Eric writes me an email asking about my book. He says I keep talking about my book, and he has pre-ordered five copies, but has no clue when he’ll get it.
The book comes out January 7th, 2015 per the Amazon pre-order page. We’re still 176 days away, but who’s counting? I submitted the manuscript in February.
What can I say, the traditional publishing world moves slowly.
The book is being published by AMACOM, the publishing division of the American Management Association. It will come out in hardcover, kindle, and other e-book formats. You can pre-order almost anywhere they sell books, and we have a webpage set up with some pre-order bonus offers HERE.
The audiobook rights have also been purchased, but I’m not sure when that will come out.
I have had a few uncorrected proofs (galleys as they call them in the publishing world) to pass around to a few friends and colleagues.
You can see what Seth said about Evergreen HERE, just scroll down the page.
Alan Weiss wrote the forward.
Now to the point of this post, which will take about 1/3 the space. Eric won’t be happy because I’m talking about my book again, and he doesn’t have it yet.
That’s Not Evergreen
There’s a story going around about a call between a customer and a Comcast representative.
The customer wants to cancel, but the rep refuses to allow the customer to cancel and continuously attempts to engage the customer in an ongoing debate to make them stay.
You can read about the call and listen to it HERE. It’s treacherous.
This is the perfect example of an organization that’s not Evergreen.
In my book, I share The Evergreen Diagnostic, which has four quadrants representing different types of organizations and how the approach their relationships with their customer base, and customer retention efforts.
Every company falls into one quadrant (Evergreen, Deciduous, Barren, Wilting.)
This is the classic example of a “wilting” organization.
Many organizations operate like a wilting tree—the leaves hang on, but they do not receive adequate sustenance from the tree and, therefore, are not as healthy as they could be. This kind of company can retain its customers, but there’s no real relationship—or any attempt to create one.
Large telecomm companies, cell providers, cable companies are often wilting away. They’re large enough that it doesn’t really matter in the big scheme of things. They’re not all guilty, though. Start Communications in Ontario, Canada, for example, is a wonderful example of a company working hard to be Evergreen.
One downside of being a Wilting business is that since there is no customer relationship, the business fails to reap the benefits of positive word-of-mouth market???????ing and ongoing referrals. At the same time, customers of Wilting companies often exaggerate negative experiences and spread unflattering comments when things don’t go as planned. Because these bad habits are often deeply ingrained, it can be very difficult to go from Wilting to Evergreen.
As my mentor Alan Weiss likes to say:
“Consulting anyone?”
