Customer: Dynamic business asset

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Steve Jobs with his extraordinary mental capacity, pointed out he made several mistakes in his efforts to formulate the fit for a “cohesive larger vision” until he realised that no matter how amazing your technology is “you must work back from customer experience to technology” and not the other way round.

Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Atlantic, noted that “organisations that do not have respect for customers and customer service will surely go bankrupt.” Jeff Bezos said that there would have been no amazon.com without the customer; and customer obsession as a deliberate brand strategy. “We put customers first and invent on their behalf”, he added. Gary Vaynerchuck, a Soviet-born American entrepreneur, author, speaker, and Internet personality said “the real job of our organisation is to make our customers the top priority.”

Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos, an incredibly successful retail organisation, disclosed that the secret of the company’s extraordinary performance is the customer. “Our investment is totally on customer experience.”

The customer is the boss. He is the enabler of profitable organic growth with consistently improving margins. He is the fulcrum for creating differentiated and value added brands. He is the foundation of successful innovation and of paramount significance in progressively growing profitability and market share. He is also the pivot for measuring the attractiveness of the business.

There was a period in the evolution of business activities when market place was the “all important”. That is, how successful organisations had made accessibility to their products easy. Then, we moved into the era of the efficiency of products and services. During this period, organizations grew massively in scale. Today, there is a convergence of the three; the market place, the product or service and the customer. Undoubtedly, the customer is the king. He decides whether or not to buy a product or service. He determines not only choice, but also Customer Relationship Management (CRM), brand campaign and awareness, net promoter score and design ethics. He is the powerhouse of consumer understanding, consumer insight generation, insighting process and the building as well as management of consumer communities and the subgroups.

In supply chains, customer determines change initiatives and business strategies.

Today, in the face of very challenging economic climate especially after Covid-19, organisations that want to successfully weather the storm and be profitable, must give the necessary attention to customer experience and customer experience management.

We must be intentional about market experience management. There must be the necessary mindset for it and with determination, we must agree on a well-defined customer experience strategy and effectively execute it.

Jeanie Walters, a consultant on customer experience management said “corporate goals and values must be aligned to our mission and vision on what we want to do for customers.”

We must take the foundational pieces and break them down to measurable action items. Walters said there must be a clear vision of what customer experience means to the organisation, defined goals for leaders across board and we must clearly lay out how each goal will be measured for commensurate success.

Each leader must understand his role and the fact that the effectiveness and success of the strategy is “success for him and his team.”

Please note that technology is the tool and the enabler. It will definitely help us dig deep and understand the customer journey. That is, customer feedbacks and voice of the customer programmes or the holistic view of the customer journey but the operational dashboard must work with operational metrics. There must be a fit.

You cannot succeed in these challenging times without a well-articulated customer experience and management programmes to monitor the customer regularly, quickly generate new insights and provide for them appropriately.

Another great outcome of the Customer Experience Programme is the impact on corporate culture. It ensures a customer-centric culture with consistent and effective management of positive customer alerts and feedbacks. When you follow-up on issues you will surely achieve “partner for life” solutions. The three factors for achieving outstanding successes are, your people, process and technology but as you know, your people are the most important asset.

Herb Kelleher, co-founder and former CEO of South-west Airlines, said: “We honour, respect, protect, reward and care for our employees; and they will in turn treat each other in a warm, caring and hospitable way.” This is transmitted to the external customers who are expectedly treated in a warm, caring and hospitable way.

The greatest number of customers must be brought into this loop. Our interactions with them (the moments of truth) must improve on touchpoints to create extraordinary experience that will dramatically improve customers’ loyalty to products and services. Make sure customers receive value, meet their expectations and give them pleasant surprises. Manage their emotions in such a way that they are always happy and are gladly telling others to patronise your brand. Loyal customers must remember the STORY and must always get credit for being loyal.

Insights on the CUSTOMER

The customer is the quintessential or ultimate growth asset in business. You must understand him at the rational and emotional levels in order to fully “grasp” and build value on his needs and aspirations. You must identify with him, respect and serve him by way of your products or services.

You must see things through his eyes, understand his reality for meaningful insights and then apply your innovation resources to products and services that will make his life’s experiences inspiring and satisfying.

Lafley and Charan used the umbrella word “who” to describe customer’s detailed understanding and deep insights. To fully understand and segment the “who”, you must use the “power of observation” in order to imaginatively connect with the customer and serve him “sure-footedly”.

To create total delightful experiences from purchase to usage, you must earn the loyalty of your “who.” You must know him to understand the market place dynamics. identify the gaps they perceive in comparison with your competitors’ offerings. You must co-create and co-design your offerings with them. Also, identify the broader customer group and engage it for profitable deeper market penetration.

Do not compete with “price”. The premium to be paid on your products and services must signpost utility, uniqueness and reliability.

Ram Charan said organisations must listen to customers “with ears, eyes, heart, brain and the intuitive sixth sense”. Henry Ford, the founder of Ford Automobiles, noted that “If I had listened to the marketplace, I would have built faster and cheaper horses. But what the customer really wanted was a way to travel that is easier, faster and gave more freedom.”

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