March 8, 2010

Can a Customer Create their own Dazzling Service Experience?

BE DiFFERENT or be dead outlines the philosophy of serving customers with the objective of dazzling them and gaining their loyalty.

It occurs to me, however, that there are some things that we, as customer, can do to promote and encourage our own service treatment that will dazzle us. So just maybe we can control our own service experience destiny.

In no particular order of priority, try these things and see what happens:
- engage with the server. Instead of taking the ‘ugly customer’ position where you are expecting great treatment, assume the ‘equal’ position and have a friendly one-on-one conversation with them.
- don’t demand things, ask for them. Demanding something in an authority position may get you something that you don’t expect!
- notice their name, remember it and use it. But PLEASE do it with a ‘I like you’ flavor.
- get to know something about them to show that you care about them as a human being. Learn a ‘secret’ about them and rainse it in conversation.
- help them serve you. For example, arrange the table when your food comes and hand them glasses that you don’t want. Don’t sit there in your authoritative perch and watch them struggle to take care of you.
- what you put out, comes back (‘The Secret’, remember?). In the service world this rings true because of the human interaction intensity. Treat people with kindness and respect and MAYBE, just MAYBE you will get the same treatment back.
- tip generously for dazzling service. The Tip is a medium of communication, and if you want a repeat performance show that you are delighted… with your wallet.

There you go. Your behavior as a customer CAN make a difference to architect a dazzling experience. It won’t work every time, but even one in five still makes it worthwhile doesn’t it?

Cheers, Roy

Remember to follow me on Twitter

Related Blogs
The Serving Customers Model
Serving Customers NOT Providing Customer Service
The Four Steps to Dazzle Customers
Customer Secrets

Posted 3.8.10 at 08:16 am by Roy Osing | Permalink | Comments (0)

March 5, 2010

Twenty Attributes of a BE DiFFERENT Leader

There are always conversations going on about what a leader is and what attributes they possess. I have participated in these on an opportunistic basis; here is a taste of my consolidated view.

Stay tuned for the complete version in my soon-to-be-published book ‘BE DiFFERENT YOU: Winning on the Inside’

A BE DiFFERENT Leader:
1. creates discontinuity in their organization to expose opportunity for competitive advantage and growth.
2. makes people feel uncomfortable with their love of change.
3. is intolerant of sameness.
4. is at ease with uncertainty.
5. inspires people to get out of their comfort zone.
6. learns voraciously and contunuously
7. practices the art of Constructive Emulation: go find someone else’s good idea and make it GREAT for you.
8.always push the evelope wanting to extend the degree of change required.
9. create followers. Followers find leaders.

10. is a customer addict and models this behavior to the rest of the organization.
11. serves people not commands them to action.
12. is the consumate story-teller, breathing lfe into the organization’s strategy by providing examples of successful execution.
13. bashes barriers to progess on the inside to make it easier for people to get their job done.
14. constantly and passionately communicates the organization’s vision and strategy to capture the hearts as well as the minds of people.
15. asks ‘how can I help’ rather than commands ‘do this’.
16. gives hope to people in times of chaotic change.
17. turns Brave Ideas into Crude Deeds.
18. is Anal about execution.
19. makes decisions with incomplete and imperfect information.
20. is good at anticipating future trends and events, but is GREAT at responding to the random and the unexpected.

If you can check-off all twenty, consider yourself a perfect BE DiFFERENT Leader (but remember there’s no such thing as perfect in anything - assess yourself again!).

If you can honestly say that you exhibit half of these leadership dimensions you are well ahead of 99% of other ‘leaders’ in business. Well done and now focus your work on the remaining 50%.

Cheers, Roy

Remember to follow me on Twitter

Posted 3.5.10 at 07:14 am by Roy Osing | Permalink | Comments (0)

March 2, 2010

Empowered Customers Rule!

There is a compelling case for Customerizing your organization in current market and economic conditions. Making a right-angled turn from pushing products and services at people to determining what their individual desires are and creating VALUE to enhance their lives.

Yet it is amazing to me how many companies don’t get it. They continue to market the way they have done in the past, believing what worked then will get them to where they need to get to in the future. It won’t work. We all need to look at the evidence and then take action to renew our organizations to SERVE customers not flog at them.

Here’s the evidence that customers are empowered and show no sign of letting g of their new-found power:
- customers are avid researchers, a capability made possible by the Internet. They spend copious time analyzing various suppliers and what they offer before making an informed decision. Businesses better respect the intelligence customers have and their willingness to impose themselves for their own good.
- they make faster decisions than ever before as cyber space provides real-time information for them to process.
- customers are becoming the subject matter experts in the fields they must research to get the value they desire.
- switching suppliers is easier than ever before as options become more numerous and customer muscle tone improves.
- there is almost a limitless number of competitors to choose from; the Internet is giving birth to most new business formation.
- customers have leverage on the prices they pay for the value they receive. And they are becoming astute negotiators that can’t be pushed around.
- expect loyalty to be the illusive challenge if you don’t dazzle them. Customer fickleness is on the rampage and is ravaging organizations not sensitive to the serving philosophy.
- people are suddenly mirroring common business behavior and are inflicting pain on organizations when their needs aren’t met. They are just not taking it any more!

Ignore this evidence at your own peril. The control has moved from organizations to those that they serve.

Winners will be those organizations that first, recognize the empowerment shift that is rapidly upon us and, second, adopt BE DiFFERENT Practices to serve their customers in a compelling way that is unique versus the competition.

Cheers, Roy

Remember to follow me on Twitter

Related Blogs
Serving Customers NOT Providing Customer Service
The Four Steps to Dazzle Customers
Customerize your Marketing
Marketers: You are in the VALUE creation business

Posted 3.2.10 at 08:02 am by Roy Osing | Permalink | Comments (0)

February 27, 2010

Customer Learning: Beyond Market Research

A critical component of what I call Customerized Marketing is Customer Learning: the continuous process of developing a deep understanding of the customers you have chosen to SERVE.

It’s an organic capability to be acquired in your own organization rather than one which can be outsourced to another firm. Why? Because you nurture and retain the things that will distinguish your organization from the competitive hordes, and Customer Learning is one of these ‘things’.

People often ask me what the difference is between Customer Leaning and Market Research. Here is a side-by-side comparison....

Market Research:
- evaluates the market periodically
- can be outsourced to an external firm
- is viewed as a study
- takes a snapshot of a customer at a point in time-
- takes a narrow view of the customer
- describes the ‘average’ customer
- knows little about each individual studied
- uses few segmentation variables

Customer Learning:
- is an ongoing process
- engages all employees
- is considered a core competency of the organization
- looks at the customer continually
- looks a the customer holistically
- seeks to understand very small groups of customers
- targets knowledge on individuals rather than the ‘average’ person
- uses many segmentation variables to obtain robust information on many unique customer groups

The bottom line is that there is a role for Market Research, but it won’t get you a BE DiFFERENT advantage in your market. Invest time and energy in building a Learning capability in your organization and you will be handsomely rewarded.

Cheers, Roy

Remember to follow me on Twitter

Related Blogs:
Customerize Your Marketing
Customerize Practice #1 Create Holistic Value Based Offers
Customerize Practice #2 Institutionalize Customer Learning
Customerize Practice #3 Discover Customer Secrets

Posted 2.27.10 at 08:00 am by Roy Osing | Permalink | Comments (0)