Customers *Must* Be Part of the Co-Creation Process

The Economist Intelligence Unit surveyed 226 executives at global enterprises to find out how smart companies innovate as part of a Oracle sponsored study about cultivating business-led innovation.

One of the key findings of the study has been that “companies furthest along the innovation path utilize customer data and customer participation in their product and service improvements. Fifty-four percent of respondents in this group actively collect customer feedback and analyze customer data for clues to innovate effectively, but in different ways.”

As Oracle SVP Bob Evans blogs: “Customers *Must* Be Part of the Co-Creation Process. As companies of all sizes and across all industries realize that the co-creation of value and of experiences with customers can be a profound way to boost customer loyalty, they also must recognize that relevant innovation in a customer-free vacuum is impossible. Mid-size and smaller companies ($500 million or less) connect directly with customers in interviews about product design and testing, while companies with revenue above $1 billion or more likely to use social technology and sentiment analysis to uncover customer-focused innovations.”

You can find the details of this study & the report at the Oracle feature page or The Economist Intelligence Unit site.

25 Ways to Show Loyalty to Your Customers

(Photo courtesy flickr | woodleywonderworks)

A business that values its focus on its customers, regularly find ways to show their loyalty to their customers. It is a good practice for your & your customer facing teams to regularly find novel & memorable ways of doing this.

Chip Bell & John Patterson have listed 25 ways of doing this in their Wired & Dangerous blog:

• Invite a customer to an important staff meeting to talk about their needs and goals
• Arrange for a special learning experience for customers
• Name a policy, building, or conference room for a key customer
• Start a fund or scholarship in the name of a key customer
• Poll your customer for their input on important changes you plan to make

Read the entire list here.

Related Posts:
~ Suddenlink | Customer Experience Lessons
~ Social Media Lessons From FedEx
~ Customer Loyalty
~ What is a customer centric organization?

Tony Hseih on Zappos Culture

From ITConversations :

Tony Hsieh

Download Audio File [link]

In this presentation at the Web 2.0 Conference, Zappos.com CEO Tony Hsieh talks about his first business selling pizza in college, starting Link Exchange after college, and how he eventually ended up leading Zappos as the CEO.  Tony discusses how his experience at Link Exchange influenced him to focus on corporate culture as a top priority, and why he thinks culture is so important to a company’s future growth and success.

Tony talks about the internal vision of Zappos not just to be an Internet footware merchant, but to be a brand that is known for an excellent customer experience.  He goes on to list a number of specific techniques that the company uses to enhance customer service, and explains why he thinks that the telephone is still one of the best branding devices available.

How do you define culture?  Tony talks about some of the core values of Zappos, and why it’s important to have values that aren’t just a plaque on a wall.  These values permeate every aspect of the company, and Tony details some of the hiring and training practices that Zappos uses to ensure that every employee fits into the corporate culture.

Customer perspective during the downturn

The Think Customers 1to1 Blog is carrying a nice post by Brent Leary - So YOU Want to Improve MY Customer Experience?

During the downturn in economy (and always ..but especially so now), all businesses ought to be thinking about what works for their customers. 

• How have the macroeconomic factors affected our customers business & life?
• Should we be offering a different value proposition to customers now?
• What is it that we can do for our customers that no one else will possibly do? 
• Everyone's expenditure has come down ...so has our customers'. How can we ensure that whatever little they spend is spent on our products / services?
• Is there a way we can make our customers feel special ..w/o spending too much?

All valid questions even during normal times. But businesses do have extra time now ..so might as well think about customers!

Training - Customer Service Excellence

One of the objectives of this blog is to share with all any useful new on the subject of customer strategy. Accordingly, am posting this mail I came across of a training being held across multiple cities in India.

I have no idea on how the program is & I am not recommending the same. Anyone who has attended this or know of anyone who has attended these sessions, please share your thoughts on the same.

==========================================================

iamregnew@gmail.com

iamregistrations@vsnl.net

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Product centricity to customer centricity

(Photo Courtesy: Purdue University)

In her blog today, Patty Seybold shares a commentary about where organizations go wrong in the journey from product centricity to customer centricity. In Graham Hill's own words -

"The stages start with pure product-centricity. This typically evolves through the development of internal networks of colleagues who need to work together to deliver the value proposition; to cross-functional teams that formalise the collaboration of the internal networks; to a customer segment coordinator who takes on formal responsibility for collaboration across different teams; to a matrix organisation with nascent segment teams reporting to both product and customer management; and finally to bona fide segment managers responsible for all aspects of segment experience delivery. The vertical silos of product-centricity have given way to the more connected, more collaborative customer-centric organisation."

The key phrases (for me) from the above are :

• work together to deliver the value proposition (ought not to loose sight of this)
• formal responsibility for collaboration across teams (in the absence of a culture that fosters team work)
• responsible for all aspects of segment experience delivery (key enabler - accountability)

As important as the end result is, the journey & the milestones involved are as or more important in ensuring effectiveness & sustainability of the end state. 

