The Secret Lives of Customers

A Detective Story About Solving the Mystery of Customer Behavior

By: David S Duncan

Narrated by: David S Duncan, Terrence Kidd

Length: 4 hrs and 39 mins

Publisher's Summary

A "detective story" that delivers key insights for any businessperson asking the questions: Who really are our customers, why do we lose them, how do we regain them?

Customers can be a mystery. Despite the availability of more data than ever before, everyone, from the CEO to salespeople in the field, struggles to understand who their customers really are, what they want, why they lose them, and how to regain them. 

To crack the case, start thinking like a market detective. 

David Scott Duncan shows how in his entertaining story of Tazza, a fictional chain of cafes with declining sales and leaders urgently seeking to understand why. The vivid characters of Tazza’s market detective force come to their aha moment when they finally understand why their most loyal customers walked out the door - and how they can get them back. 

The core of the Tazza story is a simple, powerful idea that upends how most businesses view their customers. Customers have “jobs to be done”. They “hire” companies to solve a problem or fulfill a need and “fire” them when unhappy. Duncan’s fresh way of thinking about how to understand your customers’ secret lives provides an innovative path for solving whatever market mysteries you face.

©2021 David S Duncan (P)2021 Hachette Audio

Critic Reviews

“Prepare to be hooked! With style, humor, and a lighthearted parable, TheSecret Lives of Customers will help you see your customers with fresh eyes. Dave Duncan explains the ‘jobs to be done’ concept better than anyone, and keeps you smiling, nodding, and eagerly turning the pages for more.” (Safi Bahcall, author of the international best seller Loonshots)  

“A page turner that reads like a mystery but filled with practical insights for sleuthing out what your customers really want. With a cast of characters you’ll easily recognize, Duncan’s story is a blueprint anyone can use to solve the mysteries of customer behavior.” (Mark Bertolini, former chairman and CEO, Aetna) 

"A grand slam: an excellent detective story, with key lessons that are easy to grasp and rigorous. Learning to understand customers has never been so much fun - and so easy.” (Jacques Goulet, president, Sun Life Canada)

So much more than I thought I would get!

I bought this book expecting getting some ideas about what to ask and how to ask customers questions and I did get that but I got so much more! I got a whole system about learning how to interact and interview customers to get answers about what customers want, why they behave in the ways that they do and why customers leave. A gem of a book.

A great way to understand jobs to be done

Really easy and quick read to help wrap your head around jobs to be done