Brand Minus Customer Experience

Nothing !!!! Yes it is nothing. 

Everything that a customer feels, thinks, sees is all CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE (CX). 

M of McDonald represents fun, food, taste, ambiance, service excellence, smiling & helpful employees. M reminds us of all these. Therefore M is not a logo or McDonald is not a brand , but it is all about what M & McDonald represents. 

Whenever next-time you think of designing your logo or planning a branding exercise, if the same is not commensurate with the experience your business is offering to the customer. It will not be a branding exercise. It will be a waste or It will be all negative experiences it can recall.

The 1st step is designing Customer Experience. Branding will follow from Customer Experience. 

Have you designed your CX & walked your Customer Journey to know the brand your entrepreneurial efforts are building  ? 

Incomplete Business Plans & Executions

Yes, How many business plans are discussing about the kind of experience they wish to create for their customers ?  

Business plans contain information on whole world of product differentiation and sales strategy ,  financial ratios and revenue models , market segmentation and team but I have not any seen business plan explaining in details about customer experience and kind of culture team wants to built. 

I read a comment in response to my earlier blog post , " don't spoil customers by offering finest experience. " But I would say some companies are spoiling their talent in order to retain them.  Once habituated to vibrant culture and decent pay , employees find themselves misfit and uncomfortable with other not so great culture. This is the way to retain them from moving away. 

Likewise spoil your customers to retain them. Give them unprecedented and unmatched experience and you get their lifetime loyalty. This requires thinking and creation of culture. This is a huge competitive advantage and MUST find its way into the business plans. 

Design and define customer experience in your business plan and that will set the ball rolling for the culture it will entail. 

r CEOs PASSIONATE abt their CUSTOMERS?

During last 7 days columnists in leading business papers wrote abt Customer Experience and WOW !!!  THRICE.

1) In Mint Shuchi Bansal - Marketing & Media Editor referring to wow!!! customer services by Quintessentially Services.

2) In ET , Amitabh Chaudhry - Chief HDFC Insurance talking abt Customer Centricity of the Organisation.

3) Today, Ruchard Branson in the Mint talks abt Delightful Customer Experience as core competency @ Virgin.

However unfortunately most Top Managements in India still think Customer Experience is marketing and customer services department job. Whenever I speak to the owners of the businesses abt the subject, 9 3/4th  out of 10 refers me to their customer service and marketing dept. They even dont bother to know more abt it. 

They will do every other things to push their sales , spent time with brand designers , media and ad agencies, large growth options thru M & A, large fund raising , but when it comes to customer and customer experience they turn it to other departments. I fail to understand for /with whom they spent time if customers are not their priority or domain!!! 

No one , in fact no one thinks abt customer WOW !!! Moments,  forget designing that WOW !!! moments. 

In the world of online fulfillment , all physical businesses will keep fighting and bleeding in red ocean unless they make compelling reasons for the customer to experience their offerings. 

This will not happen without the top management's passion for the customers.

Movie Script & Business Script

Seen SLB's Master Piece movie GUZARISH last week. Wow - Master ART!! 

Movie making encapsulates all forms of ART. SLB has taste of creating MASTER PIECE in all forms of ART in one single movie. amazing Story, screen play, acting, music,songs,costume ,back ground sets, star selection , dialogues , every scene & every  screen , in all every other aspects meticulously thought of , planned and executed.

I wonder HOW Movie Making is different from Setting up an Enterprise or Designing Memorable Customer Experience!!! No Way.

From Script to Complete Movie from no where. From Business Plan to Running Business from no where. Movie however is tougher as unlike business there no scope for improvement post customer feedback/market response.

Therefore every thing is planned and visualized before even camera action starts. Attitude of lets go to market and we improve can not work here. That is the learning. We have entrepreneurs in a hurry to go to market, speed up and mess up on many aspects. You have your own share of learning when you touch the market but there shall not be shallow thinking at planning stage.  Nano Car learns from market reality but there must be huge thought process under gone into design and manufacturing of the Nano Car.

Be it making a master Piece Movie or setting up an enterprise or Designing Delightful Customer Experience - Its an ART ,ART to Change life of who experiences it.