The Loyalty Effect: The Hidden Force Behind Growth, Profits, and Lasting Value

The business world seems to have given up on loyalty: many major corporations now lose--and have to replace--half their customers in five years, half their employees in four, and half their investors in less than one. Fred Reichheld's national bestseller The Loyalty Effect shows why companies that ignore these skyrocketing defections face a dismal future of low growth, weak profits, and shortened life expectancy. Reichheld demonstrates the power of loyalty-based management as a highly profitable alternative to the economics of perpetual churn. He makes a powerful economic case for loyalty-and takes you through the numbers to prove it. His startling conclusion: Even a small improvement in customer retention can double profits in your company. The Loyalty Effect will change the way you think about loyalty, profits, and the nature of business.

Frederick F. Reichheld is a director of Bain & Company, a leading strategy consulting firm headquartered in Boston with twenty-three offices worldwide. He is the leader of the firm's worldwide Loyalty Practice, and his pioneering work in the area of customer, employee, and investor retention has quantified the linkage between loyalty and profits. This work forms the conceptual foundation for the practice, which helps clients achieve superior results through improvements in customer, employee, and investor selection and retention. Reichheld's views have been quoted in Business Week and Fortune, and his recent publications include articles in Harvard Business Review and The Wall Street Journal. He is a frequent speaker to major business forums and groups of senior executives.