Customerspectives

How to attain focus in your customer experience and retention efforts

If you're a senior manager, you want to get and keep more customers. You even seek to be good to your customers, and your employees. And you're concerned when it seems customer service isn't all it could be. Employees don't seem to feel the same obligation to treat customers well as you do.

But it's not the employees' fault. It's yours.

Sorry to break it to you, but if you're not providing some type of focus around what you mean when you say "we need to improve customer experience," your employees have no way to make specific, actionable and measurable strides in that area.

The 2 steps to better customer experience

Step 1: You must hone in on your "differentiation." This is not the reason a customer might pick you the first time. It's the reason a customer comes back a second time, or chooses to stay with you. For example, if you have a shoe store, and a mother walks in to purchase a pair of shoes for her 5-year old son because she saw a pair of sneakers on sale in the window, she will need a reason to come back a second time to buy a pair of shoes for her daughter. What is that reason?

Step 2: Communicate that differentiation clearly to your employees, and then empower them to identify ways to "operationalize" that differentiation. It's not enough to ask for their buy-in. You must ask them to find the opportunities to improve - based on your differentiation. By providing a focus, you allow employees to use their brains, to engage and create answers. They gain ownership over the customer experience.

Provide a differentiation - something for an employee to connect with that's more than "create better customer service" - and you'll find there's an added energy and sense of engagement.

That alone will dramatically improve customer experience.

Want to improve customer experience? Ask your employees.

I've seen it happen often: the senior management team comes up with some fabulous "customer service improvement" initiative (maybe they used a fantastic consultant). They are excited about the plan and then communicate it to the front-line employees. The leadership team thinks the big kick-off meeting went really well.

And then nothing happens. Why?

Too frequently, there is little about an initiative like this that is for or about the employees. There's no real incentive to do the work involved in making changes to process or service. Also, front-line, customer-facing employees can often tell immediately that the "improvements" will probably not improve anything - for the customers or the employees - so why bother trying. Finally, workers have been trained to expect senior management to lose its focus after a few months, so the effort will die on the vine anyway.

So, what's a leader to do?

It's really pretty simple. Let the employees figure it out. That doesn't mean you aren't involved. But you must make front-line workers (as well as other operational areas) an integral part of any team that's exploring ways to significantly improve customer experience. After all, they see the opportunities and gaps in service every day; they aren't guessing from a corner office.

And more importantly - if your front-line folks help to form the solutions, you don't need to beg them for buy-in and effort. They know it will help, because it was their idea!

Show me a company with high customer loyalty and low employee engagement - I dare you

It's a challenge because, as far as I can tell, companies with very high customer loyalty and low levels of employee engagement simply don't exist.

Look at all the usual suspects - Apple, Southwest Airlines, Zappos, etc. They are the iconic examples of high customer loyalty, retention, even passion. Look at the Container Store, at Ritz-Carlton. To a company, employees are highly engaged, empowered, even impassioned. There are different reasons from one business to the next. It involves who they hire, how they train, how they incent and measure performance, and - most importantly - the culture itself. The means to the end can be slightly different, but the end itself is the same: when employees care, it shows.

More importantly - when the employees don't care, it shows!

It might be possible to have engaged employees and not have the highest possible retention rates. But if you start with disengaged employees, you've already shot yourself in the foot. You can't get there (high retention) from here no matter what you do.

Regarding your customers, are your intentions honorable?

Maybe you don't think about your customer relationships in terms of honor. Maybe you don't think about customer experience much, one way or another. You might have some customer service training, some processes, some signs on the wall.

But it all starts with your intentions. Just what are they? If you don't consciously decide what you're trying to accomplish, and how, the resulting customer experience becomes a crap shoot.

But here's the bigger point: intention is necessary, but it's not enough. The intention is square one. Decide on, and commit to, your intentions for how you want to treat your customers. Then you must execute. Your intention as such has nothing to do with how your customers feel about you until you execute against it.

When you build a customer experience based on your positive, specific intentions, when you thread your intentions through the fabric of your culture, you have a chance to create great customer experiences. And that's what translates into crazy loyal customers.

It's not about the Media, It's About the User/Customer Experience

Fast Company has a story, Why User Experience Is Critical To Customer Relationship, in its latest issue that rightfully states we shouldn't approach all the new and different media as platforms where we just want to be "present." Rather, we should use the media and technology to build valuable customer experiences.

Seems obvious.

Granted, it's a much more complicated world and customers are more places, doing more things (sometime at once) than in the past. And it seems a foregone conclusion that you should be where your customers are.

But how could the value of these exposures and interactions be judged by anything other than what it does for the customer? Haven't customers always made decisions and behaved based largely on how you treat them and what the perceived value is?

Whether it's about always sincerely smiling and welcoming a customer into a store, or remembering the customer's name at the community bank, or giving a good customer a special discount at the dry cleaner, we've always been judged by customers based on the experience. No reason it should be different on Facebook, through your mobile app, or on your website.

It's always about the experience.

How customer focus drives culture

You can sense it, can't you?

When you walk into a company - in any industry - you can tell after spending a little time if they have their act together. You can see it in the employees' eyes. That glimmer of mission, and energy. And you feel it in the way they interact with each other and, of course, with their customers.

Companies with a strong customer strategy have a focus. They know what they are trying to do. They aren't as political, they don't have endless meetings. In short they are engaged.

It's not about a two-paragraph mission statement, or a grand vision that borrows phrases from other visions that talk about "world class" or "high quality."

It's about simple, focused, and yet full of purpose.

