Why your customers MUST promote your brand ?

Why your previous & existing customers are NOT promoting your brand ? 

When previous & existing are customers are not promoting , their own loyalty is also at risk.

Its is a very serious issue. 

- may be they are not satisfied (not meeting basic need) 

- may be they are not happy (not exceeding expectations) 

- may be they think there is something better available 

- may be experience was not engaging 

- may be experience was not memorable 

- may be it was not emotionally touching 

- may be they considered price was more than value it delivered

- may be your promise was more than what you delivered 

Reasons could be any and many. Company can not afford to ignore these reasons. It is not that it saves your marketing cost but it is for the very purpose to know whether your enterprise is doing the right things in a right way. 

Before you get financial results at the end of the year , knowing what your customers are doing for you in the market is an indicator of financial results one can expect. 

Like political parties would like to know mood of the nation before election & take last minute corrective measures, entrepreneurs also must know & act on mood of the customers. When the mood is like the points stated above challenge for entrepreneurs is bigger. 

Make it a mission that every customer MUST recommend your offerings by becoming brand advocate.  There are few companies that enjoys this kind of reputation. 

Extreme Customer Orientation !!

Yes Norwegian Insurance Company Gjensidige decide to become Extreme Customer Orientation company. 

Point is not HOW and WHY. Point is degree of customer focus companies have started to become to differentiate and create superior customer experience. 

Customer Experience (CE) as sustainable competitive advantage is now accepted by many companies. Leaders will always take a lead and grab first movers’ advantage. Followers will have no choice later and will be forced to focus on CE but that will be at the cost of lots of brand damage & first mover advantage. 

By two and half years into the process Gjensidige had been a dramatic rise in their position of Norwegian National Customer Satisfaction Barometer & won two of the biggest customer satisfaction awards for their industry. They have consistently beaten market expectations with their financial results & can prove that they provide their services more efficiently than their peers in Europe & US.   

Even CE is a new Marketing strategy. Without first focusing on customer experience or extreme customer focus, thinking & deciding about marketing campaign is a shallow strategy. 

- Do you map your customer journey ? 

- Do you conduct customer experience audit ? 

- Do you measure your customer experience ? 

- Do you have defined customer experience statement? 

- Do you have deliberate customer experience designed for all touch points? 

- Do you have someone in charge of end to end customer experience ? 

- Do you discuss customer issues in senior management meeting ? 

Extremely customer sensitive companies have started focusing on extreme customer orientation, have you stared focusing on basic customer experience ?  

Are you worrying about Economic Crisis? Focus on Customer Experience.

Companies do not want to spend EXTRA during economic downturn. Who cares for customer experience during economic crisis ? General mood is negative, companies are struggling to survive, maintain sales & margins ,  lay off is imminent , big campaigns are put on hold, no new investments. Mood is sombre. 

To change the mood of every stake holders this is the right time to focus on customer experience initiative. When else you would focus on this? 

Good times are booming times , hence no time and need to focus on Customer Experience (CE) initiatives. Sales are anyway growing. Everybody is growing, expanding capacity  & happy. 

This is the time when you not only can retain your existing customers, make them spend same or more, get new customers , get new referrals. Yes in down time people are spending less therefore it is all the more important that you continue have your market share. That will only happen if and only if your enterprise is preferred by customers to deal with. Customers will remember how there were treated in bad times. 

Companies not focusing on CE will lose some so new customers are floating to be captured by better customer experience. Word of Mouth (WOM) & referral business is at all time high in bad times as people want to be doubly sure where they wish to spend.  

Most Important: Remember in down time customers are also in sombre mood.  In this time of crisis when companies focus on emotional customer experience, it will go long long way to win more & more customers in bad times. They will remember you in good times as well. Its a win win proposition. 

