Be Different or be dead

December 13, 2010

Why a charter of rights should be given as a gift to your customers

Source: Unsplash

Why a charter of rights should be given as a gift to your customers.

It’s about time we created a list of things that we, as customers, expect of the organizations we do business with. It should go something like this…

I, as your customer, have the right to…

— be respected by every employee I connect with;
— feel important as the person who keeps you in business;
— be listened to; no I mean REALLY listened to!
— be the center of attention rather than an annoyance who takes you away from your “real job”;
— guide you in the formulation of your internal rules, policies and procedures;
— determine the appropriate systems and processes by which I do business with you. I expect you to make it easy for me to do business with you;
— have a voice in who you recruit into positions that govern the service experience. I expect you will hire people who will move heaven and earth to take care of me;
— personalized marketing offerings that recognize my own personal needs, wants and desires;
— NOT be on the receiving end of product flogging. I expect you will create offers that expose me to new experiences that will make me happy and joyful;
— afforded the opportunity of giving you honest yet at times critical feedback on how I am being treated, knowing you will take my comments and make my life with you better;
— NOT be ignored no matter how simple and trivial my request of you might be;
— dazzling service experiences. I expect you to surprise me with gifts that you give freely with no expectation in return;
— feel the humanity in your organization. I don’t want to constantly confront technology that replaces people. I despise voice response systems and call centers that require me to wait up to 30 minutes for one of your people to answer while I listen to you tell me “Don’t hang up. Your call is important to us”;
— a deep meaningful relationship with you rather than being viewed as a commercial transaction where all that is important is the money exchange from me to you;
— be rewarded for my loyalty to you on occasion;
— be communicated with regularly in terms of what new things you have that may meet my needs and my feedback on how well you have been treating me.

Is that too much to ask in a world of fierce competition, plummeting customer loyalty and tenuous organizational survivability?

I think not.

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

• Posted 12.13.10 at 10:59 am by Roy Osing
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December 6, 2010

Every remarkable leader has these 16 simple strengths to use

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Every remarkable leader has these 16 fundamental strengths to use.

The most critical role the leader plays is to bring in the right “human essence” to their organization to ensure its success and survival in the long term.

These are the competencies remarkable leaders look for…

Lifelong learner — Look for evidence that prospects have been active learners. What areas are they interested in? Who have they learned from? How can their learnings be put to use in your organization?

Infection agent — the ability to “infect others” with the virus of your business plan is critical in terms of executing it. Some people have the interest, passion and tenacity to get others excited about advancing the cause.

Listener — you can’t discover customer secrets and create dazzling customer moments if you are not a 100% Listener.

Apologizer — a successful recovery act after you have screwed a customer around begins with “I’m sorry”. Make sure you covet people who do this naturally. Some can’t. Some don’t want to.

Human being lover — Dazzling customers is all about taking care of them and it can’t be done if your people would rather be doing something else other than dealing with humans.
Look for people with a born desire to serve. Memorable customer moments are possible only through employees that have the natural ability and desire to serve others.

High pain tolerator — greatness doesn’t come without disappointment and pain along the way. Resilience pays off.

Successful failure — Progress requires people trying stuff and failing along the way. That’s innovation. But failing is only useful and strategic if the learning from it advances the organization’s strategy. Failing begets learning.

Friend maker — deep customer relationships result in a revenue stream that goes on forever. Such connections depend on trust and friendship.

Storyteller — stories “breathe life” into a strategy. They paint pictures of what it looks like when a strategic game plan is being successfully executed in the field. You need people who can “light their eyes up” with a story about some aspect of your strategy. Talk the event.

Simple thinker — Execution is simplicity. Elegance that can’t be implemented is worthless. Think Simple. Find Simple. Dumb everything down.

Connector — think about this one from an internal perspective. Results (i.e. delivering what the customer wants) are produced through processes working across the organization and vertically.
This requires the ability to connect with others and build effective relationships with them. Service breakdowns often occur when a link in the teamwork chain breaks. Constant connections go a long way to avoiding such problems.

Reaction maniac — a huge aspect of surviving a customer screw-up is responding to what has occurred in the right (read as “Loyalty Building”) way. The truth is, a successful Recovery actually builds Customer Loyalty MORE than if the mistake never happened. Counter-intuitive I know, but true.

Service Recovery = FIX it + Do the UNEXPECTED.

Chillax-er — you really do need folks that react well under extreme pressure. STOP—PAUSE—THINK—RESPOND THOUGHTFULLY. This is tough to train people in (sometimes I think it is impossible).

Rememberer — a good memory will go a long way to dazzling a customer. It shows you paid attention the last time you connected with the person. It shows you care enough to remember.

Nano-inch seeker —  there’s no such thing as a silver bullet. Progress is made by having a distinguishing strategy and executing it flawlessly inch-by-inch-by-inch. Get an inch of progress FAST. Look for people who have demonstrated this capability.

