Chapter #1 | Building a customer centric strategy
Develop customer centric strategies Develop and utilise a customer journey map to identify gaps between current level of service and desired level of service across all touch points Align your customer service strategy across all touch points
Here’s a test. You find out that your boss’s boss is going to come in the next day and will be giving you feedback on your customer offer, based on their experience with you. Do you [a] stay back late making sure everything is just so and meet with your team to set out your expectations, or [b] do everything just as you always do? If you answered [a], then it’s highly likely you don’t have a customer centric culture, and you need a new strategy, stat! As a customer is a person, then so too a person is a customer. And unless you’re an alien, then I’m talking about you too. Every day, you experience what it’s like to be a customer and you probably talk to your friends about it too – especially the really bad stuff! Being customer centric is being human centric. It’s not forgetting what you already know, but applying it to the experiences that you create for others – not just the experience you get feedback on from your boss. At the end of this chapter you’ll be able to:
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Delivering the right customer experience is critical for all business success – and the stakes are high. Some studies suggest that failing to deliver a high-quality customer experience can result in a staggering erosion of your customer base by as much as 50% over 5 years. The customer has the power, and in particular, the power of choice. They know they can take their business somewhere else if you do not deliver on what they want and need. Thinking like a customer can be as simple as recognising those things that drive your own choices, and using this as a lens for the experience you create in your business. The following activities are a great example of how you can show your customers they’re important to you.
Anyone who has used a computer has likely experienced the frustration of the spinning coloured wheel of death. You know how it feels to wait for a page to load, most probably when you’re in a hurry to access its information. Everyone has faced the internal (and sometimes external) groan of the wifi dropping out. Let’s see what gets your goat in these SIX scenarios.
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This recent tweet so attests.
LEGO – A CULTURE DRIVEN BY THE CUSTOMER In 1932, a carpenter-turned-toymaker founded the LEGO Company with the belief: "Only the best is good enough." This has remained the guiding principle of the company. Today, Lego is one of the most prestigious brands in the world with a positive image as a fun and educational tool, and it is a leader in sales and profit in its sector. This has been achieved by insisting on high-quality standards for its products, and by putting the customer at the centre of its strategy.
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Even if you’re the most patient person in the world, this is not ideal. When you promise a service experience to a customer in whatever form – you need to deliver. When you fail to deliver, the disappointment is worse than if you had said nothing at all.
You were promised the ‘best seat in the house’ for a meal out with your partner, only to find you’ve been parked over near the bathrooms. Not only that, but the walkway is so tight, every time someone needs to ‘go’ they knock your chair on the way through. Which one of these rings true for you? “No worries, at least I can people watch more closely.” “Best seat in the house, my butt!”
You buy a gift voucher for a massage for a friend’s birthday but when your friend contacts them to ‘cash it in’ they are told it can only be redeemed during business hours. That certainly wasn’t on their website! They have booked it in but had to take time off work to do it, making the whole thing quite stressful for them. Where does your head go? “Oh well, at least they still got the massage.” “Their website was so much easier – maybe they should look at it themselves now and then.”
If you had have known, you might have at least been able to let your friend know. The online process was so easy in comparison to the real thing.  To truly understand the ‘voice’ of the customer, you need to have a comprehensive view of customer contact across all touch points and channels in your business. If online is not ‘talking’ to your customer-facing channels, it will all fall down.
You’re on the lookout for a new gym. You’ve got your laptop handy and the search is on! The first gym in your area has a website which pretty much just has their number and a couple of badly taken pictures of the inside. You’ll probably have to go and visit them or at least phone them to know more. The second gym is the same price but has so much more information on offer. They not only have a website, but also a Facebook page, Instagram and Twitter feed. You don’t even need to call them to sign up! “I’ll drive to the first gym next week when I have time.” “I’ll lock in a visit pass to the second gym online now.”