Following para from Forrester report will reinforce the need to focus on customer experience initiatives in down time: 

Faced with increasing competition from new entrants, coupled with the 2008 financial crisis that pummeled the shipping industry, Maersk Line was seeing its margins shrink. Firms in the industry were cutting prices to maintain revenues, threatening to erode margins even further. To avoid the “race to the bottom,” Maersk Line’s executive management team determined that customer experience would play an important role in creating customer loyalty and stopping this commoditization. In 2009, the executive team turned to a 17-year veteran at the company, Jesper Engelbrecht Thomsen, the firm’s vice president of customer service, to improve the end-to-end customer experience.

Within 3 years with the organisation level CE initiatives this company registered growth in Net Promoter Score (NPS) by 40%. Therefore irrespective of type of business & business cycle , it pays to focus on CE initiatives. 

Do you want more severe economic downturn to embrace CE initiatives? 

Place for odd man out is empty. Be the one to occupy that. 

Customer Experience Lessons from Narendra Modi

Surprising but that is the fact, all organisations can learn quite a few lessons in customer experience from him. 

He visited a college in Delhi & addressed students in a jam packed hall, massive rally in Punjab in June, he addressed massive rally in Hyderabad earlier this month,  he tops popularity chart for the post of PM of a country of our size.  He was not a national leader & still he has built his solid brand across India. Charisma is the word but this charisma is built by experience people are experiencing about him. 

First and foremost he has huge fan base in Gujarat because of work he has done for the people of Gujarat and decisive leadership he has demonstrated.  Many innovative schemes are implemented which have impacted the lives of the citizen in quite a positive way.  

After doing what matters to the citizen of his state he has shown mastery in communication skills. Not only his oratory skill but he has used all traditional as well as modern social media to showcase what he could achieve for the people of his state. We have the concept of bestselling books and not best written books. To convert best written book into bestselling book, book must communicate, readers of the book also must communicate about it. In his case perhaps he is best performing as well as best selling CM & this is only because of communication skills and effective use of mediums. You cannot afford to lack either. 

Now he is making people across the country believe that same kind of growth , faster decision making  , efficient & non corrupt bureaucracy which is on the edge to help, support & execute  & most important decisive leadership is possible. These are the pain points for the people in other states.  

Lessons are as under: 

1) Focus single Mindedly in creating wow !! Customer experience which in his case he has demonstrated by series of innovative measures keeping citizen interest & pain points at heart. All machinery at his disposal have been geared up to help people of the state. This has created millions of fan follower. 

Whether your organisation is single mindedly geared up to offer delightful customer experience ? How many fan following your product/service commands ? 

2) Distinctly communicate to potential customers what have you done for your existing customers and how have you impacted their life for the better.  Use all possible medium to communicate. Allow your FANs to use platform you create to communicate with your future customers. 

What & How are you communicating with your present & potential customers ?  For zappos.com , CEO Tony , message is clear Delivering Happiness, for Narendra Modi message is clear Development. What is your clear message to all your present and potential customers? (This will be more effective if this is otherwise a pain point for them).  

3) Demonstrate that you can address all pain points your potential customers are facing by their loyalty to competing brand. Your existing customer experience creating capabilities coupled with how that experience is addressing known pain points of customers is very important. 

Do you know what are the pain points of your potential customers which you can address ? 

1. Create an experience (change culture, design and execute) 
2. Communicate an experience (your fans will do it)
3. Communicate it is possible for all i.e. for your non customers (use all possible media)
4. Create Confidence that you can do it (all the above three at play at its best can do it) 

Lessons in CE are coming from everywhere, are you willing to look around & listen ? 

Is your enterprise surviving without Customer Xperience Audit?

When you are clueless about results of financial audit, think of customer experience (CE) audit. Yes CE audits can bring out many of the causes of good or bad financial results. Unfortunately no companies engage in CE audits. 

When your company's EPS is dropping, it is not necessarily due to higher capital deployment or higher input cost, it can be because of your lower pricing capability, it can be because of higher ad/marketing cost, it can be because of higher customer turnover, it can be because of low per capita buying by existing customers, it can be because of your faulty customer services design & it can be because you are neither listening nor watching your customers.    