Customer empathizer — can you look at yourself through the customer’s eyes? Objectively. Compassionately. ‘Solution-mindedly’. It’s not about your organization; it’s about the customer moment and you need practising empathizers if you want raving lunatic fans as customers (which we all do).

Competency coveting is the responsibility of senior leaders to ensure the right people with the right skills, experience, aptitude and attitude are in the right places to execute the strategy of the organization — delegation of this task is simply not an option.

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

• Posted 12.6.10 at 12:00 pm by Roy Osing
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December 4, 2010

Why business success depends on being different not by being better

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Why business success depends on being different not by being better.

The majority of business failure is due in large part to the lack of organizational survival skills. So what’s the solution? How do you develop these skills?

What are the things that an organization should do to immunize itself against the shocks of external events?

The answer can be boiled down to this: if you are not different you are dead or you soon will be

In other words, to be able to survive, an organization needs to position itself uniquely in the marketplace.

It must be able to carve out a special place in the customer’s mind so that loyalty is not only created but also has a long life. An organization must Be Different.

I’m sure you’ve heard it said that if the external environment is changing faster than the inside of an organization, the end is near.

You need to recognize and keep pace with the dynamics impacting your business, and if you fail to do so, it will not be a question of whether or not your organization will die; it will be a matter of when.

DiFFERENT beats better

The interesting thing is that you don’t necessarily have to be better than your competitors; you just have to be different.
I am not suggesting that you can get away with providing shoddy products and services or marginal customer service; rather that you find a way to redefine yourself as different from others in the marketplace and give customers what they want in the quality they expect.

The challenge is to create meaningful and compelling differences that will separate you from your competition, and to articulate these differences to your target customers in a way that will convince them to do business with your organization and no one else.

A meaningful difference is value, provided that it combines a high must matter factor to the customer with a low currently satisfied factor. It is something that is really important to the customer and is currently not satisfied by any supplier in the market.

Your business plan must be built around this notion.

You need to get the customer’s attention, clear the message clutter, and then tell them in very clear and specific terms why they only have one choice, and that choice is you.

This process requires that your organization develop and communicate a value proposition to the market that is truly unique.

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

• Posted 12.4.10 at 11:00 am by Roy Osing
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December 2, 2010

Why the ONLY statement is the way to standout and be successful

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Why the ONLY statement is the way to standout and be successful.

How to be successful? Do you have a career plan?

It all boils down to being able to state how you intend to satisfy the career decision makers in your organization in a unique and compelling way.

So how do you do it?

My ONLY Statement can help: “I am the ONLY one in the organization that ...” is a statement that will define your uniqueness and distinguish you from others.

But there are some caveats. Your ONLY claim must meet the following tests:

Relevance — It must address a relevant, compelling and high priority need for your organization.

To claim you are truly special at something that is not relevant at that particular point in time is futile and will get you nowhere.

For example, if your business has significant marketing challenges and you attest to your unique brilliance in inventory control you will not likely dazzle others and get a leg up on your internal competition.

Climb the mountain that is THE challenge for your organization so that when you make your only claim others will sit up and take notice because it resonates loudly with the issues leadership is struggling with.

Truth — It must be true.

Others must attest to the fact that the words and music line up; that you consistently demonstrate the values and behaviours expressed in the statement. If you claim to be unique at something that isn’t true or that you demonstrate inconsistently, others will see it and you will suffer a major set-back.

Consider this example of an only statement:

“I am the only person in my organization that has the demonstrated critical marketing skills and experience to lead the transformation required from a transaction based monopoly to a customer driven competitive business.”

Constantly measure your ONLY Statement to ensure you are delivering its value every day and that the uniqueness you claim continues to be a high priority for your organization.

Report card — Develop a simple ONLY report card and get your mentors, colleagues and other leaders to rate you on the ONLY claims you are making.

Their perception of you is reality so stay close to them and listen to what they have to say.

Keep your report card simple.

Here’s an example of the statements you could get others agree or disagree with as a way to measure how effective your ONLY Statement is:

▪️ ‘The company considers competitive marketing skills to be a critical competency that needs to be developed to be successful in the evolving competitive market’;

▪️ ‘I have a proven background of marketing experience that is relevant to transforming our organization to a competitive enterprise’;

▪️ ‘I have the necessary marketing skills to create our marketing function as a core competency that gives our organization a strategic advantage in the market’;

▪️ ‘I am the only person in our organization who possesses the essential combination of demonstrated experience and skills to lead our marketing team into the brave new competitive world’.

Based on how others see you in terms of relevance and truth, address any deficiencies in your ONLY and keep measuring.

Your best career coach is the ONLY Statement; let it be your guide to relevance and truth.

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

• Posted 12.2.10 at 12:00 pm by Roy Osing
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