Users, Not Customers: Who Really Determines the Success of Your Business by Aaron Shapiro, 243 pages
In Users, Not Customers,
Shapiro turns our focus to the digital users of a business rather than
the tried-and-true customers. Shapiro argues that users--here defined as
digital followers or users of websites, with an emphasis on
"digital--are the key to creating a successful business, and outlines
the ways in which a company can capitalize on this segment.
While
Shapiro makes some excellent points about website usability and rolling
out tech innovations at the right time (it does your company no good to
be first to market with something if it's riddled with bugs or if the
supporting tech isn't yet ubiquitous), a lot of what he says may be
difficult for a small company to implement. Paradoxically, it also
sounds difficult for well-established brick-and-mortar businesses to
make the switch to user-centric design without some major cash going
into it. There's a lot to be gleaned from this book, though I don't know
that many companies can use all of it, at least not all at once. It's
worth a read though, if your business is in the market for a digital
overhaul.