Authenticity - It's as Simple as What's Real

Michelle Morgan, Publicist for Harvard Business School Press, reached out to me this week as a result of my comments about customer loyalty. She sent a copy of “Authenticity,” by James H. Gilmore and B. Joseph Pine II, authors of The Experience Economy. I’m intrigued for a number of reasons.

I love reading and my desk is stacked high with fiction and non-fiction. While I enjoy marketing to no end, customer service and loyalty gets a huge percentage of my time because without that, marketing is worthless.

My blog postings on authenticity are part of my business theme. As I leafed through “Authenticity” I was struck by the number of times the word fake jumped out at me. It’s not my favorite word. “Walk your talk” gets closer to my sense of reality.

As a small business owner, I face the same considerations for my own loyalty programs, customer service promotions, and collateral materials. Building loyalty is an everyday, everyway thing. In fact, it’s more the little things that you don’t think about doing than the big planned gestures.

I’ll look forward to discussing Authenticity in more detail. My Dad, the most authentic person I know, is suddenly seriously ill. I’m traveling to see him.