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.  

Experienced can offer the Experience

One of the ways to create culture of superior customer experience is to let your employees experience superior customer experience themselves. You have to change the mindset and self experience is the best teacher. 

When you receive superior service you will be inclined to offer one in your role to your customers. No amount of training can teach and change the mindset what true real life experience can do to a person. 

When you receive respect you would like to give one. What you receive is what you can give. Therefore in order the change the employee mindset which is the biggest challenge, expose them to superior customer experiences.  

Unfortunately most companies neither offer superior employee experience to their employees nor expose them to superior customer experience elsewhere and yet expect employee to offer superior customer experience to their customers !!

Experience is the best teacher & that applies here to. Expose your employees to superior customer experience in some other industry /companies , make them delightful customer experienced to enable them to offer better experience to your customers.  

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. 

KISS is really powerful !!

Simplicity & Ease will push your business. One of the important things in designing customer experience is EASE. Ease of doing business can do wonders. 

Flipkart has achieved that EASE, ATM machines offer EASE. The other day we were at Cream Center and guests waiting management was flawless. It was in order and quick communication was flowing from the people inside about tables available to the person managing waiting guests. 

In many of the on/offline businesses customers have no clue when and whether things will happen as expected. Communication and business processes are not explicit.  They are confusing. People managing are not adding any human angle and just follow what is told to them.  The entire experience becomes confusing , irritating and mechanical. 

Multiple option at coffee shops , insurance products , mobile plans are highly confusing and lack ease and simplicity.  Product design , buying process , usage, communication & marketing all level deserves simplicity. 

When you are out to create better customer experience keep EASE factor in mind  , as it will add to delight and memorability. Customers have many complexity to attend to in their life, therefore EASE & Simplicity is at premium. 

KISS - Keep it Simple Stupid , is really powerful. 

SIGH of an Entrepreneur

You started your enterprise to serve your customers with your skill and passion. However in the process you need to manage people, policies, processes , acquisition, various regulatory compliance and many other things apart from serving customers.  Managing the management of business is Herculean task. It is this task which is the major culprit in diluting and shifting focus from customer experience.

Yesterday I was with one senior doctor managing her own clinic. With deep sigh she uttered " I am tired. Managing patients is fine but its the other things about practice that is too tiring. " I think most entrepreneurs in their entrepreneurial journey must be going through this SIGH.

It is important for entrepreneur to remain deeply focused on customers and delegate all peripheral activities of " Management " to others. It is the customers and only serving customers is the objective of the business and who are going to pay for the business to survive  All other money are debt and at cost. Customers money is adding to the networth. 

Before you lose sight of customers while managing MANAGEMENT part, its time to wake up and get a grip of what you always wanted to do - SERVING the CUSTOMERS and in the process making them RAVING FANS of your business.

Business Process & Drained Customer Experience

When was the last time your business processes were realigned keeping customer experience in mind ?

Do you know business processes are the major culprit in creating damaging customer experience ? 

When fulfilling a customer need - business processes can play a key role in making it happen with ease , speed and delight. 

Process complexity delays the delivery , irritates the customers , break the relations and customer looks for elsewhere. 

Business process mastery can give you competitive advantage. Flipkart is the shining example of process mastery. Their enviable TAT is the result of process mastery keeping customer at the center of the process design.  Whatever the processes employed customer gets speedy delivery. 

Huge money invested to built brand on media , huge money invested in technology and logistics. However before they built brand through media there was already word of mouth online brand building happening through customers. Media helped them to achieve tipping point but ground work was kept ready through their superior logistics for only one product - Books. 

There are plenty of leakage points in offering superior customer experience but business process is the critical part which makes or breaks the business. Business process re-engineering which keeps customer's need and not company's need at the core archives what the company ultimately wants - superior PROFIT through superior CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE.    

" You have got to start with CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE and work backward for technology , process & people"  Steve Jobs.

B2B Customer Experience is CRITICAL

B2B customer experience (CE) is critical as share of the business each customer brings is substantial. Share of each business referral a customer can bring is also substantial. Therefore to survive and to expand - both , CE in B2B business is critical. 

- When was the last time you sought customer feedback (and more acted on the feedback) ?

- Your customers are buying more from you (% of of your turnover and % of their turnover) ?

- Are you aware about the concerns of your customers ( they are facing with your organisation and they are facing as their own business ) ?  

- Have you taken steps to solve their concerns with your organisation ? 

- Have you asked them about their other business issues where you can play a role ?

- Think to delight them , surprise them and make them aware that you care about their business and relationship. Help them in their success. 

Most business assume that they are delivering great customer experience and enjoying great relationship with customers only to realize sooner that customer is lost to someone else. 

Appoint TODAY Customer Delight Officer ( This is not a cost but an investment that can improve financial ROI of your business ). 

What MOVIES teach about Customer Experience ?

How many times all of us have seen the movie we liked ? 

We spend hours at the cost of repetition of watching seen movies (remember time is our most precious resource) . 

We know the story and sequence exactly. Repeat purchase (viewing) is for the fact that we have had a good experience at the first instance & we wish to repeat our experience that we had liked , cherished. 

However when directors' creativity takeover viewers' expectations we have seen movie from great directors' failing on the box office. 

Likewise if your company is keeping internal system , processes and efficiency at the core, it will end up like a flop movie. 

Some recent experiences when customers are not at the core of business decisions: 

- Hospital wants medicine replenishment from internal medical store by patient's relative every time.  Isn't it the internal process of the Hospital ?  

- Leading credit card company uses 4 pages for bill printing (incl Ads) but not a line on customer care contact details for any billing related issue. Is customer experience/need at the core when designing this bill ? 

- On a website of leading private bank no way to reach them but for only FAQ driven email options & call center numbers which require many punches before we can talk to anyone. No email ID to reach customer care. Shouldn't  they be customer driven rather than process driven only ?  

- One of the large holiday resort companies keep responding mails with standard replies without reading the customer concerns not as automated replies but with personal name as signatory.   

Ask yourself every-time , what will happen to customer experience when any business decisions are taken ? 

Create a lovely shopping experience during shopping process and product usage and you have acquired one of the finest assets any business can have  - loyal and repeat customer.  

How much time , effort and most important thinking is invested in offering scintillating customer experience which they wish to repeat again and again and still again ?  

Deadly DEBT !

Yes its deadly. 

Inadequate debt wont allow your business to grow and entrepreneurs will suffocate & die. (business will die)

High debt will drown you in the burden of interest. Yes more debt without adequate productive use will eat into your profit. Invest excess debt thoughtlessly and inability to repay will make your account NPA and your otherwise profitable business will also sink. 

No bank /institutions will finance NPA accounts. Inability to raise finance means stagnation.   

Debt is necessary for growth but its adequacy is what matters the most. Many businesses are out of business today just because of either of the two scenario mentioned above. 

Understanding play of -  cashflow , adequate sustainable leverage (debt) , criticality of  margin & contribution , cash conversion cycle  , inadequate working capital , debt trap , fixed and variable cost , current ratio , cashflow to debt ratio etc are very fundamental to every business. 

Even if you do great business, illiteracy of financial implications will undo all your great marketing efforts. 

All entrepreneurs deal with money & work for money but unfortunately many entrepreneurs do not understand money part of the business. 

Why enterprises MUST expand their area of Influence ?

“Expand your area of Influence” and we remember great author Stephen Covey.  This is referred for personal development as one of the habits of effective people. However this also applies in the realm of better and delightful customer experience.  Yes to compete in such severe market condition every company must expand their area of influence.

Expand the definition of your offering and you will know area to be influenced.

Tirupati Balaji temple trust believes that their responsibility for devotees starts only when devotees are at the temple campus, restaurant thinks their job is only to offer food in side the eatery, telecom company thinks their role starts when a customer become their customer to use their voice /data services, manufacturers think product dispatch is the only job they are suppose to do likewise banks , hospitals every other business can think limited or expand their area of influence – its up to them.  In their book The Experience Economy - Author Duo says add ING to your offerings. This ING is what customer wants. Add ING and you see expanded area of influence.

Balaji Temple Trust started thinking of transport , logistics , devotees , online booking , queue management and every possible thing that devotees would think of while thinking of visiting Titupati. Asian Paints has started offering home decor solution to end user from merely selling paints.  Every enterprise HAS to think beyond their physical area of influence and keep expanding their area of influence not only to offer total solution and adding ING in their offerings but also to better their customer experience.  How else will you expand your market-share?

(This applies to every employees and professionals.)