Customer Advisory Boards : A Strategic Tool for Customer Relationship Building

This text shows senior managers how to create and make use of an effective customer advisory board (CAB). Carter (sales and marketing, Columbia U.) explains how to use different types of customer bases to form advisory boards to help plan future investments, create new products, and improve existing

Learn why customer advisory boards are so successful—and how to create one for any business!

From a leading authority in business management comes a book to give your company the winning edge. Customer Advisory Boards: A Strategic Tool for Customer Relationship Building examines the customer advisory board (CAB)—one of the most effective competitive tools for building and maintaining customer satisfaction. This business guide shows how to create and make use of an effective CAB, and how doing so can give your company a marketing advantage and improve vital aspects of business, including customer responsiveness, trust-building, and customer satisfaction.

Customer Advisory Boards focuses on bringing companies and customers closer together utilizing input and advice from a CAB. This book shows how to use three types of customer bases—existing customers, potential customers, or former buyers—to form three different types of advisory boards: corporate strategy boards to plan future investments, product planning boards to create new product, and launch success boards to improve existing product. Using the information in this book, your company can transform from being customer focused to customer driven.

Customary advisory boards benefit your company by:

• improving sales contact and dialogue dynamics of the company
• enabling the company to see itself through the customers’ eyes
• sharing ideas and suggestions to improve a company’s programs and services to its customers
• showing that the company values its customers’ opinions and wants to improve for them
• providing access to expertise and experience from a wide range of necessary disciplines without legal liability

Customer advisory boards also benefit the board members by:

• giving them opportunities to offer practical advice that can affect a company
• allowing them to establish personal and professional contacts from each other
• rewarding them with company perks and products
• giving them a sense of belonging and empowerment

With case studies, appendices, notes, references, and surveys, Dr. Tony Carter has created an illuminating, educational research tool for company owners and managers. Whether applied to a corporation, a medical or religious institution, or a not-for-profit organization, Customer Advisory Boards will help increase customer loyalty and satisfaction.