Cover design by Jim Saurbaugh

“The sad truth is that today customer service is at an all-time low.” – wrote Jim Palmer in 2010. I guess, it only downgraded since that time and the trend doesn’t seem to reverse anytime soon.

Which is a great news for you, if you are willing to learn from “Stick Like Glue – How to Create an Everlasting Bond with Your Customers.” If your competition is hopeless at customer service, you can shine just by providing a decent experience.

But Jim teaches you how to bring customer service to a whole new level – well above “decent.”

As usual, let’s talk about CONs first.

Hmm, there are really no CONs in this book. Yes, I remember being annoyed a few times by the conversational tone, which brought too much conversation for my taste (and too few conclusions). I remember that formatting did funny things around images (I read the Kindle version). I’m pretty sure I found a typo or two, however, I would’ve needed to read the whole book again to find them. They didn’t stop me from reading.
And that’s all. Maybe I could summarize this bickering into one CON: I wasn’t WOW-ed by the book.

But I was impressed enough, because it has had plenty of…

PROS

1. It’s Free.

Hey, make no mistake about this book. It is a valuable resource. The paperback price of $19.95 is not an error. But the author decided to make it permanently free just to share his experience with the world.

Nothing beats free, especially on Kindle. It is so easy to download and start reading.

Of course, free stuff has one downside – we don’t appreciate it. A big mistake. All free things are underappreciated. You don’t pay for water (at least not much, tap water costs about 1,000 less than a bottled water). You don’t pay for friendship. You don’t pay for love. You don’t pay for air. Yet, you cannot live without them.

I read “Stick Like Glue” only because it was free. Recently, my budget was too strained for paid books.

And everybody with the Amazon account can do the same.

2. Stories.

This book is choked-full of stories straight from Jim’s experience. And they are awesome. They provide a clear proof that the author has been there and has done that.

Why is it so important? Coach.me crunched their data once and they concluded that their coaches have four times bigger chances to teach you the skill or a habit than coaches certified by big organizations. How come? The difference was solely in practice. Coach.me’s coaches have been there and have done that. Transferring ones experience works so much better than assisting in learning something or trying to teach having a ton of theory and little practice.

I guess it’s in our DNA. This is virtually how we learned through thousands and thousands of years. Someone with experience was teaching someone without it.

And I guess, most of that teaching was done with stories. Jim mastered this skill. His story is engaging. I was blown away time after time with how far he took customer service.

3. Lessons.

Jim didn’t just tell the stories. He masterfully broke them down into pieces. The deconstruction of his stories was amazing, so enlightening.

Let’s take for example an encounter with an angry customer whose kid broke the wheel and the guy tried to blame it on the pump. Lol! He came at Jim swearing and cursing and he ended up giving Jim a lot of referrals. The author deconstructed the whole interaction, sentence by sentence, explaining what he said and most importantly – why he said it.

That single story, with accompanying explanations makes the whole book worth reading.

But Palmer didn’t do it just once, with one story. He did it every single time. This book is both engaging and educational at the same time.

4. Everything Else.

I could’ve been enumerating PROs of “Stick Like Glue” for the next half an hour. This book has all the characteristics of a great self-published books, and some more.

It’s very authentic. Jim shares bits and pieces of his story, his career and businesses. He keeps a conversational tone for the whole book. It feels like a chat with a friend; and it definitely doesn’t feel like a preaching from an ivory-tower business guru.

The reading experience is great. The flow from one chapter to another is smooth. There is some repetition, but only to drive his points home, there is no beating of a dead horse.

Jim’s humor cracked me up more than a few times.

You will find after each chapter bullet points summarizing the chapter, providing you with action steps and ideas.

And the points Palmer did about newsletter marketing and consistency? Right down my alley!

Summary.

This free book was as valuable as many paid business books I read. Ha! It was superior to quite a few positions I read.

Customer service make your customers stick. The kind of service Jim teaches about in “Stick Like Glue” will not only make them stick, but will turn them into your best sales force.

If you have a service-based business, this is a must-read!

Book Review: Stick Like Glue

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *