Book Review: The Convenience Revolution, by Shep Hyken
People love convenience. If you’re ever wondering what’s going to happen in a given situation, the path of least resistance is often your best bet. Convenience, and minimizing resistance (friction), is the subject of Shep Hyken’s newest book, The Convenience Revolution.
We also reviewed Shep’s previous book, Be Amazing or Go Home, which presented habits and timeless principles for improving customer service. The Convenience Revolution, by contrast, focuses on innovations in businesses of all sizes that are creating a more convenient experience for consumers—and driving consumers to make choices based on convenience as the determining factor.
If you’ve ever made a purchase decision based on who had the fastest delivery option, or whose app was easiest to buy on, or who let you subscribe to a service, then you’re part of this trend Shep is highlighting and diagnosing. Convenience is king.
In the book, Shep identifies six major principles of convenience:
- Reduce Friction
- Self-Service
- Technology
- Subscription
- Delivery
- Access
As he puts it, “You don’t have to compete in all six – unless you want to – but if you can’t find one or two areas where your organization can raise its game, prepare to be disrupted!”
After introducing the concept of the convenience revolution and briefly going over each of the six concepts, the rest of the book digs into each principle one at a time, presenting examples of companies large and small who exemplify each idea. Each chapter ends with a “Takeaways” summary, and a series of questions that encourage the reader to think about possible applications to their own business. And these questions are legitimately thought-provoking – definitely worth spending time on. While the book reads quickly (it’s written very clearly), it’s worth slowing down between chapters to stew on the ideas.
If you’re absolutely crunched for time, the must-read chapters are:
- Chapter 2: The Convenience Revolution: An Overview – to get an introduction to the concept of the whole book
- Chapter 3: The Six Principles of the Convenience Revolution – for summaries of the specific topics in the rest of the book
- Chapter 4: Amazon: The Most Convenient Company on Earth – an in-depth case study of how a company can put all the concepts into action at once
- Chapter 5: Principle One: Reduce Friction – the one principle that in many ways includes all the others
- Chapter 11: When Does It Not Make Sense to Offer More Convenience? – for a sensible discussion of the limits and potential pitfalls of attempting to focus on convenience
You can find The Convenience Revolution on Amazon and in bookstores!
[latest_posts header=”Related Posts” limit=”” category=”29″]
