Welcome to Sage Book Club!

Part of what we do at Sage is help entrepreneurs like you grow your business from a great idea into a roaring success. Getting the customer experience side of things is a key part of that.

With that in mind, we’ve teamed up with customer experience and digital marketing expert, Jay Baer. He’s sharing his top six book recommendations to teach you all you need to know about customer experience.

His favorite reads will help you on the road to building a resilient business.

I am fortunate enough to know a lot of authors who have created many spectacular books in the field of customer experience.

So, to create this list of just six top recommendations, I gave myself three ground rules:

1. The book had to be published in the past five years
2. The book had to be applicable to all owners and managers, not just to CX/CS professionals
3. The book had to really focus on customer experience more so than customer service

When it comes to point three, the difference is that customer service begins when the customer experience fails!

With apologies to a lot of people I had to leave out, here are my top six recommended customer experience books:

Never Lose a Customer Again by Joey Coleman

An incredibly useful framework for over-delivering on customer experience during the crucial first 100 days of the customer relationship. This book is incredibly well thought-out, and the system and format make it even more useful. Really top-notch layout and design too.

The Cult of the Customer by Shep Hyken

Shep is one of the leading thinkers in modern CX/CS circles, and this is his guide to turning customers into fans. It also includes great advice for getting employees on board. This was written pre-pandemic, but even more vital now.

Would You Do That to Your Mother? By Jeanne Bliss

A hilarious, poignant, and powerful collection of scenarios and circumstances that really make you realize that customer experience isn’t magic…it’s just a series of choices. This five-step guide is a very enjoyable read, and includes a ton of humorous illustrations. And it’s easy to read in small bites.

The Experience Maker by Dan Gingiss

Like Jeanne Bliss above, Dan has worked in the trenches, implementing CX and CS programs in multiple companies. He uses this background and his knowledge of seemingly one million incredible stories and examples to build a delightful and educational book. I particularly love how he frames customer experience as a competitive advantage!

More is More by Blake Morgan

Blake is one of the top CX strategists for enterprise companies. While this book leans toward big business, the case studies and examples are so numerous and well-constructed that the lessons really take root for readers, regardless of their own company size. I also appreciate that she emphasizes just how much work great CX requires.

The Guaranteed Customer Experience by Jeff Toister

A very interesting take on the notion of a customer experience framework, Jeff suggests that every company needs to make an overt promise to its customers. This promise becomes the prism through which all operations decisions are made in the organization. It’s a short and thought-provoking book that is probably underrated by most people in the category.

Jay is one of the world’s top customer experience and digital marketing gurus, and the founder of advisory firm Convince and Convert.

With almost 30 years of experience to his name, Jay is a true expert at growing businesses and has helped iconic brands win customers. He’s also founded five multi-million dollar companies and written six best-selling books himself (including Hug Your Haters and Talk Triggers), so you can trust that he knows best when it comes to succeeding in business.