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Advance Praise for TOUCH
“It’s been over a decade since social media changed the way that businesses connect with their consumers and their employees. So, where are we at? In TOUCH, Mark Blevis and Tod Maffin argue that even though technology has enabled us to connect like never before, we’ve actually moved in the opposite direction. We have removed the real and human connections. It’s time to bring that human touch back to business. This book lays out the perfect blueprint. Want to be more human? Start with TOUCH.”
— MITCH JOEL, President, Twist Image, and author of Six Pixels of Separation and CTRL ALT Delete
“People want to do business with other people. That’s been true since the beginning of time. A hundred years ago our great-grandparents knew the people who sold them hardware or shoes or chickens. But in an era of mass media, we’ve lost the human touch. Now it is time to regain humanity in business and Mark and Tod will show you how in this well-written and informative guide.”
— DAVID MEERMAN SCOTT, international bestselling author of The New Rules of Marketing & PR
“TOUCH offers a refreshing look at the humanity behind our digital-centric lives, with practical tips for putting the humanity back in business. Make these TOUCHpoints your guide to the business of the future.”
— SCOTT MONTY, Executive Vice-President of Strategy, SHIFT Communications (former Global Digital & Multimedia Communications Manager for Ford Motor Company)
“Evidence continues to mount that customers are more likely to do business with brands that behave well. From demonstrating you’re serious about sustainability to every employee engaging in customer service, from producing content that genuinely helps people to finding third-party reports of great interactions with the company, mountains of research show that success increasingly depends on taking a human approach to business. Just in time, Tod Maffin and Mark Blevis have produced TOUCH, a concise, readable, and actionable guide to making sure your company has a soul. Of all the values a company should demonstrate these days when power has shifted to the customer, humanity should be at the top of the list. Whether your organization has been hammered for its compassionless approach to business or you’re just not satisfied with the degree of humanity already evident in your operations, you’ll want to not just read, but use, TOUCH.”
— SHEL HOLTZ, principal, Holtz Communication & Technology and author or co-author of many books, including Tactical Transparency
“Every now and again, a book makes you flip a LOT of your thoughts upside down and look at them from a different angle. TOUCH is that book. Maffin and Blevis force you into a strange world while pointing out that it’s where you wanted to be all along.”
— CHRIS BROGAN, CEO, Owner Media Group and author of several books, including Trust Agents and The Freaks Shall Inherit the Earth
“Tod and Mark are both some of the earliest pioneers of social media, and I have been watching them work for years. Heed their advice — it may make every difference for your business.”
— JULIEN SMITH, Co-founder and CEO, Breather, and co-author of Trust Agents and The Impact Equation
“Maffin and Blevis rightfully point out that in order to succeed in today’s competitive landscape, it’s time to start relating to our customers and employees as human beings. They offer simple but powerful steps to help your company move towards becoming more relatable, real — and ultimately — more successful.”
— KARIN BASARABA, International Association of Business Communicators
“Mark and Tod ask leadership to look at technology and ask ‘What will it do TO me?’ not ‘What will it do FOR me?’ Regardless of the size of enterprise you are in, technical change is constant and necessary. Tod and Mark show us in an easy-to-understand way that embracing technology correctly means understanding how it affects us on a human scale.”
— STEVE DOTTO, Host, Dotto Tech
Acknowledgements
Thanks to the great team at Dundurn Press, who led us through the process — specifically, Margaret Bryant for embracing the concept, Carrie Gleason for keeping us on track with our deadlines, Karen McMullin for her expert sales support, and Caitlyn Stewart for her assistance in early promotion of the material.
Our editor, Don Loney, provided incalculably valuable input on everything from consistency of voice to questioning the conclusions we’d arrived at. Don inspired us to be better authors.
Shane Potvin took our scattered design and turned the cover art into a piece of brilliance. Rob Cottingham lent his comedy brain for the opening chapter illustrations. And John Meadows braved cool temperatures to make us look good in photos he took outside of our hotel.
Martin Perelmuter and his amazing team at Speakers’ Spotlight believed in the project from day one and provided a great sounding board to help us glean what information business leaders could use in this kind of book. Special thanks to agent Dwight Ireland, whose initial germ of an idea led to this concept.
Thank you also to the long list of business leaders and experts we interviewed as part of our research. They shared their expertise and insights with us and we’re grateful for it.
Our friends (and business superstars in their own right) Mitch Joel, Scott Stratten, and Julien Smith all offered wise advice on the initial stages of finding the right publishing partner. They were also a great cheering section.
Tod’s Thanks
This whole project started when Mark and I realized, over lunch one day, that we were both separately working on roughly the same concept of this book. We joined forces and the result couldn’t have been better. Mark and his wife, Andrea, have been a great support, letting me bounce ridiculous ideas off their brains. Mark didn’t freak out when I (regularly) missed deadlines we both had agreed to. It’s wonderful to have a great coauthor; it’s even better to have that coauthor be a great friend.
My wife, Jocelyn, has been an enormous part of this project — helping research ideas, providing great input on structure, and just generally talking me down off the ledge when the stress of word counts and looming deadlines wreaked havoc on my brain. (A Post-it Note she left one morning on the printed draft manuscript reading “Work on me today! I want to grow up to be a real book one day!” was probably entirely responsible for two chapters getting done on time.)
My mom, herself a respected author, and my stepfather, Hans, both acted as quiet cheerleaders in the wings, pushing without pushing.
Special thanks needs to be paid to my assistant, Geneva Bokowski, who did much of the legwork in research, booking calls with business leaders, and coordinating the important publishing deadlines. Geneva is a force of nature and I’m lucky to have her on my team.
Martin Perelmuter and the whole team at Speakers’ Spotlight is amazing to work alongside of, and special thanks need to go to Cathy Hirst and Jackie Miller for their decades-long encouragement (brow-beating?) of me to write a book (usually phrased as “Hey — why haven’t you written that damned book yet?!”). I’m proud to have worked with
