Book Review: Reinventing The Wheel

How Do You Create An Amazing Customer Experience?

As a business owner and consultant, I understand the pressure that exists to differentiate yourself in a crowded field.  The most impressive thing about the Zane Cycle story that was told in the book Reinventing The Wheel was how a bike shop was able to stand out in a business where it would seem difficult to differentiate yourself.

There are a ton of great lessons and reminders on standing out through creating an unheard of customer service experience.

One of my favorite lessons from this book is that creating the ultimate customer experience is indeed a science.  Getting feedback from customers on what they want and more importantly observing their behavior is the driver to this experience.

The author, Chris Zane, calculated the numbers on every offering and service that he created for his business.  He also had calculated that his lifetime customer value was $12,500.  Business owners for too often go with their get when they make decisions on services for their business instead of calculating and observing customer behavior.

Some other lessons from the book on creating an ultimate customer experience:

• Creating the experience is not an accident.  Everything you do should be intentional.
• Don’t be afraid to do things that others would consider unreasonable.
• Create the right motivation for your employees to ensure that they are committed to creating the proper experience.
• Making it easy for your employees to deliver the experience you want.
• A great experience is all about having the right systems and processes for delivering the experience.

There are a couple of things I didn’t like about this book.  The first being that the book’s subtitle is “the science of creating lifetime customers”.  This book, however was short on science.  I would have liked to have seen a few breakdowns of how Chris came up with numbers on certain programs but they never got that specific.

The other point that was off-putting for me is Chris Zane’s seeming obsession with putting people out of business.  Trying to be better than other businesses is great, obsessing about putting them out of business just seems a little extreme.  I don’t think business is war and it’s not about crushing other people.  I have seen several industries where cooperation works well.

Despite those minor criticisms, overall I think the book is a great guide to how your business can create the ultimate client experience even if you think that isn’t possible.  You may not copy, and probably shouldn’t, what Zane’s Cycles does but you can use the story to think about how you can create the ultimate experience in your industry.

Definitely read this book.