VOC & Journey Maps / Customer Mirror are some of the ways in which you can know about kind of customer experience your enterprise is delivering while dealing with your customers. Remember Mystery Shopping is not CE audit. Its is just a one component of CE audit. 

Financial performance is the result of all these activities company performs during the year. We are too keen to know the result & then analyse it superfluously without even thinking about CE. 

Its like focusing on exercise for weight loss results without focusing on diet. If you keep analyzing and changing your exercise without proper diet plan it is neither a right analysis nor it will give desired results even in future.

Our intake is critical for weight loss programme, exercise just support and supplements it. You can reduce weight with proper and timely diet without exercise but without diet discipline only with exercise weight loss is not possible and even if it is achieved it is not sustainable.

Likewise without focusing on customer experience part , financial results shall not be analysed & it can not remain sustainable. For long term sustainable financial results which every company desires, focus on CE is critical prerequisite for analysing the results. 

Therefore immediately after financial audit , companies must commence CE audits. Both put together is the right recipe for performance improvement initiatives. Without CE audits and knowing what kind of CE your company is delivering , all performance improvement initiatives will  be incomplete and won’t give the desired outcome. 

ICICI Bank Customer Experience of Utter Frustration

Do you know how much effort it takes for the customers to deal with you ? This is my classic ICICI Bank Credit Card /Call Center experience during last 3 days. 

I wanted to report about fraudulent transactions on my credit card. There were 17 transactions in the time lag of 4 minutes. But it took 50 minutes for me to report it to the bank. 

There is neither emergency contact numbers not call center number on credit card bill so net connectivity is necessary to find their number from website. Even on website there is no separate emergency number. All matters are treated equally. 

There is no proper & complete instructions for emergency handling at cell center number punches. It took 50 minutes for me to reach them and report my issues which incl long queues and line disconnect in between the conversation.  

Call center agent handling emergency has no updated email ID where I have to send my written complaint. I was given an out dated email ID, which was corrected by other agent on the next day. 

Agent handling card loss issues which they classify as emergency and given priority does not know how to deal with emergency. He has asked me to come through normal route after punching so many keys even without knowing my issues. 

There is no system of acknowledgment for the written complaint sent. I was told it will happen in 24 hours. I am in 26th hour and still waiting. I am not sure whether they have received my written complaint which was to be sent within 48 hours. 

I have a feeling of pathetic ( fumbling at every possible instance ) , careless ( don't know which punches stand for what on call center punch menu ), negligent ( don't have updated email ID with emergency team  ) , thoughtless ( don't print customer care or emergency number on 4 page long bill ) & frustration  ( still awaiting for acknowledgement even after so much of communication and scaling up up to the level of MD ) about whole my ICICI bank experience.  

The point I am trying to make is, many a times it takes huge efforts of our customers to deal with our business.  Do you have any customer effort scorecard mechanism in place? Do you periodically ask your customers feedback about experience and efforts they have to put in while dealing with your business?  

It is extremely important especially in B2B scenario where per customer stakes are high. Don’t just focus on sales,  focus on customer experience your business creates , customer efforts it takes to deal with your business & customer emotions your efforts invokes before/during & after sales. 

We the People & Economic Crisis !!

Read any news paper and you are depressed for the day.  Times of great economic crisis when the country is headed by renowned economist. While we do not doubt his knowledge we sincerely are sure about his inability to deliver. His includes his Government. Be that as it may we have to live in this regime at-least by May 2014.

However points to ponder are politicians have no clue what is the solution to economic crisis. As we choose the candidate to represent us based on his caste, how much immediate gratification is offered to vote & not voting. We do not have a clue who will lead the Govt as selected candidates based on the above criteria will select their leader.  

Therefore expecting these kinds of leaders to solve economic crisis is not only bit too optimistic but foolish. 

I am not writing this to comment on our leaders and voting style. My limited point is they neither understand and nor can do anything. Therefore don't expect.  

Now it is our turn and we can certainly do. Yes we can remain insulated from the crisis and improve the situation by continue to do what economic activities we are doing without worrying about the future. Remember famous quote " You do not have Future, Only Present."

Make some smarter move which you are afraid to do all these years. Take some limited risks. Try new markets and products; try new ways of doing business. You will not get time to do all these experiment in boom time.

Best thing you can do is ignore negative news from entering your psyche & keep doing your bit of work.  This is the only solution. (& don't forget this when vote for the next time. )

Art + Science = Commerce

Yes. What you offer to your customers is Science & How you offer is an Art. Its a mix of the two creates total customer experience.

Many a times we are so much obsessed with science part that ART is completely missing.

However in an experience economy , it is an ART which commands premium. All great customer experience creating companies are focusing on ART part of commerce , of 

course after mastering Science part of it.

How you do what you do matters the most.

Are you still struggling with Science part of the commerce or graduated to the ART side of it ? A question every entrepreneur must answer. You can have clue to solve many business related issues by answering this.

Envy people about your CUSTOMERS.

Have you made your potential customers envy of your existing customers? 

Yes it is the role of every customer experience professionals. Every company MUST make endeavour to achieve this status.  Once upon a time Onida TV used to have slogan Owners Pride Neighbours Envy. Converting this slogan into reality is exactly what is needed in today's time of commoditisation. 

You customers MUST love, talk about and advocate your offerings. 

When i read the book Delivering Happiness by Tony Hsieh & I become member of very happy person group on their site I received gift hamper with one copy the book, t shirt and a pack of wafer from the US.  When I first used Flipkart to buy a book it was very simple and quick - a superior experience. Thereafter I have recommended both the companies to many through this blog as well as in person. One CM is making entire country envy of his state and people want him as PM. This is the power of making others ENVY about what you have to offer to your customers (citizen in this case). 

It is not only about physical appearance & rationality, it is about touching the senses , it is about human emotions. 

Make it a habit to please few of your customers every week - DELIBERATELY (Even if you are a b2b company). Do unexpected, go out of the way, and make them feel special. Words will spread and more & more people would like to be your customer.  Your DELIBERATE habit will make your company talk of the town. 

In this attention deficit world something unique will get the attention. It is far more easier and cheaper than huge Ad spend and marketing gimmicks (which no one believes) .  

How do you think you can make people envy of your customers ? Share your ideas. 

Are you selling what you are making?

Are your brand management and product design teams in sync with the kind of customer experience your company wish to offer ? 

Most of the time it is seen that there is no connect between brand commitment company conveys through all kind of communication , product design team actually creating an experience and customer service team managing the gaps between the two. 

Customer experience design is a deliberate DESIGN & therefore involving CE team in inception of product design , process design , advertising , branding  , marketing and training is CRITICAL.  

When music symphony is orchestrated , every aspect are planned in order to achieve the kind of experience symphony director wish to offer to the audience. Everything is in sync with the expected outcome. 

Offering scintillating customer experience which is truly a competitive advantage requires entire company to behave in sync with expected outcome i.e. experience which company aim to deliver to the customers.  Your branding and marketing team shall not behave which makes people disbelieve your brand.  Unfulfilled brand promises can cause disaster for the brand it self. 

No company can afford to forget words of wisdom of Steve Jobs " You have to start with Customer Experience & work backward for technology, process & people." & even branding & marketing.

RAQs in the world of FAQs

Yes we all are used to FAQs. Today I came to know of the term RAQ and realised it is these set of questions that are critical for everyone. 

An entrepreneur will always ask what the ROI of any initiatives is. He will rarely ask irrespective of ROI whether it is critical and important for the enterprise. 

As a citizen we always ask our politicians and leaders what they have done for us. We rarely ask ourselves whether we have fulfilled our duty as a citizen.

Venture capitalist and PE investor will always ask about ROI , EPS & Valuation but they will rarely ask what is the employee satisfaction level of the enterprise.

To a potential job candidate employers will always ask what the past experience is and what has been achieved till date.  Candidate will rarely be asked what he can do that can change the fate of the company for better.   

We always ask in our customer feedback form about how the company has fared on select parameters. We rarely ask them whether their expectations were met by the efforts of the company.

Asking RAQs will make us think about RTIs (rarely thought ideas). 

Converting RAQs in to FAQs is the real challenge and that is what truly differentiates winners.  

Prevention is better than Negative customer Experience

Prevention is better than cure. Yes this is applicable for health as well as for wealth. However it is also applicable in the case of Customer Experience. 

Customer can leave you for bad experience. She can do negative Word Of Mouth (WOM) and takes few more customers away.  Sales & Marketing efforts and cost will go up to get more new customers. However again they will leave you for negative or not so exciting experience. Every-time your sales team gets you new customers, retention is the job of product design which incl customer experience & after sales team. Let your sales team add more customers rather than replacing old with new ones.

Unless there is a built-in element of superior customer experience throughout the chain - product design, display, delivery, usage and soft skills associated at each of the stage, customer will experience bad and not so good experience. They will go and takes someone with them. 

In order to avoid such scenario companies must focus on creating better customer experience while designing the product. Prevent bad experience rather than allowing bad experience to reach customers and damage the brand. reputation.

Prevent bad experiences rather than reacting to bad experiences. Companies can retain customers, gets more by positive WOM , get more referrals. Cost & Pain of treating disease is always more than Cost & Pain of preventive cure. Same rules apply for Customer Experience.

In built better Customer Experience in your product than be sorry. 

What Mr Raghuram Rajan Cant Do

RBI Governor cant manage inflation. It is a myth we all are living with. Even present Governor's sustained efforts are not yielding the results. This also proves solution lies somewhere else. 

Role of Mr. Raghuram Rajan is to convey to the Govt that bottlenecks in the economy is the real problem for inflation , resultant erosion of rupee value , lower GDP and Current Account Deficit (CAD). 

Hoping that RBI and its governor can do wonders with mere monetary policy is nothing but day dreaming and in-actin at all other levels. 

In any company , CFO can create value upto an extent but even CFO can't do anything unless there is a efficient production system  , product innovation at regular intervals, flawless logistics , sufficient profit margin which enables future investments without much of the unsustainable debt. If these aspects are managed by the CEO and the management , CFO can add some value by capital structuring , lower debt cost (this again depends on performance of the company not entirely in the hands of CFO ) , raising money from various sources , budgeting & allocation etc.   However CFO cant act as a driver.

We are expecting RBI to drive our economy ,  manage inflation , manage rupee value and control CAD !!! All these are interlinked and only way to break the same is quick decisions , transparency and progressive policies at all level of the Govt. We need action on war footing but we are hardly taking any action, forget right action. 

Indecisiveness and lack of imagination in Govt cant be substituted by ably qualified and young RBI Governor. 

IN DEMAND - Script & Crisp Writers

5 days test match to 1 day match to 20:20 this is how game of cricket has evolved during last 30 years.  People cant wait for 5 days to know the result. Rules of the game have remained more or less same but wait for the outcome has reduced from 5 days to 3 hours. 

Attention deficit , impatient & speedy society needs new forms of everything.  

From magazine articles to blog to micro blog (twitter). Whatever is to be conveyed is to be conveyed in short & with speed.

Print to TV to Social Media , modes of communication has changed. People are changing their platforms to know what they want to know. 

From Commodity to goods to services to experiences.  Yes now customer needs and pays premium for experiences.  Needs and way of receiving the same has changed. Commodity providers are many , experience creators are in scanty.   

All communicators i.e. enterprises are the largest class of communicators to their customers and potential customers , must learn to know how the new society behaves , communicates and consume things.  

Movies are creating experiences and spend millions of dollars in communicating the same. 