Social media is now often the first point of call for most of us. Whether we’re in need of information or want to place a complaint, we now expect to be able to jump online and get what we want. If your social media strategy is not one of your top priorities, you are sleeping! It needs to be agile and aligned to all other areas of your business.
You’re keen to get a new pair of sunglasses. It’s been a while and you’re not sure what style you want to go for so you think you might need to try on lots of different ones – plus it’s a bit of fun! You go into a busy store with lots of options, but other than a few pairs, they’re all locked away and every time you want to try a pair you have to ask for a cabinet to be unlocked. What are your thoughts on this one? “No worries, I’ve got an hour to get through this.” “Maybe another time, it’s too close to lunch for this.”
Of course, they have to protect their product but do they have to make it so hard to buy it? Any system or process that is not ensuring a remarkable experience for the customer has to change or may need a reboot. Remember: keep the customer at the heart of every decision and every policy and procedure.
The more layers and red tape a team member has to go through to ensure that a customer is given exceptional service, the more difficult it can be. Flatten your structure from a customer perspective – keep it simple – make it amazing.
You’re trying to negotiate a price with a helpful salesperson but they go to the back room to talk to their manager every time a decision needs to be made. They got you this far but now it’s crunch time they seem to not be able to follow through. How is this interaction working for you? ”Mmm, this is going well.” ”Maybe his boss should just come out and talk to me – it’d be quicker.”
Businesses that have a silo mentality – where certain departments ‘own’ elements of the customer experience – become a barrier to a truly customer centric environment. Lose the silos and focus on cross collaboration. Everyone owns the customer experience.
You’ve contacted your telephone company and worked through a query with a really friendly girl who solved your issue. You have another question but it needs to be passed onto someone else to have it sorted. When you get passed on, you find that you have to repeat all of your personal and account information you already went through the first time. “No worries, obviously they don’t share information with each other.” “Seriously, can’t they save all of my information and pass it on to each other so I don’t have to do this again?”
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Avoid these customer centric strategy killers: 1. Failing to deliver on promises 2. Inability to connect the dots 3. Falling behind the curve on social media 4. Systems and processes that are not customer friendly 5. Red tape 6. Lack of collective responsibility
For you and your team to play an effective role, you should assess your own level of customer centricity and strengthen it. Do you clearly understand the customer? Are you truly empowering your team to deal with customer issues? Does the customer always have a seat at the table when making decisions related to them? Do you make it easy for your customers? Act as a role model – and always be an ambassador for the customer.
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Merely adding customer centricity to your vision statement isn't enough. Achieving it relies on you taking a holistic approach to ‘how business is done’. When thinking through how this might look in your organisation, keep the following four points in mind:
Keep your customers at the heart of your business. Listen to them and respond quickly to their needs.
Digital technology can transform the customer experience. The most successful organisations invest heavily in improving their customer experience through digital solutions.
A customer centric focus leads to improved customer lifetime value. If you are passionate about your customer’s experience, they will be passionate about you.
You will be measured by the quality of your people. Teams who promote trust, build relationships and deliver outstanding customer service will be essential.
A brand that has mastered customer touch points particularly well is Apple. Steve Jobs, although well known for delivering innovative products, also cared deeply about excelling at all the myriad touch points throughout the “journey”; the product exploration, purchase, use and after use phases. Apple must be doing something right because as far back as 2011, it was reported that more customers visited the 326 stores in the US than the 60 million who visited the four biggest Disney theme parks. Take a look at the following article from Forbes which describes 20 of Apple’s touch points that help them outclass many of their competitors:
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Here’s a question. At a Walt Disney theme park, who is more important:
Do you know which roles within your business are the most important in regard to customer touch points? Who has the most influence over the customer experience? Which skills, knowledge, training and career paths are most important when considering the customer experience?
The Floor Sweeper
It’s true that Mickey Mouse is there to make the kids happy and that this character is a symbol of what Disney is all about. BUT there is not much individual interpretation or a unique skill set going on there. Anyone with a decent costume and some clear guidelines can probably do a pretty good job.
