Using the Recession as a Catalyst for Delivering Exceptional Customer Experiences

Louis Columbus
Cincom Systems

The catalyst of any successful customer experience is trust.  Earning trust from customers takes a consistent, passionate level of commitment to delivering customer experiences above expectations.  Keeping and growing that trust with a customer, whether it is in B2B- or B2C-based industries, is difficult yet attainable even during a recession. 

No One Ever Cost Reduced Their Way To Customer Loyalty

Many companies are cutting drastically back on the very staff they need to deliver exceptional customer experiences, while others are reinvigorating, redirecting their staffs to concentrate on delivering over-the-top service that far surpasses customer expectations. These latter companies are using the recession as a galvanizing force in their companies to focus everyone on keeping their existing customers and winning new ones with exceptional, excellent service.

Companies who see the recession as a rallying point to passionately serve their customers more responsively, completely and with greater focus than ever before are staying financially viable today.  No one ever cost reduced their way into exceptional customer experiences.  Instead it takes a new perspective, the focus on using these difficult economic times as a reason to show customers why their trust is warranted, valued and respected.

Thawing B2B Spending With Over-the-Top Service and Concern

During a recession B2B marketers face the daunting task of keeping the key decision makers in their top accounts from freezing in fear or panic and not spending or doing anything.  What’s needed is for B2B companies to extend their expertise, even for no charge, and go into their key accounts and work to help them overcome their biggest problems today.  Retention strategies like this in tough times don’t lead to immediate sales.  They do send a powerful message that any B2B marketer doing this is in their clients’ corner for the long-run. Retention strategies often unearth other areas of the company that can use existing solutions in place, already sold.  Helping B2B customers get more value during these times is a brilliant strategy to stay relevant to them during this recession.

The Only Security Is Exceeding Customer Expectations Daily

In better economic times, companies will often define mutually agreed-upon benchmarks and then put bonus incentives and salary raise multipliers in place if the expectations are exceeded.  This sends a powerful message through any B2B-based organization, and that is do whatever it takes to get performance consistently above the B2B customers’ target levels of performance.

Now the galvanizing force has to be not only these metrics but the fact that both the B2B marketers’ and their customers’ viability is on the line.  For B2B marketers, its’ time to fight for your customers by pitching in to solve their problems even if it doesn’t lead to immediate increased sales.

All B2B marketers aspire to be trusted advisors; the ones that gain this level of confidence with customers have done the hard work of making sure their entire organizations back up strategies, plans and tactics that consistently deliver experiences that surpass customers’ expectations.

Strengthen Your Serve With Knowledge

To learn more about how customer experiences can be improved from both a B2B and B2C standpoint, begin by subscribing to Paul Greenberg's blog, as Paul is an excellent and entertaining author and speaker, and is founder of the Line56 Group. His blog entry on December 6th specifically focuses on customer experience in recessionary times.  I also recommend subscribing and regularly reading David Meerman Scott’s blog WebInkNow.com and one of the best books I’ve read all year on the subject, Tuned In, by Craig Stull, Phil Meyers and David Meerman Scott.  There is also the excellent book, Managing the Customer Experience: Turning Customers Into Advocates by Shaun Smith and Joe Wheeler.  I also read Bruce Temkin of Forrester Research’s blog, Customer Experience Matters, in addition to John Jantsch of Duct Tape Marketing Blog and Marketing and Strategy Innovation Blog.  There is much being written today about the impact of social networking on the customer experience.  Dr. Andrew MacAfee has a blog that is excellent in this area and the broader issue of Enterprise 2.0’s impact on customer centricity in organizations, and Ross Dawson’s Trends in the Living Networks.  Finally I subscribe to Harvard Business School Knowledge Blog and the blogs of analyst and advisory firms active in this area as well.

Comments

[Louis Columbus]

Tim,

Thanks for your comment, and I think we are saying the same thing. My point is that any strategy related to customer experience that doesn't set accurate, achievable expectations and then either meet or exceed them is a waste of time. Trust is what makes the entire process work in the long-term, and it is very tough to create. My point in this blog entry is that if any company is lucky enough to have customers that trust them, cutting back on services now is short-sighted. Instead, concentrating on overbalancing the scales of service is critical, epecially in these times. Thanks again for your comment.

[Tim Whelan]

There is a lot of information to comment on however i will keep to the area of trust. Trust itself is the result of an experience not the catalyst. If only it were true. However earning and developing the long term trust of a client/customer is key to any successful on going business strategy