• Easy to Use
• Professional
• Responsive
• Timely
• Fair
• Knowledgeable

While these aspects are all true, the reality is much different.  Customers want what customers want.  (Sounds a little Zen, doesn’t it?)

And just like Willy Wonka’s Veruca Salt, they want it now!  The stark simplicity of this fact makes customer service such a challenging profession.

Customer Service Differs Between Companies – Dell customers expect a much different experience than Starbucks customers for example.

• Over the course of several weeks you may come to know your local barista, but you may never meet the support engineer who fields your technical questions.
• Product integration at Starbucks is whether you want a scone or a muffin with your latte.
• Product integration at Dell may involve whether a firmware driver enables Wi-Fi communications.

Customer Service Differs Between Customers – As another example, consider that different customers of the same company have different benchmarks of world class.

• Starbuck’s repeat customers may expect the server to remember their name and details of their lives.
• A mother of young children may want the servers to be sensitive that little Johnny may not need a mid-morning sugar rush.
• A business person new to the location may want the order to be filled fast.

Each of these customers holds different ideas of what world class is and the same holds true for our customers.  After all, customers want what customers want.

The pivot point is that because customers have different needs/goals our role in the customer service industry is to help our parent companies identify what those needs are and to provide for them in the best way possible.  Note that “best” doesn’t necessarily mean satisfying everyone all of the time.  But the further we are from that ideal, the closer we’ll be to Veruca Salt’s ultimatum which sounds a lot less Zen in your call center.

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Training your customer service representatives is serious business.  They are, after all, the face of your brand.  So when a staid company like British Airways makes a blunder like this they need to spend some time and energy recovering.

Your team that deals with customers may be the most important group of people that work in your company.  It is beyond comprehension that a company would choose to use the name of a man who has sworn to destroy so many innocents.

Shows how far out of touch BA is with its customers.  What should BA do to emerge from its mistakes and embarrassment?  Read more here.

The pivot point is that how your company communicates with your customer team is incredibly important precisely because that message gets communicated to your customers. Regardless of whether this ill-fated publication was approved by upper management or just slipped by, it makes a statement.  One statement for sure is that a company that can’t manage to catch a slip-up like this may not catch the real thing either.

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If you answered “serve the customer” you’re right!  American Express completed Customer Service Barometer research recently and found that customers spend 9% more with companies that provide excellent customer service.

But do businesses value their customers?  Judging from the survey results, no way!  Here’s how consumers think companies treat them:

With the economy still reeling and +/-10% unemployment, consumers are spending their earnings (or savings) more intelligently than ever.  They can’t afford to do business with companies that do nothing or act as if they are a nuisance.  Nor should they.

• Choices are Everywhere – How many Toyota owners (and now Lexus) are considering other manufacturers?  (Surprisingly, provided they are loyal owners of the brand, 86% will give companies like Toyota a second chance if they had excellent previous experiences.)
• Information is Plentiful and Accessible – Today’s consumers have more data, first-person input, and insights into the pros and cons of purchasing almost anything than at any time in history.  48% of consumers check out a company’s reputation before making a purchase.

When the service is good consumers deliver repeat business.  But when service is bad, 81% of Americans have stopped doing business with a company (50% give the company two chances to earn their business).  Less forgiving, I suggest only one chance.

Any company still struggling to justify the added “expense” of delivering great service ought to invest a few minutes to read the entire article.  The pivot point is that even though delivering service is NOT free, it does pay quantifiable dividends.

Which business would suffer from delivering better customer service?  Or better question, which companies would benefit the most from making immediate improvements?

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The Best Sales Channels:

• Generate Additional Business – If customers are willing to speak favorably about your company or its products, they’re likely to make additional purchases.  This willingness to purchase more comes at no additional cost, the next benefit of WOM.
• Are Cost-Effective – We often think in terms of acquisition costs.  Some businesses measure success with ratios of 3:2.  If it costs $3 to acquire a customer who spends $2 they declare victory.  This model only works with recurring revenue streams, when the customer lifetime value is considered.
• Reach New Customers – This is the true power of WOM advertising, and why Fred Reichheld ‘s The Ultimate Question have gained such momentum.  Once a company has set a positive experience in motion with one customer that good reputation spreads and other customers seek out the company’s products and services.

If WOM still seems touchy-feely (and the $1B doesn’t convince you) then it’s worth considering that any B-School professor would tell you that leveraging fixed assets is a wise choice; it magnifies benefits across a larger number of consumers.  The same applies to WOM advertising.  Respecting customer’s needs and supporting customer goals is really just good business sense.

The pivot point is that by listening to customers you can continually spread your acquisition costs.  Happy customers encourage others to buy whereas unhappy customers actually increase the barriers and impediments to sell.

With one billion reasons to listen to customers, where will you start?

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Jeff Bezos (Amazon), Tony Hsieh (Zappos) are examples of CEOs who have focused their efforts on developing/sustaining a culture that is centered on customer satisfaction.

