Business Turnaround - Step Number One

Yes CEOs across the globe is putting CUSTOMER at the center when they plan for business turnaround. 

Finding reasons for sickness is certainly a good beginning for turnaround process to begin with however for any business it is CUSTOMERs who pays for its survival - be it good business or turnaround case.

Therefore immediate focus on better customer experience can give CXOs to work out plan and strategise turnaround initiatives. Preserving customers who have not yet left the organisation is critical and first priority & making them company evangelist is next best on agenda. 

Company may be sick for any reason but the moment customers know this they may continue to do the business but search for alternative is on immediately as everyone needs dependable service providers or suppliers. Even best customer experience service providers like Kingfisher airlines started losing customers the moment they know about the financial mess the company is in.  Only hope for their survival was their customer loyalty they had created by offering great experience. 

Imagine what can happen to companies not offering not so great customer experience.

Therefore while working on other issues to  turnaround the company immediate sharp focus on the customers is the key survival tool for turnaround companies. Many a times pathetic approach towards the customers is the reason for the companies to go sick and even die.   

Point is do not wait till your enterprise go sick to focus on customer experience. Focus on customer experience to avoid sickness and even is the situation arise customer can bail your enterprise out with their loyalty and word of mouth support.  

Why even SMALL businesses MUST Embrace Customer Experience ?

When we audit customer experience we can fairly make out what will be the operative financial performance of the entity (non operative issues like high debt & mindless advertising  may still work adversely in spite of great customer experience recent example is Kingfisher Airlines) .  

Yes operative financial performance is directly linked to what your customers feel about your customer experience creation capability. 

Companies may go out of the way & spend more to offer superior customer experience but that will not impact operative performance adversely as it will result in word of mouth publicity , more referral business and customer loyalty. 

Manufacturing companies spent millions for efficiency and lean manufacturing but it wont give them competitive advantage unless they are offering superior customer experience. Lean & Six Sigma  projects surround their efforts around what customer wants. Speed delivery via lean approach or defect free products via six sigma approach all are adding to customer experience. Any projects not keeping customer at the center wont yield desired financial performance as things not touching customers wont make them loyal and it even wont give competitive advantage to businesses.  

Focus on customer experience when designing lean , six sigma  and even your next Ad campaign. Financial (operative) results are linked directly to customer experience creation capability of the organisation. 

Smaller businesses struggle for customer as well as profit. Focusing on bettering customer experience , small business entrepreneurs can gain both - profit and customers.  

Kingfisher Air - Attacking the Root Cause or Root of the Brand ???

Our Dear Dr Mallya is now asking their people not to treat their CUSTOMER as Guest as they have a severe cash problem and it is not a good policy now.

He mean to say that its their treating Customer as Guest policy is one of the causes of their problem. How unfortunate ??

He is attacking the fundamental of the business basics. He must know that if any one will bail out or invest in his cash strapped company , the only reason would be their policy of treating customer as their guests.  Brand he has built which people loves today is only because of their CUSTOMER policy. 

Even CUSTOMERS have paid too steep price to Kingfisher Air just because they threat them as their Guests. 

Its not their CUSTOMER policy but everything else is lousy. Only good they have done is to raise the bar of customer experience.

I am sure he will not attack the root of his BRAND and  attack the right causes of the problems.

Customer Service Is Not a Department, Its your Company

Why Surprised !!!!. As an entrepreneur you started d company to offer some solution to the CUSTOMER. Isn't it true ???

Unfortunately as the company grows, it develops silos and other than CEO, everyone else is responsible to their limited area of operations. This is how companies are managed. But the problem with this way of working is NO one cares about the customers other than customer care and sales department. 

But difference between core competency and competitive advantage could be  - Excellent Customer Focus & offering Delightful & Memorable Xperience.

Core Competency will keep you in business , competitive advantage will give you an edge by allowing some extra profit , low marketing efforts, quicker sales cycle & more repeat/referred customers. 

One of my young followers mailed me that Kingfisher Airlines is offering wow customer experience & now they are almost on the verge of collapse & other non wowers are surviving thereby questioning entire wow experience strategy.   

I have read tweets of many of whom I follow. There are two views on govt bailout or support to private sector Company in trouble but everyone unequivocally agree that company is offering great customer experience.  All of them are brand loyal , brand referrers, opponents of financial package also cant stop but admire for what kind of experience company is creating for their customers. These loyalty and wow!! experience perhaps will be instrumental in helping the company in times of crisis. Financial Troubles are and can be due to various structural and financing issues, but WOW !!! factor they could create is the key not only for voice of customers to support the company but loyal and repeat customers will remain loyal to the company  for revenue to keep coming. 

Even in the case of Satyam Scam, one of the independent directors acknowledged that their customers' loyalty was the reason they could revive so beautifully even in times of severe survival crisis. 

Wowed Customers = Happy Customers = Loyal Customers = Brand Promoters 

Therefore keep wowing customers, they will go to any extent to support you in times of crisis. Is Wowing Customers, your competitive advantage????

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