Got focus?

In tough times, commit to your customer strategy for a better bottom line

Many businesses continue to struggle in this difficult economy. It's harder, and more expensive, to acquire new customers than ever. Some companies turn the screws down on cost (a reasonable step), but few take the time to consider if they have an effective customer strategy and plan that will enhance the bottom line.

Consider that bumping your customer retention up by just 2% has the same financial impact as reducing costs by 10%. Which seems more realistic?

It's interesting that almost any truly successful company has a specific customer philosophy, but it's never the exact same philosophy. Apple, for instance, is totally committed to the product - the innovation, functionality, aesthetics, everything. It drives hiring, planning, and execution. Do they do extensive customer or market research? No, because they aren't committed to what the customer says she wants; Steve Jobs instilled the drive to figure out what the customer will want. Customer focused? Absolutely, and in a specific way.

Zappos, on the other hand is committed not to the product (it's basically a distributor), but to customer service. While a lot of companies say they're committed to customer service, the proof is in the pudding. You see Zappos' commitment not through process or lip service, but through employee engagement. It's been shown that engaged, empowered employees love doing the right thing for customers. Any company that sends its new hires through two weeks of training and then offers those folks $2,000 to walk away no questions asked, finds and creates engaged, loyal employees. And that drives incredible customer service.

So what's your core customer philosophy and strategy? If it's not obvious through the way your business walks and talks everyday, you need to start figuring it out. That's the bottom line to whether you will succeed or fail today.

There was an article in the Harvard Business Review quite a few years ago that's become something of a classic, entitled "Management Time: Who's Got The Monkey?"

The piece described a scenario wherein employees walk into a manager's office, lay a problem (or "monkey") off on the manager's back, and then stroll out again. In short, the point was that managers should delegate more effectively, which meant not allowing everyone to pass off their monkeys. Interesting metaphor, and it came to mind in a slightly different context recently when I was dealing with my bank.

I was trying to do something relatively simple (or so I thought): stop a monthly automatic debit that had been set up to automatically pay the office rent. Lease was up, no need to keep paying. Yet, I couldn't figure out how to do it online. And the kind folks on the 800 customer service line couldn't figure out how to do it, so they referred me to the e-banking service people. The e-banking rep didn't know how to do it, and sent me back to the 800 customer service line.

So here's the question: who had the monkey? It appeared to me that they weren't just passing the monkey back and forth; they were keeping it at arm's length.

Hmmm. What to do?

So I called a teller at a local branch, Sharon, who had been helpful in the past. She listened patiently to make sure she understood. Then she took the monkey. Sharon owned the issue. She took it upon herself to call the internal departments that could help stop the automatic debits. She told me what was supposed to happen, and when. Then she called me back to confirm it had happened.

That's customer service! Of course, it wasn't because of which bank I was using. It was actually in spite of the bank I was using. The only reason the right thing happened was because of a person with the right attitude. Sharon owned my issue. Sharon figured it out, and Sharon made sure it turned out right.

Think about your customers and their issues. When they bring a monkey into your store, your office, or onto your website, who's willing to take it? If you're not sure you know, there's a good chance there are a lot of monkeys jumping all over the place, and some confused, angry customers.

Cool! My book, "All Customers Are Irrational: Understanding What They Think, What They Feel, and What Keeps Them Coming Back," has been selected as the feature business books at dearreader.com, an online book club. They are featuring excerpts, so be sure to visit and sign up if you want to read some of "All Customers Are Irrational" for free.

Of course, I won't mind if you go to Amazon and purchase your own edition!

Just got back from a few fun days in Arizona with my 12 year-old son for White Sox spring training. Super fun! Bright blue skies, bright green field and a relaxed atmosphere. It's great to watch professionals up close as they go about the work of preparing for the season.

It struck me that, as these players - the very best in the world, making millions of dollars each year - work back into playing shape, it's the simple things that they focus on. Each day you see them stretching, then lobbing the ball back and forth. They hit off a tee, then start swinging at softly pitched balls. It's the stuff of little boys, and yet it's for a very specific purpose. They understand that - even if you are one of the elite - you can't walk into a real game situation and expect to hit a 90 mph slider, or throw a ball from deep left field to homeplate. Instead you start with the basics and work up to a high performance level.

So, I'm wondering, why do companies, when trying to improve performance (specifically around customer metrics), often over reach, spending thousands - even millions - on quick-fix solutions like CRM systems or training programs. Why not, instead, start with the little things. For instance, take some small steps aimed at improving employee engagement. Then incrementally increase the efforts to improve customer experience as you get your employees on board.

Major league players understand that trying to hit a home run in your first at bat of spring training will probably just lead to a pulled muscle and a stay on the disabled list. Businesses should realize the same thing.

Small things matter. And if they're done right, the small things lead to big things.

I've been working with more and more professional service firms, including investment advisors, web development agencies, and others. I'm helping them to better understand the experience they are providing for their clients, and how they can improve it to achieve specfic business goals.

What I think businesses are starting to understand is that it really doesn't matter what type of company you have: if you want to succeed in the long term, you better pay attention to the entire customer experience. What I wrote in my book, "All Customers Are Irrational," holds true for everyone: all decisions are emotional, including purchase decisions. And that doesn't change whether someone is looking at buying some new running shoes, or deciding which agency to select during an RFP process.

What about your business? Do you really know what type of experience you're providing for your customers or clients? Are you giving them the subconscious and emotional reasons (as well as the logical) for buying from (or staying with) your company?

If not, others are catching on, so you better start paying attention!