The nineteenth century historian Thomas Babington Macaulay once said:

“The measure of a man’s real character is what he would do if he knew he never would be found out.”

What do the questionable actions of Bernie Ebbers (Worldcom) or Kenneth Lay (Enron) say about their personal morals and the culture they created?  What do the present day actions of Tony Hayward (BP) imply about BP’s values?

Just as a CEO can bring great value to the company by infusing it with a positive culture, so too will a negative culture spread throughout the company.

The pivot point is that a company’s culture, how its employees operate and behave in the absence of rules and oversight, determines its success.  What drummer does your company march to?  As a leader, have you deliberately crafted a culture that nurtures employees, cares for customers, and creates value for shareholders?  Or do you still have work to do to stifle politicking, backstabbing, and self-aggrandizement?

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Here’s how I graded the end-to-end experience.

• Responsiveness – Poor. Two-plus weeks for a response of any kind is just too long.

Read the rest at BNET.

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A personal experience with Eurostar reminded me of its recent public failures. Four trains broke down just before Christmas. Then, less than three weeks later, another train got stuck in the tunnel.  As for me, my experience will never make the front page of London’s dailies.

Read the rest of my latest BNET post here.

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The last customer will choose whichever vendor or product they want.  The customer controls every aspect of the transaction, including timing.  This customer [rightly] feels they have as much time as wanted.

The Customer Wants

• Uncomplicated – Is it easy to do business with this vendor?
• Responsive – Does this company listen to (and act on) my needs?
• Fair – Do I get more value from the purchase than the price of the product/service?
• Long Term Commitment – Will this company pack up and leave after I make my purchase or will they support me after they have my money?
• Fun – Why not?  Since I control when (and if) a transaction occurs, why wouldn’t I choose a vendor that is fun to work with?  After all, life is short and the experience (the ride) matters.

Companies competing for the last customer will try to figure out how to close the deal quickly so that they beat the competition and win the business.

Companies Must Determine

• Pricing – How low will I have to price my products to win the business?  Will that be low enough to beat the competition?
• Features – Do my products meet the customer’s needs?  Is it clear what our product costs?  What the product does?
• Treatment – Do my business processes support the purchasing experience?  How we will support the customer?  Is it easy for customers to make the purchase?  In short, have we done what is needed to ensure the customer’s success?

Clearly there isn’t just one last customer on earth.  But if we pause to think of how each of the stakeholders in the purchasing transaction think and act, we can learn how to treat how to customers today.  The pivot point is that each customer holds the power of the “last customer.” They can choose.  Which ways does your company cater to customer needs in order to earn the business?

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1. Why am I Here? – Map an employee’s role to the greater “cause”.  How does an employee make a difference?
2. Can I Make an Impact? – We may know why we are performing a job and how that job impacts the bottom line of the company.  But if employees see no possible way to succeed, they give up.  If our teams can’t answer “so what?” we end up with educated but ineffectual employees.
3. WIIFM? – What’s in it for me?  Employees appreciate rewards, but be careful.  For some the reward is accomplishing the task while for others the reward may come in more tangible forms.  Regardless, mismatching the reward with an employee’s needs breeds dissatisfaction and disengagement.

It shouldn’t be “news” that companies with engaged employees outperform those staffed by the “walking wounded”.  Given the preponderance of evidence (read this article on employee engagement or this Wharton article for more background) it’s clear we have a long way to go.

The pivot point is that even though engagement is a shared responsibility of employees and companies, it starts with us!

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This conclusion comes as no surprise to those we honor this Memorial Day.  Veterans of World War II and other conflicts recount numerous anecdotes of soldiers who fought because the people in their unit depended on them.  Sure, they fought because of personal danger, and the military may argue that soldiers must follow orders, but the greatest generation was so great precisely because they held themselves and one another accountable.

Sounds great in theory but best to start with the goals; accountability comes second.  Success in Business and on the Battlefield demands:

• Clear Objectives – How many times has your organization operated under the “Ready, Fire, Aim” plan?  Without clearly aligning people in the business you are guaranteed to fail.  Military leaders don’t order their troops to “go” without first pointing them in the desired direction.
• Coordinated Action – Clear lines of responsibility are as important as shared purposes.  If our people don’t know what is expected of them, we should be able to predict lackluster outcomes.  We can’t expect galvanized (or passionate) action if people flail about without a sense of how their efforts fit together.
• Recognition of the Consequences of Failure – Battlefields provide an inherent urgency and an amazing clarity of action.  In business our success/failure has little to do with “loss of life” yet we still benefit from speed.  Without speed we miss opportunities that our competitors exploit.  The price of failure in business will never rival that in battle but having a deadline (a threat, if you will) helps all of us focus on important aspects.

The pivot point is that companies must first be aligned around common goals.  Without a common foundation, shared accountability becomes an exercise in finger pointing… hope that thing’s not loaded!

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