Acknowledgments

Thank you for helping keep us on-brand!

Any strong brand is an orchestration of dozens, even hundreds, of component parts. The same is true of any book. They are never written in isolation, so thanks go everywhere, but responsibility lies with the authors.

We particularly want to thank clients and customers who engaged us in conversation on this topic and helped us think through the tricky conceptual parts of this book. And thanks to service providers, even when they gave us off-brand service, so we could experience at a strong emotional level what happens when a brand promise is authentically delivered—or not.

To all the named, and unnamed, researchers who have toiled over these concepts, crunched the numbers, and bothered to write it all down in business journals, we give you a resounding thank you! This work is not easy, and we are mindful of how the carefully measured thinking of academicians inspired our thinking on the subject.

To the many people who reviewed the text, especially in its early formative stages, we thank you for seeing the genesis of an idea that has the potential to impact customer service for a long time. And to the dozens of people who read the book before it was in its final form and still wrote glowing testimonials, we are totally indebted. To such inspired people as Felicity Stevens, David Walker, Mark Di Somma, and Grant Costello, with whom we have been privileged to work on brand projects over the years, we are indebted to you for shaping our initial understanding around brand strategy and internal branding.

Berrett-Koehler has again lived up to its brand promise in how its staff worked with us. Steven Piersanti, publisher, truly stayed on-brand in his no-holds-barred feedback, necessitating us to write and rewrite. We especially appreciate his approaching us about this book. Once Janelle suggested the idea for the book, Steven held on to the vision throughout two years of telephone calls. Our gratitude also goes to Kerenza Smith, who at the eleventh hour helped us to resolve issues we had been grappling with in relation to the creative design, Beverly Butterfield for final composition, and Sharon Goldinger for her excellent copyediting.

Our TMI colleagues, staff, and friends around the world have been exceptionally generous with their time and feedback. They include Jeffrey Mishlove, Lewis Barlow, Pamela Fedderson, Leah Fisher, Jennifer Schmicher, Bill Oden, Peta Peter, Ralph Simpfendorfer, Judith and Dick Davidson, Elcee Villa, Debbie Schultz, Vic Hewson, George Aveling, and a host of our colleagues. Thank you for your interest and thank you for living the brand TMI. And a special thanks to Howard Putnam, not just for his writing the foreword to this book, but also for participating in the vision of Southwest Airlines to show that branded customer service can be done!

Finally, we want to thank the many organizations and individuals who have asked us to work with them on this topic, either by consulting with them on their service branding needs or by inviting us to deliver keynote speeches on the topic. Every good speaker knows that there is no better way to grasp a topic than being asked to speak about it.