I got onto Jaffe after having come across and listened to a few episodes of the Podcast he and Mitch Joel took up as part of a now ongoing series of chats they have touching on all things social media. An earlier taste of a Jaffe video on YouTube while researching business card designs also likened me to his style of commentary and candidness, which I must say also helped lead me to pick up the book.

As a salesperson first, and an advocate of social media as developer and nurturer of relationships the book offered a refreshing glimpse of what the future must hold for businesses hoping to make a lasting impact, or any impact – not just in the social media space, but a brand’s overall customer experience.

Jaffe writes at length and persistently insists how (and why!) companies big and small need to look inward for answers: existing customers and employees.

He highlights the unusual ratio of marketing spend per new acquisition (too much here!) vs. money invested in retaining key clients (hello! not enough here!) indicating it costs 4-5 times as much to make a sale to a new client than it does to make a repeat sale to an existing client. Social media can help in the retention of clients and according to Jaffe can and should take it a step further if you’re “doing it right”, ie. getting your clients to sell to new clients for you at little to no cost through positive reviews and word of mouth.

Jaffe also goes on to tell us how by in not responding (to virtual complaints, comments, issues, things relevant to our businesses…) we can in fact be doing a disservice to future operations. There are several antidotes in the book that tell of how on a Friday afternoon a client issue had failed to get resolved during “normal business hours” by customer service, and that by Monday morning (because of the firm’s inability or naivety or both) the issue had blown into a major media hailstorm thanks to the infinite number of bloggers in the blogosphere who don’t operate only during “normal business hours”, causing permanent and irrevocable damage to that firm’s brand. It’s a Me Want Now world these days, and not only does Jaffe propose businesses operate this way, he expects it of the businesses with which he deals personally – read the Delta Skelter Blog Post HERE.

Much ado is also made of the fact that companies pretty much treat their customer service people like crap. I certainly hadn’t put as much thought into as him, but had I, it shouldn’t have taken me too much time to realize the obvious fact that these people and this department is essentially the lifeblood of any company. Like Jaffe calls it – these people are the front line’s. The infantry in the battle against competing brands’ troops. The ones, with as little as a comforting smile, or nice tone of voice, or unsolicited offer of an upgrade or 5% off on their next purchase can be the difference between a good and bad experience, a one-off customer, or a repeat customer who tell their friends/families/networks what great service they got at XYZ company.

He argues how this department and these people need to collaborate extensively with marketing and sales, and I’m with him. The insight this group has from hearing and seeing how customers react (or don’t) to certain offers or changes or scripts is critical to effect positive change within an organization. Customers for that matter need to be consulted and polled when it comes to improving service and products as well, and the need to measure these things has never been easier (and more important) than now.

Bottom line is there are tons of choices out there, and in order to be that company at the top of your potential (or existing) client’s mind, you need to make an impression, you need to be listening, and you need to be acting (on their recommendations, on results of your measurement analytics, etc..). If you don’t plan to maintain a consistent presence and offer valuable insight – don’t bother. If you want to make a change Jaffe will tell you how, and where to start. Super happy I picked up the book and I plan to refer back to it often as we tweak our business for uber success.

Joseph Jaffe also speaks and maintains an excellent and resourceful blog at : www.jaffejuice.com.