What Does It Take to Be a Customer Champion?
This year's 1to1 Customer Champions represent a wide variety of companies, each with their own unique challenges. But these executives, representing companies such as Lexus, Ann Taylor, AT&T, Canada Post, NetBank and Loews Hotels, have very similar approaches to customer strategy. In today's issue of 1to1 Weekly, some of our champions open their playbook and share secrets to their success.
Canada Post CEO Moya Greene explains that where the customer is concerned, you can never be complacent. That sentiment is echoed by Ann Taylor's Mark Ballard, who says that if the company is not achieving perfection, there's always something more you can do for the customer.
What do you think? What makes someone a customer champion?
I wrote a response for the Blog last night inspired by my idea of a Customer Champion; but, I attached it to your other article on the ineffectiveness of a few (perhaps, randomly delivered) good moments of customer treatment. As is pretty usual for me, I am still on the concept of customer treatment which, also, includes how a selected product is handled during purchase in a store or via e-sales where shipping and handling, and the customer service organizations that support the seller's shipping agencies also revolve around customer treatment (sort of "outsourced"). I guess I include ensuring that the customer is satisfied that the best possible job is being done to deliver the merchandise as selected and ordered whatever the means.
Today, only a couple of hours ago, I had what I would call a "1to1 Moment" or, perhaps, a "Peppers and Rogers Moment," in a routine visit to the local, Shaw's Super Market which most of which I had begun to dread but endured out of convenience, habit and, usually, price.
Today was an enormous breath of fresh air after a string of prior visits when the store was more in chaos (they have been in a slump over the past year, I would say) with cold, unfriendly, poorly-trained front-end personnel who were anything but careful about handling merchandise and performing cleaning functions while still checking you out.
I left Shaw's this morning feeling uplifted after the friendly treatment and literally having more help than I needed, offerred with an obvious desire to meet my bagging request. I didn't fully comprehend how much difference had occurred in the quality of service between this shopping experience and many preceding ones. I did know, however, that I had had a pleasant time doing something usually having an unpleasant note to it.
The realization came as I walked back into the store about a half hour later to redeem the coupons I had forgotten in the midst of the distractingly excellent performance during check out. Already coming in with a good feeling about what to expect from the people, I also noticed that everything about the store looked clean and organized, a recognizable improvement, and after redeeming my coupons without a hitch I wanted to pass along to the management what credit I could.
My "punch line" is that as I looked around on the way back in for the second time this morning, noticed the inviting physical condition of the store and anticipating that the customer service issue I came in about would be handled easily and well, I jokingly said to myself "Ah, life is good, I have a place I can shop in again."
Still dealing with very friendly and accommodating staff as I did so, I walked around looking for the manager to offer my praise for things looking and going as well as they did. I am a firm believer in recognizing people in the act of doing good.
The manager did appreciate my feelings and insisted I talk to him personally should things waver from today's fine performance. I let him know that I would do so only in constructive support of what he said was a concerted effort on the part of the store to overcome some of the problems of the recent past.
Being a champion of the customer,I think, means, among many other things, providing the human and physical environment that is a prerequisite for customers. Training, of course, is essential to ensure that employees have the right tools to accommodate every customer transaction. It still all adds up to a commitment to treat every customer in a manner that ensures a pleasant, shopping experience. The latter is what I refer to as a "1to1" or "Peppers an Rogers" moment.
It's good to know that there're practices around where marketing people put their customers first. I think that the 1to1 Customer Champions edition is sort of the flagship among the eight issues, and you show the world what magic relationship marketing can do.
What makes someone a Customer Champion? A huge customer base...and a good portion of financial leverage (it's a zoom thing). If a company like that wins the customers, it will make waves getting into news almost instantaneously, and if not,.. well, you know the JetBlue saga this February.
It's been recently proven that winning customers takes a lot of thought and "techno-bubbles". In fact, marketing decision support often turns marketing programs into success. But I like more the next episode, which is the culture of real customer touch. The stories of AT&T and CISCO give a direction: listen to your customers and follow-up. And you can open a door to loyalty.
Human Beings by nature are unpredictive and their requirements change from time to time,also their demands vary demographically. A person who understands these facts and creates products or services to the nearest 'best-fit'for his end users is what I would define a Customer Champion as.
A Customer Champion should have the pulse of the changing market demands in his domain and the drivers that bring about the change without which it would be very difficult to cater to the exact requirements of the customer.
As always understood customers are demanding and never satisfied is a myth according to me.I say we do not understand the 360-degree perspective and it leads to a communication gap which generates dissatisfaction and dilemma within the customer and is an early warning indicator for a lost customer.A Customer Champion should understand the art of direct and indirect communication and bridge the gap there and then before an oppurtunity is lost.
In the present scenario we need a lot of "Customer Champions" in all industries as the coming decade is going to be more demanding with globlalization accelerating for all businesses.