Quality - The Customer Centric Type

Intangible Quality: Engage in the Third Quality Revolution

(Courtesy: www.istockphoto.com)

Found this interesting article on Intangible Quality on RocketPosts - nice read. 

Some of my take aways -

• Want to create products that meet the subconscious wants and needs of our customers. We want the customer, upon experiencing our products, to say, “This is exactly what I always wanted. This is what I have always needed. I cannot imagine what life was like before I had it.” 
• Seeking quality that pleases the customer in ways he never before even imagined.
• It is a concept of quality that falls into an almost spiritual realm. It means creating a product, or providing a service, that profoundly affects the customer. It is not only defect-free, but it is exactly what the customer has always desired.
• Intangible quality requires a new model of customer awareness— one that includes continuous, meaningful contact, and a spiritual connection with a customer’s needs. In effect, you must become a virtual employee in your customer’s organization—seeing what he sees, understanding what she understands. Then, you must use this knowledge to develop possibilities of which the customer has never before dreamed. In a world where Six Sigma is commonplace, the goal of profoundly affecting your customer is the next quality battleground.

Some of the examples quoted in the article allude to concepts O'Reilly uses for the Web 2.0 definition (usage of data to improve customer experience - eg. Amazon, usage of CRM, etc. 

Recognize the unmeasurables

Check out this article by Jim Barnes on CustomerThink. I would guess that the article will strike a chord in most customer focus practitioners. My takeaways from the article -

• We need some way to measure, capture and observe the softer elements of performance, those that involve how well employees interact with customers and how they influence the quality of the customer experience.
• Organizations will increasingly have to ask: What kind of performance drives loyalty and positive customer relationships? And how do we encourage such performance?
• Customer-tracking research and feedback must include questions that tap into how friendly, helpful and understanding employees are in dealing with customers; how they do at making customers feel comfortable and listened to; how well they instill trust and confidence in our brand, how well they diffuse confrontational situations, and over all how they make customers feel toward the company.

Customer Loyalty

How do you go about finding what your customers loyalty drivers are?

According to the e-Loyalty Resource site, you could start with the following questions :

Q1. Which product / service features most often make your customer repurchase or recommend your products / services? Its important that loyalty be defined in terms of repurchase, recommendations or active participation in a customer program--it's not just about satisfaction.

Q2. What is the decision/buying process? In other words, what factors, attributes, personal situations, etc. come into play when deciding to repurchase or recommend?

Q3. What makes a customer consider or not consider another brand or buy your product / service despite its higher price? The best source for these answers are your most loyal customers. Ask your best customers why it is they don't consider other brands, or if considered, why they continue to be loyal to you. Remember, if you design for your average customer, you’ll be just that---average!

Q4. How do your customers feel about your management or your company? Do they think you are a leader or are the best in the industry? Do they want to be associated with your company because it makes them look or feel better? Do they think you care about your customers and are responsive to customers? Determining what actions make your customer feel like you care about them is tough, but critical.

Other Resources:

• This article talks about the various factors - especially relationship based ones.
• In this article, Bob Hayes delves into ways of identifying your customers' loyalty drivers.
• An Oracle Siebel CRM white paper on customer loyalty.
• A case study from Royal Bank of Canada.
• Kenneth Wallace in his article explains that all businesses are in the C.A.R. business, i.e., Creating Awesome or Awful Relationships & provides his view of the main drivers of customer loyalty.

Bootstrapper: 100 tips to create & maintain loyal customers

Bootstrapper has recently published an article that lists resources, tips & learnings to create & maintain loyal customers. Though the listing goes well beyond loyalty, its worth a check

Executive programs on Customer Centricity

Thought I would make a listing of programs run across the globe on the topic -

• Building the Customer Centric Organization, IE Business School Madrid
• Customer Focussed Organisation , ISB Hyderabad

Creating Devoted Customers

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A practical guide to creating competitive advantage and improving business performance. Forget customer customer satisfaction. Go for 'devotion'. Heres how....


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Customer Centricity Survey

There are many utilities that claim to help you find out how customer centric your organization is. Here is another one sruvey from Round (UK) Limited.

The questions in the survey do point in the right direction & help in defining a customer centric organization. Do check it out.

PS: A UK firm using baseball to explain something!

Businessweek Advocating for Customers

BusinessWeek has a podcast channel dedicated for cusomer service. A must check source if you ask me.

http://www.businessweek.com/mediacenter/podcasts/cschamps/current.html

Great Customer Experience Is Free

Just a link to Bruce Temkin's blog entry on the topic.

Great customer experience is not only free, it is an honest-to-everything profit maker. In these days of “who knows what is going to happen to our business tomorrow” there aren’t
many ways left to make a profit improvement. If you concentrate on improving customer experience, you can very likely increase your profits.

http://experiencematters.wordpress.com/2007/09/11/my-manifesto-great-customer-experience-is-free/

Marketing Mavens

Who are marketing mavens?

