Blog: Church of the Customer
Who writes it: Ben McConnell and Jackie Huba, authors of Creating Customer Evangelists
Why you should read it: Great experiences can turn customers into your best salespeople; bad ones turn them on to your competitor. McConnell and Huba spice up their illuminating posts about the power of word of mouth with cheeky visuals.
Blog: Customers Are Always
Who writes it: Customer-service veteran Maria Palma, formerly of Nordstrom and Sears
Why you should read it: It's the little things that make service great—like a joke-cracking Starbucks barista or a HomeTown Buffet waiter who offers to close the blinds. Palma's own anecdotes plus experts' insights cover the service biz from all angles.
Blog: The Curious Shopper
Who writes it: Sara Cantor, a retail planner in Chicago
Why you should read it: Cantor posts her shopping pictures with savvy, savage analyses of "why some stores work and others don't." It's a retail-centric view of how the minutia of store design affects customers.
A version of this article appeared in the September 2006 issue of Fast Company magazine.