Script writers ( writing business plans that delight and wow customers )  , directors of experience creation ( executing  wow !! script ) & Crisp communicators ( smart ,quick & innovative ) and are in demand in the new economy. 

Are you selling Burger or Vadapav ?

Burger Vs Vadapav. What is the difference? 

Burger will cost you US $ 1 (Rs.55/-) while Vada Pav will cost less than 5th of US$ 1 (Rs.10/-). 

Burger is a Brand an Vapa Pav a commodity. 

Burger become a brand as it was presented in air conditioned outlet with a happening ambiance , hygienic condition & quality , unlimited time outlet allows you to sit. Perhaps cost-wise Burger may be costing few rupees more , taste-wise Vadapav may scores over Burger.   

In short both offers more or less same quantum of food and taste but price difference is 5 times. This 4 times difference people are paying is for experience not for food.  

Same is applicable to Starbucks Coffee vs Coffee at South Indian Hotels. Price difference is perhaps 10 times. Cost of Coffee itself may be 2 to 3 times more. They are charging 7 times more money for experience. This is called branded experience. 

Many a times professionally person with technically sound knowledge can’t command salary which a person with all round personality can.  

This DIFFERENCE in PRICING use to superior experience which people would LOVE to pay is critical. Critical for every business.  

In B2B or B2C all kind of businesses experience creators can command premium in pricing. You may be manufacturing best of Vadapav but even though you can’t command Burger pricing. You have to convert your Vadapav into BRANDED experience which is more than just meeting the need but meeting the need with ease and delight added.

Even small effort in this journey of customer experience creation will start fetching you better pricing and customer loyalty which all businesses are dying to achieve.     

Time for reality check and finding opportunity to add EXPERIENCES in your business offerings. 

Are you making Balance Sheet for Self Use ?

Deep Pocket , Ignorance or Business Operations/ (realised) Profitability is keeping you happy in times of economic distress  ? 

Entrepreneurs with deep pocket is surviving thinking that this shall go and we will come out winners , many hand to mouth competitors will die. 

Ignorant Entrepreneurs have no cue what is happening and whether they are in financial trouble. As long as their cash flow is ticking they think they're are safe. 

& the last one is rare class of entrepreneurs thriving and flourishing on true business operation and profitability. They are able to produce, sale and recover their money. 

Economic conditions across business segment is stressed. Banks are finding it difficult to support but they are forced to do it. They are forced to do CDR.  Its time for every business to go for reality check. Its time to make real P & L A/C & Balance Sheet for SELF USE. (Usually its made for shareholders , lenders & tax authorities  and invariably its misleading). 

Making sense out of own financials is the most sensible thing for every entrepreneurs in today's time.

By Design or by Default, Everything is an EXPERIENCE

Everything that happens to customer when they are dealing with any of the touch points of your business its an experience. 

Challenge is to make these experiences memorable and delightful without losing sight of the CORE value proposition. 

Starbucks offer scintillating customer experience but not at the cost of taste of the coffee. However only coffee taste can not create delight and memorability of customer experience. 

Therefore it is the responsibility as well as need of every enterprise to add more delight to the touch points. Customer is going to experience every bit of experience , now if you make it designers its becomes WOW!!! and adds to your competitive advantage or else it will remain one of the many such experiences enterprises offer.  

- Soothing music in the dentist's room can help patient in forgetting her pain

- Serving beverages to visitor's guests in hospital can add huge richness in experience

- Child Specialist Pediatrician set up small kids zone in her dispensary will make         
  it memorable for child patient for life

- Gynecologist offers Parenting Seminar coupon to would be parents can do wonders in 
  customer experience

- One of the CAs was offering car washing services for the clients visiting him

Every small and large businesses and professional firms can think of better and superior ways to add  that EXTRA bit to make the interaction and experience truly memorable.  

By default or by design CUSTOMERs are experiencing. Left to chance it can be miserable and when designed purposefully it can become delightful. Choice is yours. 

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.)