The Thank You Economy

Gary Vaynerchuk has important news for you: customer service is back and it’s critical for getting ahead in the connection economy.

The idea of this book was that in the old days, your relationship with your customer was everything. You served your local community with your business and word of mouth and repeat customers were your oxygen. You had to take care of each and every customer that walked into your store.

The corporate economy changed all that. National brands took over everything and big box stores pushed the mom and pop business out. Customer service became something to outsource to India or to a clerk making minimum wage since now price was the only thing that mattered.

Gary’s argument is that now the internet and social media have flipped things back. Now if your customer has a bad experience they can tell thousands of people. This is bad for the big brands, but good for you if you are willing to invest the time to use social media to your advantage and to interact with your customers in a way that was never possible before.

Here are my notes on the book:

• “Happy customers are worth a lot more than any other kind.”
• “People embrace social media because communicating makes them happy.”
• “The only thing that will never change is human nature.”
• “Culture changes, business has to change with it or die.”
• “There’s only so good you can make your product, so cheap you can make the price, so far you can go with your marketing budget, but your heart and your ability to connect are boundless.”
• “In the old world, customer service was essential. In the corporate world it gets sacrificed in the name of cost savings.”
• The Thank You Economy is the notion that manners and old school business sensibilities are once again critical.
• People have always wanted engagement with business, but during the corporate world they lost the power to demand it.
• Social media is a marathon, you need patience and determination to reach the finish line.
• Only 3 things can cause a customer to pay more for the same product: convenience, customer experience, and context (having a relationship with the company).
• At Vayner Media (his digital ad agency) he took away the time off policy. His employees can take as much or as little time off as they think they need. He says he cares more about his employees than he cares about his customers and he cares about his customers more than he cares about breathing.
• “Legacy trumps everything.”
• Quality content is still king, but now quality content needs to be followed up with quality engagement.
• “If your intentions are good it shows and it draws people to you.”

On this book I listened to the audiobook. I love listening to audio books that are narrated by the author and Gary brings a special energy to his narration (so much energy that you want to be careful hiking up the speed. I listened at a mere 1.2x and it was starting to sound a little fast). Plus he goes off script quite a bit making you feel like you are getting bonus content.