My new book: Van klant naar fan (From customer to fan)

On 14 November 2026 my second book comes out: Van klant naar fan. In English: From customer to fan.

Let me be honest straight away: the book is published in Dutch. There is no English edition yet. I am telling you about it here anyway, because the ideas in it travel well, and many of my English-speaking readers have asked what I have been working on.

Van klant naar fan is a book about the difference between a satisfied customer and a fan, and how you make that difference with your whole team. It is the follow-up to Sales, Honest & Relaxed.

First sales, now fans

My first book was about selling. About having an honest, relaxed conversation without pushing. It became number 1 at Managementboek, the Dutch business book store. I am still grateful for that.

But after every sale, something new begins. The customer starts working with you. He calls your helpdesk. He gets an invoice. He speaks to a colleague he has never met.

What happens then decides whether he comes back. And whether he recommends you.

That is what this book is about.

My biggest insight after all these years: sales and fans, that is what every company has to do to be successful. You need to win new customers. And you need to turn those customers into fans. One does not work without the other.

Why I wrote this book

It started with a mistake of my own. In 2014 the director of a large organisation called me. I had worked on that customer for four years. They signed, my team started delivering, and that is where it went wrong. "Klaas, unfortunately we will not be continuing." I had only steered on winning the customer. I had never built a system that showed my whole team what turns a customer into a fan.

My agency WUA started in my student house on the Prinsengracht in Amsterdam and grew into a customer research firm working in 21 countries, for brands like Google, Samsung, Microsoft, Bol and ING. For fifteen years we watched hundreds of thousands of customers go through a real customer journey. It showed me up close how companies look at their customers.

I never forgot what I saw. Companies that did everything right. Good products, tidy processes. And still the customer gave a 7 or an 8.

An 8 sounds good. But an 8 is a customer. A customer who gives you an 8 will just as easily choose someone else.

A 9 or 10, that is a fan. Fans are happy to come back. They buy more. And they tell others about you.

The tricky part is that companies often think they are already there. Bain & Company asked 362 companies whether they delivered a superior customer experience. 80 percent said yes. Of their customers, 8 percent agreed. Eighty against eight.

What is in it?

The book opens with the email from France. It came from Marcel, the account manager who turned me into a fan in my first book when I bought a screen from him. His boss actually wanted him to push harder. A few months later that same director proudly put Marcel in the spotlight on LinkedIn. From one customer conversation to a whole organisation: that is what this book is about.

Then come three parts and eleven chapters. Every chapter starts with a story and ends with something you can do tomorrow. The chapter titles below are my own translations.

Part 1: The fan mindset starts with you

1. An 8 is not good enough
2. It starts with you
3. Which part of yourself do you select?

Part 2: The fan mindset in the team

4. The customer sees one company
5. Who leads whom?
6. Over the fence
7. How to organise fans
8. Everything is right, and still a 6

Part 3: The fan mindset every day

9. Listening as a habit
10. Know where you stand
11. 1% better every day

You read what weighed most in all those customer journeys: trust, and the feeling of being taken by the hand. You read why one health insurer scored twenty points lower than the rest, even though everything worked. You read about Mitchel Welling of WRA Juristen, who earned well over a hundred Google reviews with a gift box at the end of a tough case. And about the golden triangle: how three people around every customer make sure nobody throws them over the fence.

And you read how to turn a complaint into a fan, with the LEVER method from my first book: Listen (let the customer finish), Empathise (name how they feel), Verify (ask what is really bothering them) and Respond (say what you will do and when). Followed by the step that makes the difference: come back to it later and ask whether it was resolved to their satisfaction.

Who is it for?

For everyone who shapes what the customer experiences. That is more people than you think.

Your customer does not see departments. He sees one company. Whether you run the business, lead a team, speak to customers every day or work behind the scenes: you help decide whether someone gives an 8 or a 9.

What you will find at the back

At the back is the Customer Experience Model as a scan. 46 statements to score yourself and your team, so you know exactly where you stand and where your growth is.

And for readers, I have something extra: a free 30-minute introductory call with me. Simply to talk about your customers and your team.

How can you order it?

The Dutch book is available to pre-order in three formats:

Format	What you get
Hardcopy	The book in your hands, with the scan at the back to fill in with a pen
E-book	Ready in your account on the day it comes out
Audiobook	Read by me, so you hear the stories the way I meant them

Do you read Dutch? Then you will have it first on 14 November.

Want a taste of the ideas in English? Read what a fan actually is, or why an 8 on NPS is not a fan yet.

And here is a question for this week: which customer gives you an 8 right now? What would he need for a 9?