Uncommon Practice

Edited by Andy Milligan and Shaun Smith

This is an excellent book on how to deliver the supreme customer experience or service. Uncommon Practice is a Best Practices exercise that looks at 19 companies, mostly US and UK examples, and how they "deliver" to consumers. These examples lead into a summary that draws from the different company experiences. the book takes the form of interviews with key personnel from the top level of the company. This enables the company's operation to be placed into the context of the business values and philosophy.

The nineteen companies or brands covered range from Virgin and Midwest Express through to Pret a Manger and John Lewis. There is a mix of consumer and business brands, that range across different product categories. There is one over-riding lesson from this study and that is that the quality of the customer experience results from the quality of the staff or personnel. The strongest elements of the brand are delivered by human interaction, the ability to deliver appropriate service to customers, often without being tied to rigid modes of operation or rules. This suggests that the most important component of a brand's marketing is the way the brand is communicated and understood internally within the organisation. Staff are able to deliver that great brand experience when they are not only on message but they help to embody the brand as far as consumers are concerned. An example of this is the Body Shop where retail staff are recruited partly for their own views and they role they play or wish to play with the causes that the Body Shop supports or that the staff support themselves.

This enables the companies to be highly consumer-centric. By having staff fully on-board they are able to much better serve customers and hence deliver greater sales returns and value for shareholders. Employee experience and customer experience are very closely linked. The phrase "walking the talk" comes up all the time at these companies. These are organisations who are genuinely focused on the customer and recognise the value of (individual) customers. The company's operations will be designed around fulfilling the customers' expectations. This is a long-term standpoint that should not be sacrificed in order to achieve short-term profit. It is a way of business that delivers. 

Uncommon Practice is a very enjoyable and positive book to read. Each company is covered in around six pages of interviews and is accompanied by a two-page art collage that illustrates the brand for those who are unfamiliar with it. 

Review by Martin Payne