What others are saying about Emotional Value

“Janelle Barlow and Dianna Maul have written a tremendous book. Emotional Value will help speed up the day when businesses provide not only good service but truly engaging experiences, jobs become roles to be characterized and acted out, and workers are paid to self-actualize on the job. Any organization looking to improve the emotional connection between their employees and their customers needs to read this work.”

—JOE PINE & JIM GILMORE, authors of The Experience Economy: Work
Is Theatre & Every Business a Stage

“Emotional Value addresses the key customer service differentiation for twenty-first century corporations. In a well-organized and well thought out manner, it addresses the passion and emotional value required to impact the culture and focus of a corporation. About two years ago, Dell Computer Corporation launched a corporate-wide program focusing on the customer experience as a key differentiation in our industry. It was then and still remains Dell’s only nonfinancial goal. Janelle was an instrumental part of our corporate roll out of this initiative. Many of the insights and sensitivities she shared with us are covered in great detail in her book. Emotional Value should be a must-read book.”

—MORTON L.TOPFER, Vice Chairman, Dell Computer Corporation

“This book tackles, head on, the most fundamental yet elusive element of our business. Giving service and meaning it! This is a no nonsense read that provides practical direction punctuated with many humorous yet profound examples. A compelling read with humorous yet practical examples that one can easily relate to and learn from.”

—NIGEL ROBERTS, General Manager, The Great Eagle Hotel, Hong Kong

“This is the book you’ve been waiting for! Substantive guidance to understanding your customers and treating them well. Read it. Use it. Benefit from it.”

—NIDO QUBEIN, author of How To Be a Great Communicator

“Emotional Value is an extraordinary achievement, destined to become a classic in the literature on customer service. Barlow and Maul have taken a brightly illuminating look into our experiences as customers and service providers and reflected back the true nature of our encounters. Emotional Value will forever change how you perceive, provide, and receive customer service. Solidly based in research, this book offers profound content, practical prescriptions, illustrative examples, and compelling stories that will remain with you long after you put it down.… I implore you to read this book and immediately put it to use. Your customers’ feelings about your organization are at stake, and so is the value they create for you.”

—JIM KOUZES, coauthor The Leadership Challenge, and Encouraging the Heart and Chairman Emeritus, tompeters!company

“Just as the emotional health of a person dictates physical well being, the emotional health of an organization dictates its financial well being. Janelle Barlow and Dianna Maul have composed a primer on this important topic. The authors’ data and stories paint a compelling picture of why taking care of customer, staff and organizational emotions should be a priority for every CEO/President. It is a must-read for businesses that hope to be on the cutting edge.”

—CHRIS EHLERS, Organizational Dynamics/Effectiveness Manager Proctor & Gamble

“Emotional Value is an awesome guide to understanding human behavior as it relates to the business transaction process. Finally, a practical resource on how to enhance the customer experience… an absolute must-read for the staff of any organization interested in exponentially growing their business!”

—CHRIS STRIPPELHOFF, Vice President of Member Service, The
Municipal Gas Authority of Georgia

“Emotional Value redefines customer service—it is the new level. Read this book because delivering emotional value will be the entrance fee for any organization entering the 21st Century.”

—LISA FORD, author of the How to Give Exceptional Customer Service
Video Series

“Presidents have to have it. Customers come back when they feel it. Making emotional connections means loyalty. If you want the practical road map for you and your people to take advantage of the experience economy, Emotional Value is a must-read. With this book you won’t fall victim to change, you can help invent the future of the service industry.”

—TERRY PAULSON, PH.D., former President of the National Speakers
Association and author of They Shoot Managers Don’t They

“This book is extremely user-friendly and presents the subject in a way that is relevant, thought-provoking and challenging. I was struck by the realization that we can manage emotional competence in the same way we manage any other aspect of our business—by setting goals, applying processes, aligning rewards and recognition, celebrating success to reinforce behavior, and finally measuring results. This approach to recognizing and managing the role of emotions will help us at ARAMARK to strengthen our customer service programs and will surely result in greater levels of loyalty, retention, and profitability.”

—TED MONK, Vice President, ARAMARK

“This gem of a book offering a fresh approach to service.… We consider ourselves in touch with service to our member B&B/Country inn owners, but this handbook of practical applications is keeping us on our toes reexamining our assumptions about staff and members.… The Applications sprinkled throughout create opportunities to rethink our own approaches in experiential and daily ways. Finally someone talks about emotions in this over-merged, over-numberized society and offers such practical ways to present and understand how to implement them.”

—PAT HARDY, Co-Executive Director, Professional Association of
Innkeepers International (PAII)

“This is the book I wish I had a year ago. Well organized, with excellent examples, this book takes us to a new level of customer relations. Absolutely essential to the customer service professional. I was totally unprepared for the impact this book has had on me. People have milked the customer service/customer satisfaction concept dry. The timing is perfect for Emotional Value, which provides illumination from a different source of light.”

—W. LANDON HEFFNER, Vice President, Chief Learning Officer,
Monrovia

“Emotional Value will be pure gold for any organization serious enough about delivering solid customer service to pan for the nuggets in this book. The authors place emotion squarely where it belongs—front, center and in the customer service spotlight. As Barlow and Maul declare, emotional memories are more intense and enduring than any other kind.”

—GAIL M. WEBBER, Senior Director, Learning & Development, Culture
& Communications,VANTIVE-The e-customer Company

“Those of us in the customer satisfaction business need all the expertise and new prespectives we can get. Emotional Value will ensure that this knowledge is further built upon. If you read only one book on customer relationships this year, read this one.”

—SIDNEY YUEN, Chairman, Hongkong Benchmarking Clearinghouse
& CEO, TeleCare Corporation

“Adopt and practice the five tenets of Emotional Value. You will reap the rewards of understanding your customers needs. Don’t procrastinate; your competition will be reading this book, too.”

—DIANNE M.PUSCH, Regional Vice President, Western Region,
University of Phoenix

“Understanding the role of emotions in customer service is an essential and often neglected responsibility for our organizations. Barlow and Maul make this clear with real-life examples, and do an excellent job of linking emotional competence to both the business outcomes important to financial success, and to the everyday interactions of our service providers.”

—ERIKA GWILT, Northwest Airlines, Inc., Director of Ground
Operations Education

“This is a very solid book, light reading with hefty insights. And chill out—you can achieve emotional value! I got insight into my own team’s service failures. Failures I wasn’t even aware of until I read about the emotional needs of our customers. Needs that we may not have been emotionally competent to handle—prior to reading this book.”

—TONET RIVERA, General Manager, Avon Products Manufacturing,
Inc., Philippines

“This book is great. Very insightful. A powerful message with practical application. Not only does it provide a logical approach to a side of the business that is often just assumed to ‘work’, but it also provides great examples and real-life experiences. The assessment portion of each section is a great way to bring the message home.”

—RENEE SCHULZ, Director of Marketing for Worldwide Applied
Systems Group, The Trane Company