David S Duncan

The Secret Lives of Customers Lib/E David S Duncan

A "detective story" that delivers key insights for any businessperson asking the questions: who really are our customers, why do we lose them, how do we regain them?

Customers can be a mystery. Despite the availability of more data than ever before, everyone, from the CEO to salespeople in the field, struggles to understand who their customers really are, what they want, why they lose them, and how to regain them.

To solve this challenge, start by thinking like a market detective.

David Scott Duncan shows how in his entertaining and instructive tale of Tazza, a fictional regional chain of Boston-based cafés trying to go big time. The only problem is that sales are declining at several key stores and they can't figure out why.

The cast of characters include Cate Forrest, Tazza's CEO, Alex Baker, a "market detective," Jordan Sims, a young computer whiz at Tazza, and Ed Amato, the "mayor" of Tazza--their most loyal customer--who has stopped visiting their stores. Through their investigation, the team discovers why the "mayor" has fired Tazza, a revelation that leads to the "a-ha moment" that enables the company to get its ship in order. The key lesson of the Tazza story is a simple, powerful idea that upends how most businesses view their customers. Customers have "jobs to be done." They "hire" companies to solve these jobs and "fire" them when unhappy.

Duncan's fresh way of thinking about how to understand your customers provides an innovative path for solving whatever market mysteries you face.