Measure What Matters to Customers: Using Key Predictive Indicators (KPIs) - Hardcover

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RONALD J. BAKER, CPA, is the author of The Firm of the Future and Pricing on Purpose, both from Wiley, and Professional's Guide to Value Pricing, Sixth Edition. He is founder of VeraSage Institute, a think tank dedicated to teaching value pricing to professionals around the world. Baker is a frequent speaker and consultant to professional service firms on implementing Total Quality Service and Value Pricing. He has been appointed to the AICPA's Group of One Hundred, a think tank of leaders addressing the future of the CPA profession, and was named to Accounting Today's 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, and 2005 Top 100 Most Influential People in the profession.

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Praise for Measure What Matters to Customers: Using Key Predictive Indicators

"From his wit to his insights, Ron Baker has done it again! As one of the best management thinkers of our time, he has taken on the field of measurement and given us the gift of knowledge so we may move ahead as well."
Reed Holden, founder, Holden Advisors Corp., www.holdenadvisors.com, coauthor, The Strategy and Tactics of Pricing

"Baker's book evolves the rationale for defining the success of a business the same way the customer does. With impeccable logic, he leads the charge for effectiveness over efficiency by shining the spotlight on the realities of today's knowledge economy. Measure What Matters to Customers is a Rosetta stone for leaders who are trying to translate what they measure into value for the customer."
Thomas Finneran, Executive Vice President, American Association of Advertising Agencies

"I have read literally hundreds of business books and no author has entertained, educated, challenged, and extended my thinking more than Ron Baker. Ron is a gifted storyteller who, in a disarmingly simple way, shares with his readers an extraordinarily powerful message. In Measure What Matters to Customers, Ron provides us with an elegant justification, together with a practical framework, for developing metrics that truly reflect what's important to the people who, at the end of the day, determine the destiny of any organization its customers. If you play a role in contributing to the success of any entity, whether it is a for-profit or nonprofit, you and the organization you serve will benefit immensely from this book."
Ric Payne, President and CEO, Principa, www.principa.net

"We have known since the 1960s, when Xerox did extensive research, that employee satisfaction - customer satisfaction - profitability, yet the vast majority of companies measure only the latter. Why? Because we have a learning disability, that's why! In Measure What Matters to Customers, Ron Baker slaps us in the face with a generous dose of logic to help us correct our blind wandering through the labyrinth of lagging indicators like revenue and profitability, in favor of key predictive indicators that define success the same way our customers do. Hmmm, maybe we will get it this time?"
Ed Kless, Director, Partner Development and Recruitment, Sage Software

"Ron Baker has done it again this is the most helpful business book that I have read. In it, Ron continues his relentless focus on customer value, challenging the reader to rethink their definition of success. It provides both a solid theoretical foundation and proven practical steps that can be implemented in your business today to become a truly customer-focused organization. Lead your organization to the next level by measuring what matters to customers."
Brendon Harrex, Chairman, Ward Wilson Ltd., Invercargill, New Zealand

"Yet more insights from Ron Baker that force us to challenge conventional norms norms that keep us missing the really important stuff. Read this book and discover that there absolutely is an opportunity to move way beyond where you are now, into new realms of real relevance indeed into new ways of delivering a far better customer experience. Yet again, Ron Baker provides a fabulous pathway."
Paul Dunn, founder and CEO, ResultsNet Australia, www.resultsnetaustralia.com, coauthor, The Firm of the Future: A Guide for Accountants, Lawyers, and Other Professional Services

Aus dem Klappentext

Learn why the most important activities that actually matter in your business are those that impact your customers.

One hundred years ago, the traditional accounting measures of costs, activities, efforts, and inputs met the needs of that era's businesses. But today, these internal metrics are narrow in their focus and have become less meaningful in the knowledge economy, with little effect, in the long run, on an organization's bottom line. Compelling and bold, Measure What Matters to Customers lays out an exciting, new road map for measuring customer value and successfully raising profits.

With proven methods, Ron Baker renowned forward-thinker in the professional services firm field shows you how to capitalize on Key Predictive Indicators (KPIs), innovative measures that define the success of your enterprise as your customers do. These are specific, identifiable details that customers value in the products and services they receive details such as a preference to be contacted by phone instead of by e-mail, or a desire for rapid turnaround time on returned calls. Easy-to-read and relevant to your organization's bottom line, this groundbreaking book shows you how to use KPIs to, for example, effectively track marketing data to determine which customers respond well to things such as cross-selling or to find out how receptive other customers are to entirely new offerings from the firm. It also shows you how to employ KPIs to enable your firm to react appropriately to your customer's needs and increase the value they perceive, leading to higher profits. Topics covered include:

• Why the traditional metrics are no longer relevant to measuring the effectiveness of knowledge workers
• The new tectonic shift taking place in the economy the transition from manual and service workers to knowledge workers and why that difference is critical to the future of your business
• How what you measure affects the value you provide to your customers
• How to increase the effectiveness of knowledge workers
• Developing KPIs for your company
• Increasing knowledge worker effectiveness

Seismic in the strategies it presents, Measure What Matters to Customers reveals how to regain a competitive advantage in the marketplace and allow your company to develop the measures that matter to your customers. Applicable to manufacturing and service businesses of all sizes, this important book will challenge managers' and executives' theories about which measures are important in their businesses. If you want to increase your company's profits by working smarter, this is the book for you.