Never Lose A Customer Again by Joey Coleman

Review 2025.01.005

Reviewers Note: It is the beginning of 2025 and one of the skills I desire to grow in is that of writing book reviews (having never done this before). I am doing this so I can better hone my writing (and reading) skills as I seek to think more critically about the books I am reading. I am sharing on Goodreads for my own personal development. I know this will be something I am always growing in so if you actually read these, please be patient with me as I develop this skill. I will also receive constructive criticism if you desire to help me become a better writer (and reader). I plan to use this disclaimer for the entire 2025 year.

Never Lose A Customer Again by Joey Coleman

368 Pages

In my business, we began to codify the customer experience at the end of 2024 so that our customers would know specific ways we are taking care of them.  This isn’t easy when much of IT work is done behind the scenes. I had owned this book for a while and so it was good timing to read it at the beginning of the year as we are working towards a better customer experience.

I did a macro-reading of the book and plan to go back and micro-read at least the chapters that discuss the eight phases of the customer experience.  At the end of those chapters, Mr. Coleman asks questions to help you think through how your specific business can apply the strategies listed in that phase of the customer journey.  I probably could have done this during the macro-reading but I feel more comfortable completing the book first (just personal reading preference). Even though I did not answer the questions in the chapter, I still had several ideas come to mind while reading the book which I made note of and began implementing where I could.

My company is small (five employees and two locations) and while parts of the book are definitely written for companies larger than me, I still found the book highly beneficial.  I have read many other business and leadership books, some of which are not applicable to businesses my size so I was thankful that was not the case here.  

Mr. Coleman breaks the customer experience into eight phases.

1. Assess
2. Admit
3. Affirm
4. Activate
5. Acclimate
6. Accomplish
7. Adopt
8. Advocate

He uses very practical examples in at least the eight phases chapters (maybe all of them) and from real companies. Again due to our size, some of them do not apply directly to our situation but the point isn’t direct application but finding how you can apply the same principles in your context.  The book was a true encouragement to me to continue codifying and improving the customer experience we began working on at the end of 2024.

Also Mr. Coleman talks about six different ways to communicate with the customers.

1. In-Person
2. Email
3. Mail
4. Phone
5. Video
6. Presents

In each phase, he gives examples of how to use each type of communication style.  Of course, you do not necessarily use all six in all eight phases but adapt it to your business context.  Where we are currently, I do not see us utilizing personal videos in any of the phases but all the others we have already discussed either adding or improving in our developing system.  We may add video in the future and will leave that in our documentation to remind us it is an option.

I definitely recommend the book to business owners and customer relations employees who want to improve the customer service experience in their business.