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Mickey Mouse
BOOM. Road Sweepers are responsible for supporting some of the most important customer interactions – they direct people to the bathrooms, tell people where to stand to get a good view of the parade and help parents find the nearest place to get a drink when their children are tired and cranky from hunger or dehydration. They have more interactions with guests and these interactions last a lot longer than those with Mickey Mouse. On top of all this, they have the ability to drive customer satisfaction in a positive or negative direction by the way they respond to them. Disney believes that the role is so important they have placed an incredible emphasis on fitting the right people and the right abilities to the role. A new Road Sweeper receives 46 hours of training before they are even allowed to do the role!
Whatever customer experience metrics you decide upon, it is essential that rewards and consequences are linked to the right behaviours. An example of a Customer Experience Metric (CEM) is the Net Promoter Score (NPS). Unaddressed customer feedback can have harmful repercussions, but if you develop the ability to gather and organise customer reactions, you can use them to inform and enhance your business. You need to link functions across all of your channels, especially on any kind of social media.
Unaddressed customer feedback can have harmful repercussions, but if you develop the ability to gather and organise customer reactions, you can use them to inform and enhance your business. You need to link functions across all of your channels, especially on any kind of social media. Airline delays are a common frustration. Not only do delays happen often, but people are pretty vocal about their feelings when their flight is delayed. JetBlue uses the power of social media to not only collect criticism, but to respond to their customers in a way that shows they understand, and can react quickly to their needs. Whether they send a public @reply or a private message to answer a question, they are quick to interact. They reach out to their frustrated customer within the hour.
Your frontline team becomes your brand. Their actions determine whether a customer becomes a brand evangelist or detractor. Connect them with the customer strategy – teach them to think for themselves and give them the authority to make customer focused decisions, on the spot. One obvious application is service recovery. If a customer calls to complain, an empowered team member can take the initiative to offer a solution. Ritz Carlton takes it a step further, empowering their team members to spend up to $2000 to delight a guest—not just to fix problems.
Tools that provide a 360-degree view of customer profile information, preferences and behaviours give leaders in customer centricity a more complete understanding of their customers. You can then anticipate a customer’s needs or actions and tailor messages or offers to them specifically. Tesco Clubcard is a loyalty card linked to a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) database. A CRM mines the data of each customer’s shopping journey. Tesco uses Clubcard to track which stores customers visit, what they buy, and how they pay. This has enabled the retailer to adjust merchandise for local tastes and to customise offerings at the individual level, across a variety of store formats. For example, Clubcard shoppers who buy nappies for the first time at a Tesco store are mailed coupons not only for baby wipes and toys but also for beer (data analysis revealed that new fathers tend to buy more beer, because they are spending less time at the pub).
Collaboration is key in a customer-centric operating model. Your business will need to break down the silos between departments and connect all processes across the business. The end result will be less internal ‘turf wars’ and inconsistent customer experiences, and more innovation. Google discovered that if you really want to create a truly collaborative and innovative environment, you need to create a common workspace that brings everyone together. The Garage, a community of people who are always learning and teaching each other new things, is innovative, cutting edge, and ultimately delivers the results of this incredible mix of expertise and knowledge to the customer. Check out Google Garage here:
Everyone within your organisation needs to understand how your company values are aligned to your customer experience. How can doing the right thing for the customer become part of your DNA? The Virgin Group have a clear vision about what they stand for in the eyes of their customer – value for money, quality, innovation, fun and competitive challenge. They will often use memorable symbols to help their teams translate this into action. In the bathroom of one of their offices, next to the toilet roll holder, you will see a sign: “This is the only place you will be ripped off at Virgin”.
Senior leaders need to connect with ‘real customers’ to truly understand their experience and keep them at the centre of all decision making. This ‘customer immersion’ process improves the value proposition and drives future business performance. At Credit Suisse, this is done by having senior executives ‘be’ customers by going through the process of buying a service online and in their branches. They then report back to senior management describing their experience and what needs to be improved from a customer perspective.
