Treat Me Like a Customer: Using Lessons from Work to Succeed in Life

This book is fantastic! I'm going to start by saying that I have worked in a support role for the last 8 years supporting stores and customers. I've learned that to succeed in business you really need to treat everyone you interact with at work like you would treat your best customer. But sadly, many people, myself included don't offer that same level of support and attitude towards our family and friends outside of work. When I read this book I thought to myself that everything that was said was all common sense..... But yet when I Read the examples I thought to myself that I was really dropping the ball. This book doesn't tell you anything that most people don't know, but it DOES help you realize what you are doing right and what you are doing wrong when it comes to life outside of work. The concept is simple, treat EVERYONE you deal with in both your personal and professional life the way you would treat your best customer. Do that and you will have huge successes. I really do recommend this book. Once again, it's nothing that most people don't already know, but it may be what you need to wake you up and help you get back on track. A great book.

It's amazing how many people knock themselves out to please customers yet take their spouse and family for granted. In this book, Louis Upkins explains exactly why and how this happens and how we can turn the situation around and honor our loved ones by treating them with the same attention and respect that we treat our best customers. This book was enjoyable, and as I read it I could think of family members and friends I needed to give more attention to, as well as family members that I would like more attention from myself. This book could lower the astronomically high American divorce rate if spouses followed Upkins' advice, and he keeps it simple enough for anyone to understand. I think we all have at least one person in our lives that is very important to us but to whom we show less attention, honor, love, and patience than we really mean to. Upkins gives us strategies for fixing that, and in doing so, he helps us regain our real priorities and the things that make life more worthwhile. The real pursuit of happiness is making a happy life for ourselves amid those that we care about most, and this book is the perfect adjunct to that endeavor.

Work life balance, we seek it in so many different ways depending on what is important to us at the time. For some it is children and spouse, for others it is simply children, for others it might be family, parents, or side hobbies that take up an increasing importance as we get older. Treat me like a customer takes a look at the idea of work life balance and what it truly means to all the different people that we are on a given day. Treat me like a customer lets us look at what we do for work in relationship to everything else we do. While it would be best to work at a job you love and derive satisfaction from, many of us are not in that position. Rather we work without seeing real results from projects that will never die, or work situations that suck the life out of our soul. Treat me like a customer takes a look at what we do, why we do it, and how we can derive satisfaction from what we do, regardless of where we are in our careers. This was an interesting book from that perspective because there is a lot of research on why people are moving from job to job, or those who are fortunate enough to turn our hobbies into our livelihoods to seek enjoyment from life. I ended up liking the book and sympathizing with the people who were used as case studies. We have all been there, stuck, wondering why the work environment is toxic, and why we end up hating our jobs. This is an eye opener for people who have not tried to deal with the issue of work life balance or are wondering what they are going to do to get a satisfying work situation where people can challenge themselves and grow. A little introspection can go a long way, and with the expected job hopping that is going to impact business in 2010 and 2011 - this would be a good book for workers and managers to read. Treat your people well - treat yourself well - and read the book to see what you can pull out of it for yourself. Rated 5 of 5 stars because people should be aware of where they are in relationship to everything else they do.

This books is a "splash of cold water in the face" for any driven, business professional. It says WAKE UP before you lose out! I highly recommend it to any business person, family member of a business person, or friend of a business person (This list probably covers most anyone reading this review). The book does a great job tying together key elements around family and balance with career success. Many of these elements one may have considered, seen, and/or discussed with loved ones at varying times. However, the author has brought all these key elements together in one easy, fun read. He also challenges readers to be as successful at home as they are in their careers. Looking at our families as we would our most important customers should be common sense and second nature to us. Instead, for most of us it is a foreign concept. I encourage everyone to read this book and follow the suggestions that apply to your life. It will make a significantly positive impact on you. It already has for me!

What if we treated our spouses, children and loved ones like we treated our best customers? What a simple yet powerful concept! For many of us, our dearest relationships would be exponentially more fulfilling if we embraced, at home, the customer-centric principles the author carefully highlights. I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in cultivating/sustaining more loving, meaningful and rewarding relationships with those closest to them. This book is truly a gift to human kind and the very frail family unit! Thank you Mr. Upkins.