Giving Back!

15% of all profits from the book sales are given to a non profit organization. This year’s recipient is The Rural Organizing and Cultural Center, Inc. of Lexington, Mississippi. The contributions are used to fund their food and clothing program for under served children and adults in rural Mississippi.

The Award Winning Author, Michael D. Brown

Michael D. Brown is a sought-after speaker, Global management expert, and author of Fresh Passion: Get A Brand or Die A Generic, Fresh Customer Service®: Treat the Employee as #1 and the Customer as #2 and You Will Get Customers for Life and Fresh Passion Leadership: Become a Distinct, Branded Leader or Extinct Generic.

He has over eighteen years of experience helping companies and organizations including: US Army, US Marines, BP, Amoco, Capital One, Jason’s Deli, Murphy Oil, Omni Hotels, Houston Rockets, Wells Fargo, Marriott, Ford Foundation, and Hampton University - achieve results and has held numerous leadership positions at Fortune Global 100 Companies.

Michael is a leading authority on delivering fresh results. His expertise in revamping how companies provide world-class customer service and establish a market-leading brand has led him to assisting individuals in creating personal brands that allow them to achieve otherwise unattainable levels of personal and professional success. He is recognized for this best-in-class coaching strategy that yields consistent results and helping companies deliver double-digit growth to the top and bottom line. He holds an MBA in Global Management. Michael was ranked in the top 5% among high performing sales leaders and coaches in leading Global Fortune 500 companies.

Michael has motivated and helped thousands of entrepreneurs, military personnel, individuals, college students, graduates, small business owners, and entrepreneurs move from a stage of generic mediocrity to an exciting place where they become successful personal brands that yields exponential personal economic and professional success. His signature work Fresh Passion: Get a Brand or Die a Generic is the catalyst for helping individuals make the transformation and achieving world-class success.

Michael’s work has been featured in hundreds of publications and media outlets, including: Forbes, Georgia Public Radio, Business Week, NPR Radio, The Economic Times, Black Enterprise, Management Operations, Business Education Forum, Bits and Pieces of Leadership, Inside Business, The Managers Intelligence, Black Enterprise, and U.S. Business, Review.

Fresh Praise for Fresh Customer Service

  • "This book will transform your customer service experience. If you want first class results then you need to read this book." Willie Jolley, CSP, CPAE
    America's Leading Motivational Speaker-Singer-Author
    Author of It Only takes a minute to change your life
  • "A "must read" for any front line manger. Michael Brown provides great clarity into why it is important to treat the employee as #1. His insight is truly refreshing but also spot on." Ian D. Bishop, ChFC CMFC
    Branch Manger, Ameriprise Financial (An American Express Company)
  • "Michael Brown's new book, Fresh Customer Service, outlines a brilliant, hands-on approach for customer service. All industries should be looking at these fresh breakthrough concepts." Juanell Teague
    Author of The Zig Ziglar Difference
  • "So many have written on this topic and said pretty much the same, but Michael D. Brown has actually found a new and practical approach to this well traveled topic." Jim Cathcart, author of Relationship Selling, the eight competencies of top sales producers
  • "This book takes you along the path of not just thinking outside the box, but throwing the box outside the window. This is a new breed of customer service as you've never seen it before!" Nido Qubein
    President, High Point University
    Chairman, Great Harvest Bread Co.
  • "Empowering employees to provide world-class customer service is a sure-fire way to accelerate your success. This book is packed with powerful recipes to produce top results!" Tony Jeary, author of over 35 books, including Life is a Series of Presentations
    Coach to the World's Top CEO's
  • "In Fresh Customer Service, Michael D. Brown has given us a valuable “tool kit” which is theoretically grounded, yet simple and practical enough that my managers can use it on a daily basis. This book is must reading for those who supervise tough customer relations areas on campuses like admissions, records and financial aid." Dr. James E. Lyons, Sr
    Secretary of Higher Education, State of Maryland
    Past President, California State University, Dominquez Hills
  • "It certainly is a "fresh" and detailed approach to obtaining customer satisfaction." Cathy Hughes, Founder and Chairperson
    Radio One, Inc
  • "If you depend on customers for revenue, you must read this book. Fresh Customer Service will transform the way you treat your employees, which will transform the way your employees treat your customers, which will transform your bottom line." Dr. Tony Alessandra
    Author of The Platinum Rule and Charisma
  • "Michael D. Brown’s 6.5 Fresh Steps for delivering a world class customer service experience are truly fresh and right on! It’s a salad bar of fresh ideas for enhancing that most important experience… that experience the customer has with you and your business ." Sam Allman, Speaker, Consultant, and Entrepreneur
    Author of Heart and Mind Selling: The New Secret to Closing the Sale and Winning the Customer for Life
  • "Fresh Customer Service is a wonderful resource that helps managers and leaders change their priorities to keep business booming. I would recommend it to anyone who works with a staff under him." Calvin Mackie, Ph.D.
    Author of A View from the Roof—Lessons for Life & Business
  • "Until reading Michael D. Brown’s Fresh Customer Service I had no idea how much placing the customer ahead of the employees was damaging the bottom line. I am confident that if businesses adopt Michael’s strategies, profits, customer loyalty, and workplace morale will all increase dramatically." John Napolitano CPA, CFP, PFF
    Chairman and CEO of US Wealth Management, LLC
  • "Michael’s concepts are real and the results are proven everyday in top companies across America. Michael’s 6.5 Fresh Steps put the focus where it should be—on the employee!" Bob Furniss
    President, Touchpoint Associates

Editorial Reviews

The customer is number one is the mantra of good business, so why do so many feel like number two, or three? Author Michael Brown, drawing on his background as both a front-of-the-store employee as well as an MBA-trained and Fortune 100 consultant, says that the reason so many companies struggle with keeping the customer satisfied is that they are misplacing their efforts. By focusing on the needs of the customer, they are disempowering the employee, which can easily become a recipe for disaster.

For example, Brown documents an experience at a regional coffee bar. Although the line of customers snaked out the door and onto the sidewalk, one of the employees took time out to clean the front glass and dust the display shelves. When questioned, the well-meaning employee explained that company policy required them to clean every hour, regardless of how many customers were waiting for service. Instead of specifying an arbitrary clean-every-hour task, asserts Brown, this company would have been far better served to empower the frontline employees.

The young workers priorities were convoluted, he writes. She did not feel empowered to hold off on the cleaning, even though it was rush hour, nor did she understand the consequences her decision to clean rather than to serve had on the overall customer experience. Customer service became the casualty of a clean shelf. Using Smart Tasking, said company would have set priorities for each employee task, and fully explained the reasoning behind each. Employees must understand, Brown insists, how each task relates to the company s overall goal hopefully, to provide world-class customer service. Brown makes a compelling case for both customers and service employees everywhere: happy employees provide better service, and better service equals happy customers.

--Vicki Gervickas - ForeWord Magazine