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eBay’s Kip Knight on Customer Centricity
I was back in Vegas this week, this time attending the content-packed Customer Feedback Week. Day one kicked off with a stellar presentation by Kip Knight, vice president of marketing for eBay North America. Knight warmed us up with his twist on Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits: the 7 Habits of Highly Effective Customer-Centric Companies.
1. Time Employees are genuinely excited about spending time with customers.
2. Management focus Top management is committed to customer-centricity.
3. Organizational alignment The entire organization has to understand and invest in gathering and acting on customer feedback.
4. Internal sharing and communication Departments share feedback and other customer information.
5. Minimal internal corporate politics Knowing and acting on customer feedback must come before executives’ internal agendas.
6. Well-defined consumer target The company has clear, data-based customer segments, and knows which customers it cares about most and why (e.g. customer value).
7. Well-defined processes There must be a formal strategy for collecting and acting on customer feedback.
Watch for more insights from Customer Feedback Week in my upcoming blog posts.
I think these are some great points. You have to set your standards high so that your business is trying to achieve the best. I have been reading a customer service book that is all about getting back to the basics and making loyal attachments with customers. With so many options out there companies need to change their focus to the customer.
Trent,
Walking the walk is definitely a challenge.
I'm not an eBay user, so I can't comment on that experience, but I think Delta is an example of the brand "pitch" and the brand experience not meshing. Its current ads are all about its improved customer experience and how flying is enjoyable again. If you're on a long-haul flight and lucky enough to get a former Song plane, the flight may be more enjoyable. But waiting in line for 40 minutes (earlier this week) just to hand over my bag after checking in at the self-service kiosk is not the experience I expect ever, especially based on Delta's current ad campaign. I think the company should pull the ads until it actually improves its service or make improving the service a real priority because right now the ads are creating unrealistic expectations.
I read this with wry amusement. So often we see marketing speak, and so often it differs entirely from the customer experience.
3. Organizational alignment The entire organization has to understand and invest in gathering and acting on customer feedback.
Amusing, valid, and honoured by omission. Have you ever tried to communicate with eBay as a customer? You have to duck as a standard reply or six flies your way. You give up. Trust me, you give up.
This is the one element that implies to the outside world that a corporation is customer centric. I don't mean that "the customer is always rights", I mean that the organisation has to at least appear to listen. The customer has to feel important.
This is especially true with enormous monoliths like the eBay/PayPal combination, a combination where they seem to spell "Customer Service" with an "F" in it. (Clue: There's no "F" in Customer Service").
I wonder how often marketing and Customer Service actually talk to each other. So few executives realise that these two silos have to work together or the entire alleged customer centricity collapses.
I'm glad the presentation was stellar. But how do we persuade the astronaut to return to earth and walk the walk as well as he talks the talk?