Our two organizations, Northern Telecom Europe Limited and Oracle Corporation UK Limited, share a number of things in common. Both are striving to become world class in markets where technology is moving fast and market change is moving even faster. Both are responding urgently to the challenge of meeting the current requirements - and anticipating the future needs - of customers at the international, national and local level. We both recognize that customer and employee satisfaction now rank with market share as measures for business success. We accept that there are clear links between delighted customers and profitability, customer loyalty and long-term survival. We are committed to achieving excellence, both as business partners and as employers. There is already strong co-operation between the growing number of professionals in this field as they work together and exchange experiences for benchmarking and best practice studies. In this spirit of collaboration, we have encouraged Peter Donovan and Timothy Samler to share some of our early experiences with our customer-driven programmes and to stimulate further debate. Their book provides a wealth of guidance for any organization that has set its sights on delighting its customers and becoming customer-driven. The ten step approach to delighting customers breaks new ground and offers a blueprint for others to follow. It exemplifies the practical approach that is taken throughout the book.