Decide what your critical success factors look like from the perspective of your customers and craft your company purpose to align and deliver on them. Tell your story. Nike creates an emotional connection with their customers through their tag line of ‘Just Do it”. They have turned this into an iconic, cultural mantra of motivation for everything from climbing Mount Everest to climbing the corporate ladder. This drives not only their purpose but those of their intended market.
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GRID IT Understanding your customer and how they interact with your business (directly and indirectly) is critical in driving improved value, repeat business and longevity of relationship. To deliver this and to be able to create a communication strategy which builds a conversation with your customers, it helps if you visualise the key touch points across different channels. Start the process by looking at the core purchase or service channels as these will be well-defined within the business. You should also consider the indirect channels such as word of mouth and customer reviews, to build a complete picture. Once you have an idea of the customer touch points and activities completed, a simple table can be used to map the customer journey with activities listed.
Before you rush out looking to create great strategies to improve your customer’s experience, think about whether you’re providing customers with what they actually want.
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It gives you an understanding of the customer’s experience It helps you explore how you can remove inefficiencies and inconsistencies, and makes sure your company and brand is brought to life It allows you to hone your message and communication with the customer You can identify innovation opportunities You can Identify ways to improve product and service design
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MAP IT A customer journey map is a very simple idea – a map that illustrates the complete sum of experiences that customers go through when interacting with your company and brand. Instead of looking at just a part of a transaction or experience, the customer journey map documents the full experience of being a customer in your business. Why is customer journey mapping so important?
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Congrats on getting through your unit to this point! So what have you done in this chapter? Well, you’ve:Looked at how to develop customer centric strategies Identified how to utilise a customer journey map to identify gaps between current level of service and desired level of service across all touch points Focused on the alignment of your customer service strategy across all touch pointsSo what now? We recommend you put into practice some of the new skills, techniques and principles you’ve just learned. This is the best way we know, to ensure you know what you need to be successful on your journey – know what we mean? Now, let’s get into the next chapter!
Represent your customer’s perspective. Represent the interactions as your customer experiences them. It often includes interactions that happen outside of your control, such as a social media interaction or a web search. Use research. Don’t only use internal teams to build these – that just makes a process flow. Bring in customers and build them interactively with internal staff. Represent customer segments. Your different segments typically have very different customer experiences. Your mapping needs to represent these differences. Include customer goals. A great customer journey map shows your customer’s goals at each stage of the process. Goals can change as the process unfolds. Focus on emotions. Emotions are critical to any experience, whether Business 2 Business or Business 2 Customer, and a great customer journey map communicates these emotions. How should your customer feel at each stage? Highlight moments of truth. Also known as touch points. Some interactions have more impact than others. Great journey maps separate those critical moments of truth from the rest. Measure your brand promise. A critical outcome of a great customer journey map is measuring how your experience supports your brand promise. If your brand promise is to be either effortless, highly customised, or unique, then your journey map is an excellent way to document whether your customer feels you are meeting that goal.
GAME RULES There is no ‘standard’ for a customer journey map. You can build it following high-quality design principles, or use smiley faces. You can make it a work of art, or something that looks like it belongs on a serviette. Just make sure you think about some of the following points:
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SO WHAT? Taking the time to look at your touch points and especially those critical ‘moments of truth’, not just as isolated mini-experiences but as a collective whole, is helpful. Look at each touch point and ask yourself: • What specific things are we doing at each touch point? • Are the touch points addressing customer motivations? • Are they working for our target customers? • Are all the touch points using the same tone, the same message, even the same words? • Are the touch points differentiating us from competitors and helping to retain customers? So, jump into your customer’s shoes. Taking an outside-in approach, as if you were a customer, will help you see where you are and what you need to improve. Digging deeper to understand where you are and why you’re there, will help you define where you want your customer experience to go. Armed with this information, you can build an emotionally engaging experience that will keep your customers coming back for more.
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