization books, and still, the marketplace is filled with arrogant, obnoxious customer service, impenetrable access for customers, dense customer service policies, and less and less human intervention every day. Touch takes on that last factor as the lynchpin to fixing it all.

Along the way, we travel through the same old shopping list of do's and don'ts that marketers and CEOs should be shot for not knowing:
-What's the difference between good customer service and great customer service? Good service is wholly unacceptable.
-Don't sell the product, sell the dream.
-Don't push the features, display the benefits.
-Technology is only as good as the people deploying and operating it.
-Offer prospects the path of least resistance.
-Provide value, don't just tout yourself.

The most useful chapter is on social media, in which the authors give concrete examples of dustups they have defused, and the tactics to do so yourself. Most of the book is a primer on handling issues by using your people in place of software, and how social media melts at the human touch (a real name, a face, conversational language).

There's a chapter on HR where Maffin and Blevis offer advice in hiring. If the CEO and CMO are so out of touch to begin with, no amount of HR advice is going to change that firm. They give lots of examples of wonderful firms doing things so innovatively. Unfortunately most people are stuck in dead end jobs at dead end firms. But at least the examples are not the same old tired ones. They are new, and largely Canadian firms trying to do better.

Maffin and Blevis love acronyms. They glory in consultantspeak: ROWE (results only work environment) ATNA (all talk, no action) TOUCH (technology, outcomes, uniqueness, clarity, humanity). It cheapens the message. They try to sum up every chapter with five takeaways - the fingers of one hand, you see. Cheapens the message.

The basic thought is a good one - be human, use humans, and differentiate yourself as human. That's an important message.

David Wineberg
HASH(0xa4a7433c) out of 5 stars Bullseye Oct. 21 2014
By Autamme_dot_com - Published on Amazon.com
Format: Paperback
Something about this book – exactly what is unclear – just didn’t gel with this reviewer at first glance. In a typical bookshop browse that would have meant the book would have been replaced and the next one selected for consideration.

That would have been a mistake. With a modicum of perseverance these initial problems soon disappeared and one cannot really recall what led to that initial thought. With this book you get a fairly humorous, focussed, detailed, cynical and truthful look at many businesses today. They might talk a good game, they might even have great products and services but one of their most important assets – their staff and how they interact with the customers – are not always being allowed to truly shine.

A book like this might figuratively open your eyes and have you looking at your own business operations AND especially those of your competitors and suppliers in a totally different way. You will want to effect change, especially before anyone else does. Many elements of modern-day business are trapped on the equivalent of a hamster wheel, a slave to the machine, believers in bulls*** and bravado wrapped around technology. Have we truly forgotten our customers and that they are human? Can we reclaim lost ground and show we care. Actions speak louder than words.

If you invest time in this book you will surely look at things differently. Little hints here, dirty great big suggestions there, plus case studies and examples thrown in for good measure. Is the jigsaw puzzle starting to solve itself? The book’s authors propose a series of solutions, although the implementation is down to you. They make a compelling series of arguments that seem hard to dispute, even if it might prick one’s pride along the way and who wants to admit that they might have been suckered in by a seductive technology or latest trend?

Together we can rebel against the machine and have it working for us, not against us. Are you ready to join the fight? For less than a cost of a lunch you could get a lifetime of new thoughts for you AND your company.

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