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Companies deliver customers a defaulted, unplanned experience... THEN wonder: Why don't they like us The truth is: the experience many of you are delivering to your customers today is likely a blueprint of your organization chart....
Think about it. Sales does their own thing, then marketing. Service is not connected, and of course, neither is the data. We send conflicting offers to customers (one insurance company sent a cancellation notice to a customer from the actuarial department, then on the same day sent an cross-sell offer to try to get them to add another line of insurance on the SAME day).
The thing is ....this is not unusual!
The reason most "customer focus" efforts crash and burn is that in the frenzy of etching those crystal balls to sit on our desk with the words "customer" on it -- no one takes the time to understand how you play together in the corporate sand box.
"Experience" is only as good as the understanding of what it is across the company, and the hand-offs between the silos. So ask yourself these three questions:
1. Have you got an agreement across your company on the stages of the customer experience -- one that everyone REALLY agrees with? Not the "yeah, yeah" thing in the meeting - where everyone then goes back to their corner of the world and keeps doing what they've always been doing.
The purpose and imporance of this is that is you can get agreement, you can now manage from this. Walk around your company today and ask 10 people to name the stages of your customer experience - you'll probably get 10 answers. So how are you going to manage the experience and the hand-offs between them if everyone doesn't even agree on how to define it?
2. Do you line up shared metrics for the delivery of the important stages of the experience? Does everyone know what "SCORE!" means regarding delivery of the key touch points? Again, if you don't know this, what are you managing?
3. Do you share resource planning and strategy development among the silos for the parts of the experience where there is shared accountability for its delivery? Or does everyone do the classic planning-dance where each silo picks a set of priorities for the year, drums up resources and then goes and executes on their tactics?
CEOs all around the world have a false sense of security -- thinking that their companies are really focusing on the customer because they see the littany of projects planned that have the word "customer" in their title. The only problem is, that bevy of projects doesn't aggregate up to fix one thing completely. Each one dabbles in the part of the problem specific to that silo and to meeting that part of the organization's scorecard. And the beat goes on in corporations around the world.
If you answered "no" to some of these questions above, the fact of the matter is that you're likely NOT managing the customer experience. You are delivering a defaulted experience to your customers -- which they are having by clashing and clanging from one silo priority, project and set of metrics to another. We have made our customers some kind of grand guinea pig, experiencing the joys or failures of our experience based on our ability (or inability) to work together.
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Comments
Hear, hear, Jeanne. I've often ranted about the lack of consistency in customer service, but you've provided some real practical solutions here. I like your suggestion to identify and coordinate the stages of the customer experience. It seems to be a missing component to many customer service training programs and how-to's.
Thanks for expanding my own paradigm about this.
Posted by: Elaine Fogel | 01.19.07
Jeanne,
You have hit upon what I believe is the most important work a business needs to focus on: creating a great customer experience from the inside/out.
Internal communications, brand and experience training, and responsibility and accountability must be part of the strategy.
I'm not sure your definition of silos but often that means department heads. If only department heads are charged with breaking down the silos, the effort will fail. Instead, the culture must be built around values and brand, and values and brand must lead first and foremost to both great employee and great customer experiences. And every employee must be communicated with, listened to and held responsible for--the great experience.
Posted by: Lewis Green | 01.19.07
I'd like to offer a personal experience with a company that understands what you are saying. Old Pueblo Traders. I was a copywriter for their catalogs. The thing we strove to do throughout the company was to write to "HER." SHE is our customer. SHE is 50+ and relies on OPT to be consistent on quality and style that SHE trusts. Most of us wouldn't be caught dead in OPT's clothing but we knew that SHE was out there and SHE consistently buys from us. That mantra came from the top to the bottom and everywhere inbetween. The buyers kow who SHE is. The writers know who SHE is as well as the art dept. and the call center, the warehouse and distribution was monitored constantly to ensure SHE received her packages on time and in good condition. Returns are handled in the same manner. SHE comes first always.
I left OPT when it was bought by charming shoppes so who knows what is going on now. But I'm guessing they haven't messed with the brand.
Posted by: Tammy Strnatka | 01.19.07
The challenge as I see it, Jeanne, is that organizations prefer to see themselves from the inside out instead of the outside in.
It should begin with the customer and stay there. The whole organization then rallies around the experience.
What often happens is that the customer needs to pick up the pieces and drag the problem from department to department, many of which decide they're not going to share information or resources.
Sounds too simple? Could it be because to demonstrate value add internally, we continue duplicating efforts? It would be much nicer, as you suggest, building each on each other's strength to deliver on the whole.
Posted by: Valeria Maltoni | 01.19.07
Jeanne,
My trackback appears broken. I linked to you here:
http://www.allbusiness.com/sales/customer-service/10783-1.html?postId=008426
Regards,
Glenn
Posted by: Glenn (Customer Service Experience) Ross | 01.20.07
Elaine, Lewis, Tammi and Valerie:
Thanks so much for your posts on this subject.
Your "aha's" and feedback help to bring to light even more about this elusive work.
So let's talk now about WHO in the organization does this connecting of the organizations. And yes, Lewis, that's what I mean by silos - the verticals of expertise who are each run by a VP/head with their own individual metrics and objectives.
WHO IS THE HUMAN DUCT TAPE FOR CUSTOMERS?
Alot of CEOs feel the pain of losing customers and more are seeing the light that it is not just customer acquisition but also relationship growth of the existing customer base that is crucial.
However, even when they "get" it - they don't address the organizational dysfunction that is naturally created because of the way we run corporations.
So - Here are three more questions to probe into the HOW to get this work done:
1. What is the role of the CFO and IT in the planning process of your business? Are annual plans put together area by area, and then also evaluated area by area? When the completely expected "we need to cut 20% from this budget" comes from finance during the annual planning cycle, is there any rhyme or reason to how that is done?
In enlightened companies, there is an understanding that the Finance and IT department become the tunnels through which most projects of the company flow through. How about engaging them as a team with your CEO to start FIRST with customer priorities that need resolution? Then as planning begins, you have a set of yes/no filters through which to prioritize or back-burner projects. You also can identify where the duplication and overlap is on the different parts of the organization going at the same problem differently with company resources.
This sounds simplistic - but it is really hard. But at least beginning with a perspective of the customer priorities can give some hope of getting something done completely to solve a customer issue or improve a customer experience dramatically.
The way we fund and finance projects in annual planning today is one of the major culprits for why things really aren't fixed.
2. Is there anyone in your organization WHO is looking across your organization to understand how you will define the customer experience? Who will bring together the different factions to gain alignment and to pull together projects on common ground?
3. DOES YOUR CEO HAVE SKIN IN THE GAME? Is this a personal platform that he/she are actively involved in? You need to see your CEO asking the hard questions about what you are doing for (or against) customers. They need to call for and show up at consistently called for forums that demand accountability. This is not work to be "jobbed" out.
As you contemplate these tasks, it may become clear that this is real work that requires a recognizable process and path that needs to be driven across the organization. Even after the CEO has the epiphany that the "customer stuff" is critical to the business, WHO does the connecting of the work across the operational silos and HOW they gain the alignment of leadership and the attention to get it done are the next sticky wickets to tackle. And THIS is when the fun really begins!
Posted by: jeanne bliss | 01.20.07