How to develop a customer-centric culture

Central to the show was the idiotic and quite unbelievable shenanigans that saw customers abused, shouted at, assaulted, lied to and treated as if they were a nuisance. As cringing viewers, we could relate to it all, as some scenes came close to our own sometimes experience as customers. The business was an example of a customer-centric culture, but for all the wrong reasons.

In the new series, Basil will show how he copes with a modern world. I suspect he too will be faced with challenges that are peppered with technology, social media and changing customer expectations.

Is the tail wagging the dog?

But I wonder has that much actually changed in our modern world? There is no doubting that innovation through technology has enabled marvellous and copious information and insights about our customers. Whether we are a B2B or a B2C operation, we certainly know our customers better, their preferences, their likes and dislikes. But fundamentally, is the noise around technology, CRM, personalisation, Instagram ‘likes’, processes, systems, just muddying the waters somewhat?

Everywhere I go and everything I read these days in my research, seems to focus on all of these enablers. But that’s exactly what they are, they are enablers. I wonder is the tail now wagging the dog? I worry that companies have become preoccupied with the bells and whistles, that they are missing the fundamentals of what makes a customer happy, what makes them return to you, and what makes them recommend you to a friend.

I recently purchased a bedside locker from a furniture store. The experience of buying it was testing. I visited the store to check the quality and later telephoned to place my order. The salesperson directed me to a website to place the order. ‘That’s our process’, she said. Having placed my order, I then got an email to make my payment. ‘That’s our process’, she said. The locker eventually arrived two weeks later than promised, and it was the wrong colour. I called them up and getting a refund involved more stress. ‘That’s our process’, she said. Her transactional priorities were totally misaligned with my needs.

I completely respect the need for systems and process, but when they get in the way of ease of effort and human feelings, they’re just bad for business.

Back to basics, what is Customer Experience?

In my work helping organisations with strategy and culture, I often interrogate their customer complaints records. I have never once seen a customer complaining about not getting a free glass of champagne on their birthday, or not getting a bouquet of flowers when they drew down their mortgage. But I certainly have seen complaints about the a rude salesperson, or unreasonable demands form a bank when approving a loan.

It seems to me that some organisations preoccupy themselves with the wrong stuff. Going the extra mile they call it. But in my experience, getting the basics right, first time, on time, every time, carries much more weight than going the extra mile with free flowers.

For a customer experience to be great, we have to think of the whole experience at every customer touch-point. Using the analogy of a 3-legged stool, the legs are represented by Product, People and Place (place referring to the physical environment for B2Cs – and route to market for B2Bs). In a nutshell, your customers have expectations of a certain standard for each leg. But if one ‘leg of the stool’ is missing, the customer’s experience is less than expected. This is a superb tool to help you communicate your standards to your own people.

The stool on its own however is not enough. You also need to consider your positioning in the competitive marketplace. For example, the 3-legged stool will work for motor dealers regardless of whether they are selling Rolls Royce or Hyundai. Clearly both brands are poles apart in terms of price and quality. Therefore, you need to consider the quality or the standards that are appropriate for your brand.

How to put customer experience at the heart of your organisation

While this may be common sense, it is not always common practice. Organisations get this wrong all the time. I suspect there are two main reasons for this.

One: particularly in larger companies, people are so busy with their heads down getting the job done, that the focus inevitably defaults to ‘operations-first’ before customers. It’s never intentional, it’s just a trap that many fall in to. And two: because there are now so many tools available to enable great customer experience, companies get seduced by the gadgets. Then, customer experience unfairly and incorrectly becomes the exclusive responsibility of both marketing and IT departments.

Keep in mind that becoming a customer-centric organisation means putting the customer at the heart of all you do. So when making a change to a process, re-engineering your business, making an acquisition, restructuring your reporting lines, developing new products and territories, thought of your customer should prevail. Who is your customer, and what are their changing needs and expectations? And how can we deliver on these expectations consistently?

To counteract the pitfalls and to build a customer-centric culture, here are my recommendations to ensure that customer is at the heart of all you do.

Embed customer-centricity in your culture

While strategy guides you on what you will do… and structure defines who will do it… it is your culture that determines how you will do it. Too often, organisations miss this, yet it is the glue that binds the whole organisation together. Culture is about mindset, attitudes and behaviours and is the golden thread that ensures consistency across the whole business. For example, if you want to be sure that all your employees give great customer experience each and every time, that is more about culture than skill.  

If you don’t define and articulate your culture, a culture will evolve anyway. And elements of that could be good or bad. If you want to have customer at the heart of all you do with the least amount of stress, you need to take control and refresh your culture.

Define what great customer experience is at every touchpoint, relevant to your brand

• Define ‘what does good look like’ at every touch-point. Using the 3-legged stool as a framework (product, people, place), identify every customer interaction. Consider what is reasonable for your customers to expect, to what extent you currently deliver that consistently, what the obstacles are, and what the gaps are. Involve those on the front-line in this workshop so that all angles are covered. After all, this should be a company-wide initiative.
• Be relentless about communicating and training these standards.
• Put in a continuous improvement mechanism so that this is regularly reviewed and updated. Customer expectations are rising all of the time so don’t let this be a one-off exercise.
• By all means use technology where it is appropriate and expected. But don’t let it dominate. And be sure to have human backup for when it fails. Because it will fail from time to time.
• Personalization is certainly a need-to-have. As customers get even more accepting of sharing their data, they want you to use it to good effect, especially so that they don’t have to repeat themselves and re-enter information previously given to you.

Seek feedback, measure what customers think

• Seek feedback from your customers. Consider some form of formal feedback loop to get both quantitative data and qualitative or anecdotal evidence. Only do this if you intend to take corrective actions. If your customers take the trouble to support you in this way but don’t see improvements, it will add to their ire and cynicism.
• Even in organisations with the most efficient operations, things will still go wrong. When inevitable complaints come in, develop a culture of recording them, measuring them, and acting quickly to fix them. Classify your reporting so that complaints will be summarised as either product, people, place or process. By doing this you will see recurring issues that can then be prioritized for a system review or re-training.

The last word

I experienced a manager some years ago, who saw customers as someone to joust with. Every day seemed to provide him with the opportunity to express his anger at the world. Whenever a situation seemed to be escalating, he’d don his armour, roll up his sleeves and jump right into the fray. If John Cleese wants fodder for his new series of Fawlty Towers, I can refer him!

But just think of the impact of such actions. The negative role modelling being displayed by this leader is in danger of stimulating abnormal and unacceptable behaviour.

I’m firmly convinced that when customers get a great experience, they are more likely to buy from you today, come back again in the future and recommend you to a friend.

My ideas here do not have to cost much money. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that excellent customer experience is just for the top hotels or companies with deep pockets. It’s a proven enabler of success for businesses across all industries and all sizes. Excellence is a relative term, so regardless of whether your profile is to be 2,3,4 or 5 star, be the best you can be in your space.