Users, Not Customers: Who Really Determines the Success of Your Business

by Aaron Shapiro

Overview

If you still think “the customer is king,” you’re falling behind. Today’s most powerful growth engine is users—people who interact with a company through digital media and technology even if they have never spent a dime. Become indispensable to users and the profits will follow.

As CEO of the digital marketing agency HUGE, Aaron Shapiro goes inside blue-chip companies to advise them on how to thrive in this new business reality. He led an extensive study of the Fortune 1000 and found that the most successful companies focus on users first. Look at Facebook and Google. They built their businesses before they even figured out what they were selling, let alone who their customers were.

Shapiro argues that every business needs to stop obsessing about customers and start creating powerful user experiences. For instance: Mint.com made the easiest and most effective interface for controlling your personal finances, and once there, you can follow ads that let you improve your financial performance even more. And Net_ ix took down Blockbuster by treating its subscribers as users, not customers. It continually changed and improved its technology to create the best possible experience instead of maximizing rental fees and late fees.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781591846314
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	07/30/2013
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.30(h) x 0.70(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

AARON SHAPIRO is the CEO of HUGE, a digital marketing agency that helps global companies reimagine how they interact with their customers and manage their business in the online economy. Prior to HUGE, Shapiro was a technology entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and management consultant. He lives in New York City.

Visit www.hugeinc.com

Table of Contents

Introduction-Users First If You're Not Thinking About Users, You'll Soon Be Out of Business 1

1 User-Centric Management: How to Build a User-First Mindset in Your Company 17

2 Concentric Organization: The Secret to Structuring a Business That Efficiently and Effectively Meets User Needs 47

3 Disposable Technology: Bring the Strategy to Life by Constantly Changing, Revising, and Throwing Away Software 76

4 Higher-Calling Products: Create Digital Services That Make Your Products More Valuable Than Ever 96

5 Utility Marketing: Attract and Engage Users by Giving, Not Taking 124

6 TCPF Sales: Turn Users into Customers by Addressing Their Four Basic Needs: Trust, Convenience, Price, and Fun 152

7 Bilateral Customer Service: Combine Self-Service and Full-Service to Keep People Coming Back for More 177

Conclusion-Making the Shift: It's Not Too Late to Become a User-First Organization 201

Afterword: The User's Guide to Users, Not Customers 219

Acknowledgments 227

Notes 229

Index 235

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“A much-needed, incisive guide to creating a genuinely appealing digital presence.”
—Publishers Weekly

“Users, Not Customers is so interesting and important... Mr. Shapiro has produced something of real value for marketers.”
—AdAge

“Users Not Customers is a must read for anyone seeking to integrate digital experiences with their products and services. Shapiro presents a wonderful novel perspective on the evolving role of digital in business as a tool for interacting with the world.”
—Ramon Casadesus-Masanell, Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School

Editorial Reviews

A much-needed, incisive guide to creating a genuinely appealing digital presence.”

—Publishers Weekly

 

“Users, Not Customers is so interesting and important... Mr. Shapiro has produced something of real value for marketers.”

—AdAge

 

“Users Not Customers is a must read for anyone seeking to integrate digital experiences with their products and services. Shapiro presents a wonderful novel perspective on the evolving role of digital in business as a tool for interacting with the world.”

—Ramon Casadesus-Masanell, Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School

From the Publisher