As we discussed last week, the most successful companies are the ones that cultivate a superior customer experience, the ones that take pride in everything they do. On its face, that idea doesn’t seem all that revelatory: after all, don’t most business owners think that keeping their customers happy is a good idea? As obvious as the answer should be, we’ve all had plenty of poor experiences at places that didn’t seem to agree. Why is that?
Compromise, of course. Compromises are the death-by-a-thousand cuts that lead businesses to mediocrity, if not outright failure. Compromises like inadequate staff training and development because of the investment cost; compromises like skimpflation where a business lowers the quality or quantity of a product to squeeze out a little more profit; and compromises like ignoring problems because confrontation is tough.
Customer-experience expert Annette Franz, whose tips we discussed last week, has some additional ideas that are important for us to consider. Let’s talk about two today:
Culture
Franz warns us to never forget that you can’t have a customer-centric organization without “leadership defining core values.” Only after you’ve established those can “you layer behavior on top of that” to form “have the foundation of the culture.” Business owners and managers should lead by example, with a clear set of ideas to form a mission statement that the whole company can rally behind.
Understand that all companies have a culture, even bad ones. Those who don’t take special care to craft their own will see one made for them—and you might not like the result. Sometimes enforcing your vision can be tough, especially if it’s after you’ve been in business a long time with employees who are used to it being run a different way. But every day that goes by makes it that much harder to take control. Like a bandage, tear it off quickly and focus on the future, not the past.
Platinum Rule
Most of us are familiar with the Golden Rule, the idea that we should treat others like we want to be treated. In our personal interactions, this has been a wonderful guiding principle for a long time, perhaps dating back to the Middle Kingdom of Ancient Egypt four-thousand years ago! Even so, Franz tells us that we should embrace what business-expert Dr. Tony Alessandra has termed Platinum Rule, which instructs us “to treat others the way they want to be treated.” After all, “Not everyone wants to be treated the same way you do. That is what customer-centricity is all about. Focusing on customers and what they want!”
In order to treat customers the way they want (and expect) to be treated, you have to understand them. But many of us make the mistake of believing we know the minds of our patrons already, so we don’t need anyone else coming and telling us different. You know how this thought goes: “I’ve been in this business for years—I know what my customers want.”
Boy, is that ever a bad assumption. Tastes change. Local clientele never stays the same, as new people move in and old ones move out. And the truism that time marches on applies here as it does with everything else. You can’t afford to be static.
At The Brandt Group, our primary goal is to give our clients an ever-evolving view of what their customers are thinking. In fact, one of our taglines is, “You should hear what your customers are saying…” That’s where tools like our mystery shopping programs and customer-feedback surveys are really critical for helping you gain that understanding—and, just as importantly, keep that understanding as the times change.
Using that feedback will allow you to do what Franz said: layer behavior on top of your business’s core values, which form the foundation for your company culture. It’s an investment in your employees’ development, and a window into understanding what your customers like and dislike about your products and services. It’s also a way to confront and ultimately overcome anything holding your company back from offering the absolute best customer experience. In other words, it’s about doubling down on your why you got into business in the first place, not the compromises since then.
To develop that customer-centric culture, you can’t wait for things to work themselves out. You have to act. So, why not start today? Drop us a line and let’s do this.
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