Be Different or be dead

June 9, 2014

Why amazing customer experiences needs a responsible executive leader

Source: Unsplash

Why amazing customer experiences needs a responsible executive leader.

Most organizations continue to be product and service focused; they flog, or push products at their customers.

They push what they produce or supply at you. They claim their stuff is the best value at the cheapest price.

Research has proven conclusively that people get more long term gratification when they spend their money on experiences.

A family vacation. A Zip-line ride. Fishing off the beach with the grandchildren. A 4-hour snorkelling adventure. A movie with someone you love.

Sure, a new SUV is exciting at first but it doesn’t take long before it becomes a used car.

With customer gratification and happiness comes loyalty, which means that organizations must focus on experience creation if they want to stand-out from the competition and thrive.

A number of companies are waking up to the importance of experiences to their overall marketing program by appointing a Chief Experience Officer (CXO) to be accountable for the creation of “memorable moments” for their customers.

Marriott is one example. Their “EVP, Chief Resort Experience Officer Marriott Vacation Club International” sets the tone for what’s important to Marriott and what customer success looks like.

The CXO works across the organization to ensure that all functions work synergistically to provide a seamless dazzling experience for the customer. Not an easy task to be sure but one that is critically important to move the focus away from flogging products and services.

Dip your toe in the experience pool.

Declare that experiences are your end game.

Establish accountability at the most senior level in your organization.

Do it now.

Cheers,
Roy
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series

• Posted 6.9.14 at 03:01 am by Roy Osing
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May 26, 2014

How customer service can improve to be the best and unbeatable

Source: Pexels

How customer service can improve to be the best and unbeatable.

Organizations today are challenged to create the kind of experiences that result in customer loyalty.

In the face of empowered and knowledgeable customers, fickle customers (who will leave you in a heartbeat for better treatment) and hyper-competition (the rate of new business formation has increased like never before) there is a struggle to get the right formula to both attract new customers and keep the ones you’ve got.

What’s the answer?

There are two components involved in providing loyalty-engendering customer service.

Core service

The first component, core service, represents the basic foundation of your business.

It is your basic product or service without which you simply don’t have a business. In the telecom world core service could be defined as a stream of wireless data. In finance it could be investment advice. And in software development it could be a smartphone operating system.

Your customers expect your core service to work according to specifications. They expect uninterrupted wireless data service; they expect the financial plan to deliver the benefits promised and they expect working internet service 100% of the time.

As a result when you provide working core service customers rate you ‘ok’ and no more. However, when your core service is not working as promised you get an ‘F’ on your report card; they leave you and they don’t go quietly, they tell everyone how bad your organization is at serving customers!

Bottom line: your core service has to work all of the time as promised.

But don’t expect loyal customers when you do.

Loyalty comes from the second component of serving customers - the service experience.

Service experience

Whereas core service is what you get from an organization, the service experience is how you feel when you get it. Or it’s is the way you are treated by the organization when you do business with them.

If the service experience you provide is memorable; if it takes their breath away; if it blows people away; if it WOW’s them; if it dazzles them, you get a ‘A’ on your service report card.

And you are rewarded with customers telling others how great you are; they stay with you at least until you deliver a de-dazzling event which puts everything in jeopardy.

So, how to create customer loyalty?

Provide core service in a satisfactory manner all the time - consistency is key here.

Once you have risen to this challenge you have earned the right to move on to loyalty building by providing dazzling service experiences every time a customer touches you.

Cheers,
Roy
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series

• Posted 5.26.14 at 05:38 am by Roy Osing
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May 5, 2014

For the best customer experience, who should set the rules?

Source: Unsplash

Some organizations talk about providing customer service but what they really mean is enforcing their rules that define how customers are “allowed” to do business with them.

How they buy a product. How they get information on products. How they pay. How they register a complaint.

Customer service isn’t about controlling people. Nor forcing them to do things they don’t want to do.

It’s about serving them.

Who typically influences the rules that control customer engagement? Internal Auditors. Systems Analysts. Process Engineers. Efficiency Experts. All focused on “the inside”.

Something’s missing.

It’s about time the real “C-Suite” be invited to help design the customer engagement process and the rules that should govern it.

Do you regularly review your rules, policies and procedures with your customers?

Do you allow them to help determine what they should look like?

Cheers,
Roy
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series

• Posted 5.5.14 at 03:58 am by Roy Osing
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April 28, 2014

Effective leaders hate problems; they expect solutions

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Don’t bring me the problem; bring me the solution — Roy, on the receiving end

My best boss and mentor declared this whenever someone tried to pass a problem to him; he would have nothing of it.

He was different from many of his peers who felt obligated to be the problem solver and therefore “force” his direct reports to depend on him.

As a direct report, I wanted to learn about the business and solving problems was THE best way to do it. Having my boss provide all the answers didn’t help teach me the business and it certainly didn’t enable me to grow.

This was his approach.

1. He would insist that our problem discussion was focused on the solution I thought would work.

2. He insisted that I identify a number of potential options with pros and cons of each.

3. He expected I did my homework in terms of the customer value each option would create. This was the number one criteria he used to judge the ranking of the options I presented.

4. He probed each option; asked me tons of questions; took a copious amount of notes.

5. He asked me to consider our discussion for 24 hours before deciding on the solution I thought was best.

6, He directed me to advise him the direction I was taking.

7. I was held accountable for the impact of my decision. I had to report back to him in 30-60 days on the results.

That was it. I defined the problem; outlined a range of potential solutions with the pros and cons of each; he added value through his questions; I made the call and was held accountable.

I learned, felt respected; developed leadership skills and mentored others on the same approach.

Cheers,
Roy
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series

• Posted 4.28.14 at 03:13 am by Roy Osing
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