Why should people bother to buy from you?

The ceo’s challenge to the audience (at my prompting) was "Why should people bother to buy from us if we are the same as the competition?" Playing devil’s advocate he continued, "Sorry, but I can’t think of a single reason! And I certainly can’t think of a single reason in a world where our competition is cheaper or faster or friendlier or whatever!"

As I travel from client to client I see that this is a big question for far too many businesses: banks, building societies, shops, consultants, pubs, almost any business...

To make sense of the "Why?" it helps to realise that many live in a world of mediocrity - everything claims to be better but actually everything is the same.

My theme continued from the CEO’s opening, "Compare your business with the competition: you employ...similar people with...similar qualifications at...similar salaries to use...similar software on...similar machines to deal with...similar customers with...similar needs so that you can sell them...similar products at...similar prices to those of your...similar competitors!"

The good news, of course, is that in this world of similarity and mediocrity, one only needs to be five percent different from the competition to stand out! And the good news for my client is that they could do that, and in spades.

The theme of the conference was ‘Be Different: Be Remarkable Now’. The ‘Senior Exec’ had recognised that most service firms’ operations are among the safest and that’s because the firms appear to take no risks. But, because of that, it’s actually quite a risky business.

In one breakout group on the danger of being unremarkable, the group had created their own business epitaph:
’Here lies another business
The business did OK, but not great
No-one will remember it that well
But at least it looked like everyone else.’

The next stage in the conference was to get delegates to talk about the ‘customer experience’ as ‘what you get’ and also a little more as well.

The delegates could see that operations is all about the delivery of the product or service - and that this is often seen from the producer’s point of view:

• Are we giving them the right stuff?
• Are we giving them what they want?

The ‘aha!’ moment for many was the realisation that the customer experience is that same transaction, except that it is seen through the eyes of the customer. So we ask:

• ‘What does the transaction look like and feel like for the customer?’

Operations does not operate in a vacuum. For the customer, a crucial element of receiving the product or service is whether it meets or exceeds expectations! If marketing is the promise and operations is the delivery of the promise, then the customer experience is where marketing meets operations!

Why does the Customer Experience matter?

The next ‘aha’ was when the conference unilaterally declared that the Customer Experience is probably the only thing that matters in the business. The breakout groups announced that the customers pay the bills, the customers tell other people how great we are, customers would rather be treated well rather than be treated badly, customers remember exceptional service and tell others - they become our ‘raving fans’, customers remember dreadful service and tell others.

Providing legendary, remarkable service gets you talked about... Being remarkable is different from standing out - cheap gimmicks can get you to stand out but being remarkable is not just about being different or weird or cheap or expensive. No, being remarkable is more about offering a customer experience that gets you talked about.

The delegates then scored themselves on the scoresheet (see ‘The Customer Experience panel on p??). You can also score yourself. Just how good are you? How can you improve your score? What are you going to do to improve the customer experience that you deliver?

 The Customer Experience

1. We stay ‘close’ at every stage of their experience
    1% - 10 - 20 - 30 - 40 - 50 - 60 - 70 - 80 - 90 - 100%
    In your dreams On a good day Got it!

2. We create memorable ‘wow!’ encounters that inspire them to spread the legend to other potential customers

3. We positively touch customers with the pride that we invest in our work

4. We demonstrate superior levels of empathy for the customers’ situation and needs

5. We have created systems that are intuitively loved by customers - far more than just customer friendly.

Providing an exceptional experience is the way to the customer’s heart - don’t just give them a transaction but let them build a relationship with you. This is digging into the emotional side of the relationship. Very powerful indeed.

Is the customer really in charge?

A lie - the biggest lie today (as put out by marketing departments) is that ’the customer is in charge’.

Another lie is that ‘customer service is better’. This simply isn’t the case. Most people will tell you that the reality is that most customer service is bad, very bad. Surely everybody knows that. Key point for the conference - it is harder to deliver good customer service than ever before, and, meanwhile, customers are more and more demanding.

The cynic would say that the only reason to put the customer in charge is financial - costs for the business go down and... perceived service goes up because customers are doing the work themselves. In a world of imperfect customer service, most customers prefer to cut to the chase and help themselves (Think IKEA!).

Meanwhile, as customers we personally feel betrayed. It seems remarkable that an entire business philosophy, a mantra, chanted across the modern world is so obviously without substance. Most businesses and organisations (be they hospitals, accountants, lawyers, airlines, universities, shops, restaurants, electrical retailers, broadband providers, builders’ merchants, taxi firms, or software companies) blatantly fail to deliver. The customer is not king. The customer is left waiting to be heard (again!).

The reality is dismal. How often does the call centre tell you: ’We are experiencing higher than usual call volumes’ or ’all our customer service operatives are currently busy’ or ‘you are in a queue’? These statements are almost always followed by a second (incongruous) comment, ’We value your call’.

If they value my call then why do I always have to wait? If they are experiencing higher than usual call volumes then why don’t we (the customers) experience higher than average staffing levels?

Service ratings a nonsense

Companies like my client are starting to wake up to the fact that the customer is actually very angry with them. Customer service ratings are nonsense after all, the average score is always ’above average’. (How does that work?)

Clearly, most customers do not feel ‘in charge’. We could use this to our advantage - think how easy it can be to stand out from the rest when you really do put the customer in charge!

Real relationships blow away the sizzle of institutional hype; there are huge opportunities for the independent-minded business in this world of mediocrity, of insipid service and lack of attention to the detail that really matters.

In just about every market, the dominance by the ‘sluggish big boys’ is resented. In their search for reliability, conformity and profitability they almost always forget about the customer (and the customer experience and the people that work at the business). Nine times out of ten, a ‘new kid on the block’ may not be cheaper but can out-perform in terms of attention to service, detail, product knowledge, and customer understanding.

The sluggish businesses cannot flex and respond and listen to the customer the way that a more customer-focused business can. The energy and enthusiasm and excitement that a ‘close to the customer’ business can generate (in staff and customers) can make the simplest shopping task quite pleasurable.

The question is whether one wishes to rise to the challenge.

Most marketers are, in essence, liars. They sell stuff on the claim that they are newer and better but the reality is that most of it is just ‘more of the same’. We could change all this by focusing on the customer experience.

The best-kept secret about customer service?

There are some basic things that we must not forget about customer service.

• First, service tends to be bad because it really is very hard to do
• Second, the real (best-kept) secret is to treat the customer like you would like to be treated yourself
• Third, the really hard part of providing excellent customer service is not the service! The really hard part is everything but the service! The hard part is to do with how the company thinks about what they are doing and how they behave as a consequence, ie measure the right things

An abundance of opportunities appeared; opportunities to beat the slow slugs at their own game (we could give customers a truly bespoke service because we would become so much closer to them).

Finally, it was time to remember the customer fundamentals:

• Don’t waste our time
• Remember who we are
• Make it easy for us to order and get service
• Make sure your service delights us!
• Customise your products and services for me!

A great conference and a great sense of ownership and clarity of direction for a team that had lost its way. Everyone went home happy and now they need to take massive action to make all this enthusiasm translate into more sales and more profits for today and tomorrow.

Robert Craven is a keynote speaker and author of ‘Bright Marketing - why should people bother to buy from you?’, (July 2007) Crimson Publishing, and ‘Customer Is King’. As md of The Directors’ Centre, the consultancy for growing businesses, he works with ambitious directors to break through constraints on business growth. He can be contacted at +44 (0)1225 851044, or via email rc@directorscentre.com