In a time when Kindles, Nooks, and a plethora of other eReaders dominate the market, paper books are struggling to remain competitive. I have been working closely with a client, a Russian oligarch who purchased a chain of bookshops. I asked this client — let’s call him Alex — why he made this investment, seeing as bookshops are consistently facing losses each fiscal quarter. His answer was simple: “I have a passion for books.”

Alex grew up in Russia’s socialist era, a period during which books were rare, expensive, or even illegal. The government decided which books pupils read in schools, and which were available in libraries. Like most of those who grew up in this era, Alex was determined to change this and make any books available to the public. Alex’s buyout was a strategic and passionate move that has its roots in resistance against this repressive system. Because of his passion, Alex spent over £50 million to save 4,500 jobs and, ultimately, to keep bookstores competitive in the eReader-dominated market.

Being a seasoned businessman, he sought to make bookshops more lean and efficient by streamlining processes with salesforce.com’s Service Cloud. This proved to be successful, as he leveraged the key advantage of physical bookshops: superior, personal customer service. Book-savvy employees recommended books to each customer, thereby engaging each customer personally.

We’ve been on-board for an implementation focusing on the services side of their business. Their goal is to foster personal relationships with customers for customer retention and loyalty. In order to achieve it, their customer service support system was moved in-house with salesforce.com’s Service Cloud to deliver enhanced customer engagement. With our implementation, not only were they able to cut case resolution time and improve customer experience, but also cut costs from outsourcing customer service.

Even before going live, I knew that the success of this implementation will profoundly impact their business as a whole. This bookstore chain is opening new stores each year, while most bookshops are struggling financially.

While working on this project, I consistently sought ways to improve their system processes by engaging in personalized conversations with the client. Having had two years of experience as a Bluewolf consultant, I know first-hand that projects are more successful when project teams are passionate about their clients and their solution. As an organization, we maintain an internal environment of trust, which, when introduced to our clients, creates long lasting collaborations. If we've learned one thing from Alex, it's that aligning passion and strategy ultimately delivers success.

Interested in learning more about how Bluewolf can help streamline your business processes to deliver engaging customer service? Check out The Essential Guide to Customer Obsession, or contact us to connect with one of our strategic consulting experts.