Who Moved Your Cheese (Customers) ?

You need your customer more than they need you . Do you know this fact?  Many would reply – YES we know.

But real problem starts when we see our action  as far as customer experience is concerned. Our actions are not commensurate with the statement above.

How many companies have mission /vision statement?  Most company will answer in affirmative.

But again real problem starts once the statement is freezed and put up on website and reception area. Other than customers no one in the organisations reads and practice that.

How many of the entrepreneurs are aware that in an era of commoditisation of products and services , ease & delight in fulfilling customer needs is the real sustainable competitive advantage? Fair number of entrepreneurs have now started realising this.

But how many entrepreneurs have done anything to achieve this competitive advantage ?

Become your own customer – visit stores, call call centers , use after sales, talk to front line people , talk to back-end people (their action or inaction impact performance of front-line employees and customer experiences)  and realise – map competitive advantage your company enjoys.

Entrepreneurs and CEOs are talking & complaining about low sales, competitive pricing pressure, top-line growth issues, challenge of how to differentiate – but rare  number of entrepreneurs and CEOs are taking action in the space of bettering customer experience (CE) and most are just clueless , complaining and talking about ROI on customer experience initiatives.  

What is the ROI of life insurance policy? What is the ROI of medical treatment cost of a dying patient?  What is the ROI of cost of going to the Gym? No we do not see ROI on insurance policy or medical treatment as it is a MUST to protect our family from risk , survival or preventive health measures. CE initiatives are beyond ROI as these are MUST , not just to survive  but it is the cause of every business.It has to be a part of business strategy. (though ROI of better CE is obvious i.e. survival) 

Cheese has again moved and those focusing on bettering customer experience know who moved and how to remain with cheese , all remaining are questioning & complaining –  WHO MOVED MY CHEESE  (Customers) ?

Today's Organisations - Horses on Steroids

Present models of ONLY ROI driven businesses are not sustainable.  CFO of Narayana Hrudayalaya today quoted in ET- CD, " kind of returns PE players are asking is not possible in healthcare industry." 

Yes healthcare industry is not only PROFIT driven but PEOPLE driven. Number of people impacted while making some profit to take care of future investments. Mere ROI focus is not sustainable nor desirable.

Why only healthcare ? Every industry today is in severe cut throat competition. Ethical conduct is replaced by END only matters,  Q on Q and ROI, ROCE kind of performance matrix. 

Balance Scorecard approach by some of the corporate is welcome step but how much it has helped in stress reduction and happiness enhancement is a  matter of research. 

These PEs and their insatiable appetite for ROI is deciding ROI benchmarks world over.  

Huge ROI will drive happiness for a few at the cost of unhappiness and stress for many. 

Today's organisations are like Horses on steroids in race course. 

Huge bonus and extravagant packages at the top level makes the organisation look like a race course. Bets on the houses are so huge that they have to run and run and win at all cost. 

Fortunately horses run only in race course but ROI hungry Shareholders & CEOs run all across the society. Examples of Ranbaxys and Satyams and many more unearthed are the products of such rush for crazy ROIs.   

Why I lost my Customers ?

Recently a friend of mine told me that he has lost one of his customer for 9 years , for meager small price difference. 

All of us whether in business or profession face customer attrition. Yes they leave us. Those who are involved in customer acquisition know how difficult it is to get one. So many meetings , follow up , promises and discounts offers it takes to get a customer.

Therefore when we lose our customer its painful as well as loss making proposition. Retained customer is an income , acquired customer is an expense as it takes 5 to 7 times the money to acquire new customer than to retain a one. 

As the customer gets older cost of acquiring him gets written off over the period of time. It is always better and smarter to not only retain a customer but also get referral from him to get a new customer. 

A value of customer is = profit out of his repeat purchase + referral leads he offers (which saves 5 to 7 times of cost of acquiring a new customer) 

But if customer is so important to any businesses important question to think is why do businesses lose customers to competition ? 

1. - Better Price 
2. - Better Speed to Delivery
3. - Better Understanding of the customer
4. - Better Proximity
5. - Better Quality 

Most important are Better Relationship (Human aspect of dealing & not CRM) and Better Customer Experience (Emotional Connect). 

Sometime you may wonder why ever after focusing on the above 5 tangible aspects , your business is still losing customers ? 

It may ( MUST ) be because you are ignoring completely the two intangible but critical aspects of business - customer relationship and customer experience. 

Are you LIKABLE?

Are you as a person likable to fellow workers , fellow family members ? 

Are you as a company likable to employees , customers, suppliers, shareholders & community around ? 

People like to deal with what is likable. Therefore one of the parameters to evaluate the performance and target to be aim for is more likability. 

Impact being likable can have on individual and business is enormous. Sometimes its better   to evaluate this on unlikable parameters. 

Dave Kerpen author of the book Likable Business describes seven of the ten things in his presentation.  

• Listen - employees, customers and everyone 
• Surprise & Delight
• Story Telling 
• Transparency 
• Authenticity - Just be you 
• Team Play
• Gratefulness

Those who are further interested and have 55 minutes of time to invest may see this presentation by Dave Kerpen Video on How to be Likable Company

Social Media is either making companies aware why it is important to be likable or forcing them to react and change to become likable.  

Is your business making money?

Is your business making money? 

Answer may be NO but you may not KNOW. Yes many businesses are just managing cash flow and not making profit. 

Is it your money that you are splurging on ? 

It may be of your creditors or banks or government. 

Is your networth positive after you writes off dead stock , dead investments , difference between book value and scrap value of your assets and bad debts ? 