• are organizations & people in organizations who know that at the end of the day the only that treally matters is securing, retaining & growing customers ...unbelivably customer fcocused

Where are marketing mavens required?

• hopefully most ppl in organizations are marketing mavens
• certainly in service org, many ppl come in contact with customers ...so in these organizations most or all ppl in organizations are marketing mavens ...is infused in the DNA of the organization

Imperatives

• Picking markets that matter
• Selecting segments to dominate and finding the sweet spot in that segment
• Designing the offer to create customer value and secure differential advantage
• Integrating to serve the customer
• And measuring what matters ..pls in organizations do what is inspected of them rather than what is expected of them

Source: The Marketing Mavens: Harvard Business Online producer Steve Singer talks with Noel Capon, author of the new book The Marketing Mavens.

http://hbsp2.libsyn.com/index.php?post_id=243563

Customer Service Quotes

Eric Fraterman has listed quite a few customer service quotes. Below are those that appealed to me -

• Quality in a service or product is not what you put into it.It is what the client or customer gets out of it. -PETER DRUCKER
• If we don’t take care of our customers, someone else will. -UNKNOWN
• Our life is frittered away by detail. Simplify, simplify!HENRY DAVID THOREAU
• Being on par in terms of price and quality only gets you into the game. Service wins the game. -TONY ALESSANDRA
• Our greatest asset is the customer! Treat each customer as if they are the only one! -LAURICE LEITAO
• People expect good service but few are willing to give it. -ROBERT GATELY
• Well done is better than well said. -BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
• To my customer:I may not have the answer, but I’ll find it.I may not have the time, but I’ll make it. -UNKNOWN
• In business you get what you want by giving other people what they want. -ALICE MACDOUGALL
• You’ll never have a product or price advantage again. They can be easily duplicated, but a strong customer service culture can’t be copied. -JERRY FRITZ

Source: http://customerfocusconsult.blogspot.com/2007/09/customer-service-quotes-for-inspiration.html

Customer Service Champs

Ideas that caught my imagination :

• Rankings & lists do matter, but nothing matters more than having the processes & the determination to do the best for your customers. Case at hand - Jetblue. Though not on the BW top 25 customer service champs list, the first 10 mins of the podcast sounds like a Jetblue promo!
• Disasters happen - how you recover from them is what characterises a company. Work on the foundation!
• Empathy Engine - is the idea that every single person in the organization is really thinking of customer.
• Customer Service leaders don't just want to be best amongst their competitors, they want to be the best in customer service. Period!

Best Practices:

• Remind your employees often about who their customers really are, what is it like to live the customer's life, what is their perspective, what do the customers go through, etc. eg. Four Seasons has a program that allows even a housekeeper gets to stay in a Four Seasons hotel as a guest & experince that life.
• Employee (treat them well), Processes (get the senior management in front of the customer) & Attitude (never be happy with just customer satisfaction)- most important constituents of the foundation for customer focus.

Source:

• Article, Podcast & Slideshow @ http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_10/b4024001.htm

Kano Model - resources

Kano does seem to be in the air! I have come across atleast 4 blogs in the last few weeks bringing the Kano Model to the surface in the context of customer focus.



A few take aways & additional resources (at the end of this post) -

• the model forces design teams to think from a customer perspective & helps bring a balance of what can be delivered & what is expected to be delivered
• like a healthy food diet, service or product design too should allow for a proper mix of threshold, performance & excitement attributes

Such basic stuff ..yet needs to be reminded yet so often.

Resources:

• Kano Customer Satisfaction Model - http://www.12manage.com/methods_kano_customer_satisfaction_model.html
• Kano model on Wikipeida - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kano_model
• A nice 8 minute animated tutorial introducing the Kano Model - http://www.c2c-solutions.com/tutorial.htm
• Kano's Methods for Understanding Customer-defined Quality - http://cqmextra.cqm.org/cqmjournal.nsf/2fff9754b9deecf5852566340064a8e6/489c0fea64a3f1838525684700552126/$FILE/RP02700.pdf
• The Kano Model: How to Delight your Customers - http://www.competence-site.de/dienstleistung.nsf/3397D512929D8241C1256AD8004B0027/$File/kano-model.pdf

Creating Customer Value

Chanced upon this article on 1000Ventures. Some take aways -

• "Being good enough, is not good enough – give customers a reason to be faithful." – Graham Roberts-Phelps
• The Tao of customer value creation --- YIN (passive, accepting side) ETDBW (easy to do business with) ..looking at your business from the customers' point of view, understanding customer perceptions and making it easy for your customers to do business with you. YANG (active, aggressive side) MVA (more value-added) ...giving your customer more than you ever have before and more than they expect from you.
• "The man who will use his skill and constructive imagination to see how much he can give for a dollar, instead of how little he can give for a dollar, is bound to succeed." – Henry Ford

Source: http://www.1000ventures.com/business_guide/crosscuttings/customer_value_creation.html