The Corporate Coach: How to Build a Team of Loyal Customers and Happy Employees

Corporate Coach ANNOTATION The founder and CEO of Miller Business Systems, who's built a solid reputation for going all-out for the customer and creating an upbeat, personable environment that keeps employees happy, loyal, and productive, presents a revolutionary work in which he likens managing a company to coaching a team by joining customers and employees in a common cause. FROM THE PUBLISHER Jim Miller's bestselling book provides a revolutionary approach to team management and customer service that has helped his own company's sales rise from $50,000 to $150 million. FROM THE CRITICS Library Journal The founder of Miller Business Systems, an office supply company, presents his principles of customer focus that have enhanced his company's success. Through analogies, Miller relates his leadership concepts to sports teams, which will surely appeal to executives with annual box seats! All the current good ideas on serving customers, such as hiring customer-oriented employees, focusing internal processes on serving customers, constant systems redesign based on customer feedback, and long-term relationships with customers can be found in this program, read by the author. Although Miller's ideas are soundly rooted in the extensive literature in this genre, he offers little new information. Also, with the significant problems inherent in today's professional sports business, his attempt to relate complex team-based organizational success to successful athletic teams is outdated. Invest instead in the more substantial work from Ron Zemke (Working with Jerks, S. & S. Audio, 1989).-Dale Farris, Groves, Tex. BookList - Barbara Jacobs Another business book filled with sports metaphors? Yes and no, because Miller (helped by coauthor Brown) does have a story to tell. And when the subject is teamwork, the language of the playing fields is appropriate--though admittedly overused. In anecdotal fashion, he relates and demonstrates how working in teams solves all potential employer issues: customer service, creativity, quality, sales, problem solving, and employee loyalty. What's more, the advice proferred is specific and complete with samples--e.g., don't separate work from home; reward frequently; watch body language and rely on gut instincts when hiring; and involve employees in strategy as well as service. After this easy, non-high-falutin' read, those who didn't understand the power of working (and playing) together will grasp it; those managers who already practice teamwork just might find they've honed their skills.

The Corporate Coach is a good book for all would-be and new managers. The book reinforces the idea that a manager is not so much a boss as a supporter of his employees. Every company should hope that each manager understands he has employees entrusted to him and he must be able to maximize their effectiveness. To do this, the manager must be able to be a supporter, a cheerleader and a corrector of problems in an atmosphere that is positive. The Corporate Coach explains all of this from the know-how of someone who has done it and proven it's success. I give it to all my new managers to read.

This book focuses on serving customers as the customer wants to be served not as the service provider wants to serve. The "Coach's Checklists" at the end of each chapter are each worth the price of the book. This book drives home the point that the ONLY difference between a business and sports team is the field they play on.

An excellent case study of a company dedicated to customer service. If you want to retain and add customers, and retain high-quality service people who know the value of your customers and the true value of team-work, this book is a must-read.