By Dale Wolf
The difficulty with changing a culture and moving it to a position where Customer Experience is the driving strategy for profitable growth cannot be underestimated. The CEO and Directors might want to go there, but there are a thousand little daggers skulking in the shadows of every corporation attempting to change. The resistance must be surfaced and converted.
Barrier 1. Corporate-centric Cultures -- Most business managers ask just one question: How can we sell them more of what we already have? That misses the whole point. If your decision-making is focused on who you are instead of what your customers want, you will find it difficult to move forward. If your senior management sees customer experience as something relegated to marketing, sales and customer service and not the responsibility for finance, engineering, manufacturing and HR, the turnaround might not happen. Your marketing materials and website will tell part of the tale. If these customer interfaces are about how wonderful your product features are rather than how you can help customers with their needs, you will fall into the sea of sameness and irrelevance. Customers are tired of this. But equally important are the actions, policies and reward systems in every department and silo within your organization. Cultural drag in any department will impede the shift. For example: Until recently, Starbucks baristas made all espresso drinks from scratch. That was then. Today, Starbucks has shifted to a corporate-centric mode of operation. Most Starbucks use automated espresso machines. There’s nothing for the barista to do but press a button. Of course, the new process saves time, and someone at Starbucks believes time is money. Which is why their business has been nose-diving lately.
Barrier 2. Single-minded Focus on Profit -- The journey will be harder if the company is driven solely by profit-first and shareholders-first actions. If compensation and reward systems run counter to providing good customer experiences, then trying to position your firm as customer-centric will fail. Customers will spot the difference. When profit is seen as a result of a great customer experience then a different dynamic sets in … service to customer generates the profit. Walgreens, for instance, shifted from profit per store to profit per customer and created a healthy, symbiotic relationship between service and earnings.
Barrier 3. Lack of Clear Direction -- There is no more important activity than for leaders to establish clear, key goals and then communicate those goals to all levels of their organization. The reality is, most leaders haven’t clearly defined their top goals, have too many, haven’t prioritized them, and haven’t communicated their goals effectively. Is it any wonder then that the front-line workers are clearly not aligned with them. Upjohn Pharmaceuticals lost its battle with the industry and rather than focus on what it could be best at, it deviated into chemicals and plastics and then tried to return to pharmaceuticals too late. A mile wide and an inch deep will not win today.
Barrier 4. Lack of Understanding about Customer Needs -- If there’s no data, it is easy to make the claim that you are customer-centric. But it’s just words. Information leads to the realization that there is a gap between what your company is doing and what your customers are experiencing. Once this gap is surfaced, management is faced with a lot of uncomfortable decisions about what to change. Pet projects might no longer hold relevance when compared to the new vision. In the end, ignorance is not bliss; it is just silly. Instead information can lead to meaningful innovation that will find greater customer acceptance and market success.
Barrier 5. Failure to Deliver on Brand Promise -- The old advice of “under promise and over deliver” was never truer than it is in a world dominated by customers. Adjectives and hyperbole can get you in trouble. Make sure your marketing claims are aligned with how the customer really touches your firm.
Child-safe toys that are hit with recalls, insurance companies that fail to care for customers in adversity and tires that peel off the rims and flip cars shatter brand images. Saks Fifth Avenue, whose average customer is in her 40’s, moved too quickly to snap up younger shoppers … their traditional customers were quick to notice the lack of focused attention and store sales fell behind competitors.
Barrier 6. Lack of Accountability for Performance -- As a leader, you must make sure everyone who reports to you understands and stays focused on achieving the company’s most important objectives, the things that matter most and must get done. Listen for what’s keeping people from doing what’s important. Set goals that are specific and measurable. Show them how their jobs relate to these goals. Do not tolerate excuses. Deliver on results; not on activities.
Barrier 7. Lack of Internal Integration -- If the silos reign over integrated teams, then the customer will get a different story from your firm at every point with which they touch you. This results in a confusing and unsatisfying customer experience. Consider all the customer touchpoints and all the opportunities that you have to deliver a great customer experience. Consider how delivering a perfect customer experience demands requires a high level of organizational and managerial orchestration. Consider how breakdowns in this customer experience dilute the brand and allow competitors who have their act together to step in and win the customer away. It is time for all departments to begin cooperating around the customer's experience instead of silo protection.
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