Is your ROI more than risk free rate market return ? 

You may have money in bank but do you have assets value more than your liabilities? 

Take a critical look at your MANAGED financials.You may cook the book to fool government and investors but be cautions about your uncooked real books that is fooling you and taking speedily you on the road to bankruptcy.   

Many companies survive before they burst merely on the basis of positive cash-flow. Cash flow is critical but at the same time it misleads. It makes us believe that our business is making money. But unless you are vigilant on the above aspects of profit and loss and Balance Sheet , only positive cash flow dependency can be a disaster.

First Impression is only the First Impression not the LAST

First impression is the last impression is highly overrated  and bias thinking. This mindset does not believe in any scope for improvements. 

Life is all about continues improvements and NO ONE can be perfect at the first time. We have in life and in business many instances of great first impression and lousy impressions thereafter and vice versa. 

Yes we have to give our best at the very first time but that is not all. We can always learn from mistakes, from others's experience , from customers feedback. First impression is not and can never be the last impression. 

Yes , not improving continuesly is a cause for concern. Worrying too much about the first impression will pull you back to create any impression at all.   

Try and create the great first impression and work to make it better at every next impressions. 

First is not the last , first is just the first. 

Lessons for Political Campaigners from Business Campaigners

When business campaigners i.e. advertisers talk they talk about qualities of their products and services and try to differentiate from the competition without referring to the bad qualities if any of the competitor. 

They don't criticize competition but communicates how they can make a difference in the lives of their users/consumers. 

Consumers by and large are smart and they know good and bad about the competing products. 

In contrast our political parties and leaders spent large part of their election speech in mud slinging on opposition and competitor.  Consumer & Voters wants to know HOW you are going to make a difference in their lives. They need your plan of action to bring the desired change, your case studies of past performance, your views on various problems and issues need resolution. 

Spending time on criticizing others is doing NO good to any one , neither to listeners nor to speakers. Leave listeners , views and voters to decide what is good for them without referring what is bad about your competitors. They just want your support in deciding in their selection and best way to do that is to demonstrate WHAT you can do to improve their lives. PERIOD.

Congress leaders going to Gujarat and doing negative campaign against the Govt will not work and similarly Modi going to Karnataka and do mud slinging against the Congress also will not work.

In Gujarat people know what Modi has done so they don't believe in Congress and in  Karnataka people are aware what BJP has done so they will not believe in negative campaign against Congress by Modi. In both campaigns parties had to demonstrate WHAT and HOW of changing lives for better of voters from present situation. Both have failed in that and so their campaigns have also failed. People are first interested in bettering their lives and they care about corruption only AFTER that.

Communication makes all the difference. FOCUS on positive campaigning.  Political campaigners may take some clue business campaigners. 

Leadership Vs Front-facing Candidates & Managers

Leaders can inspire but it is the local leader at  the voters touch points who can drives votes. Only leaders without right followers cant win elections. Mass leader with right candidate is the killer mix. 

Right Candidate (non corrupt , performing perception & great people skill)	Likely Win	Mostly Wins
Wrong Candidate (corrupt , non performing perception )	Mostly Loses	Likely Lose
Election Matrix (Qualities of candidates and leaders are in relation to its opponent)	Uninspiring  leader at the top ( Incapable, uninspiring, corrupt & ineffective & non inclusive image)	Inspiring Leader at the top ( Inspiring { thought leader , communicator} , capable, non corrupt, effective, executor, inclusive image  )

The above matrix is not only applicable to political parties  but also to all businesses. Howsoever strong leadership you may have at the top if your ground level customer focus managers are failing company will be in trouble.

People will become customers if they see Richard Bronson at the top but soon they will disappear if the touch point manager/staff is uninspiring.  Only dependency on right and inspiring leadership is not going to yield the desired result. 

Failed Communication !!!

I received birthday wishes from the only club I am a member of. I was pleased to see the envelope wishing me birthday in advance. 

When I further dwell into the communication my happiness doubled when I saw they will treat me with 1/2 kg of cake on that day. 

But ...

Yes there is a big BUT  towards the end. They asked me to intimate them in advance how many people will join me to a party which they assume I will offer on my birthday at their restaurant when they will serve me a free cake... 

I realised that this was not a birthday wish but only a sales letter in disguise. 

Companies must refrain their urge to sell every-time they communicate with customers. Sometimes a sincere wish can do wonders and more sales then these kind of letters. 

This letter at the end didn't serve any purpose. Birthday wish was to sell and sell will not happen when I see such selfish approach to wish me and lure me through 1/2 kg of cake.

Focus on genuine experience creation , genuine wish and then only genuine sales will happen automatically. Many a times focus on sales pitch is the reason for no sales. When  customers see ingenuity in communication and approach. 

Are you genuine when communicating with your customers? 

Are you balancing for ROI or overall HAPPINESS ?

My last post Is Balance Scorecard relevant today? received good response from practicing professionals in one voice they stated YES Balance Scorecard is and will always remain relevant. 

Balance Scorecard is relevant but what we are out to balance that need to change according the competitive business , social and environment land scape.

We can not have ROI only mindset to align all other balancing factors serving that. ROI at what social, ethical, emotional & environmental cost? Present balance scorecard do not takes into account these factors. 

After identifying all these stakeholders a balanced strategy to make all of them happy should be worked out. All of them deserves equal weightage. Thereafter further breaking down is to be done to achieve happiness of each of the constituents.     

In achieving only ROI based balancing other aspects like governance, ethical and socially responsible behaviors can & shall not be ignored. All these must be incorporated in overall balance card.