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Sony's Loyalty Push
When a company like Sony, which makes some of the best and most popular products in the world, refocuses efforts to improve the customer experience, you know we've reached a tipping point.
Sure, products are key to customer acquisition. Without them, you wouldn't have customers. But without a good customer loyalty strategy, you won't keep them for long. Last week I attended the Conference Board Customer Loyalty show. I was pleased to see that the term "loyalty" isn't about keyfab cards anymore, but is now the focal point of customer experience strategy discussions. I wrote about the specifics of Sony's strategy in this week's 1to1 Weekly.
In survey after survey, customers don't want to shop for the lowest price. They want value, and they want good customer service and a positive experience. "Sometimes when customers say 'price,' they really mean 'value,'" Dan Wiersma of Sony said at the show. His goal is to provide the best value to customers, which involves price, product and the customer experience. It's an effort that's disseminated companywide, and shows bottom-line impact.
How are you building loyal customers? Do you have formal customer experience processes in place? Does it affect the bottom line? As a consumer, what's your take on the idea of value versus price?
A customers real experience is the culmination of their satisfaction along each touchpoints in the Customer Expereince Value Chain. Measuring, analyzing each step and changing/measuring the process that would move the needle over time is the key.
Today's critical financial crisis will change the face of how business is done. The key will be to be able to put your finger on the pulse of prospects, customers, partners and employees. Then you will be in a position to create promoters and advocates who by WOM will sell for you.
With over 8 billion X&Y gens wired and with something to say its going to be a new and exciting market... They also taught the baby boomers how to get what they want as well..
So, the good news is that
CRM2.0 addresses this need and it is available for those who really want to make a significant difference and get their arms around all their revenue generators and out their finger on the pulse of their future.
Bob
These days, if you're a serious company you cannot live without some level of loyalty. Simply because it's pretty much tied with revenues. More loyalty normally promises more revenue triggering further growth. No wonder Sony turned to customer experiences that impact customer loyalty big time. Apart from the brand imaging gimmicks like exec phone number in a Vaio box, the centerpiece to me is measuring customer satisfaction and service while linking the metric numbers to employee compensation plans. That's the way to make CRM go flat across the whole floor. We view loyalty and retention as the key growth driver.
My response revolves around the last paragraph of the 1to1 article:
"Sony's ultimate strategy is about changing the customer experience by changing the corporate attitude toward customers. "Nirvana is to make this instinctively part of what we do as a business," Wiersma said."
To this I would add the following: It is the primary responsibility of the CEO to consciously make a personal commitment to serving his customers with the right products and services and ensuring that every customer receives exceptional treatment. My theme is the need for the right attitude to eminate strongly from the top. I read company mission statements that are flatly ignored by the senior management among those companies with which I have customer tenures of more than twenty to forty years.
Loyalty can be by default as much as through an active effort on the part of the provider. The way to make it happen is for the CEO to feel, believe, and communicate regularly that the finest products and services and the best customer treatment are what the enterprise is all about. Unitl it flows and is reinforced regularly from the top, the company is on "automatic" and one can only hope for positive results and growth. Share of customer and being proactive to achieve it seems little understood by most top level people in companies of all sizes.
Keeping the wheels turning seems to be the ultimate measure of success CEOs and those they choose to surround them place on themselves. Often that is not in the best interest of the individual customer. Customer-centric thinking occurs only in the marketing departments if it occurs at all after which it is published in annual reports and newsletters advising the customers how well they are being taken care of over a "glossy" of the CEO.
Fasulo must have the authority to speak for the Corporation leadership, communicate regularly, and act on what he says toward excellence in customer treatment to reach his nirvana. Otherwise, his are only great words companies use as good marketing hype.
Thanks for your comments, Graham. Dan Wiersma did say that it's just the beginning of Sony's loyalty strategy, and some groups have been more active than others in improving the customer experience. I think with a company as big as Sony, it will be a long time before every business unit gets past a product focus.
Elizabeth
Funny that. I am in the process of defecting from Sony because they insisted I buy Sony-branded additional memory from them for my top-of-the-range sub-notebook, rather than off-the-shelf memory. The price of the Sony memory was five times greater than the off-the-shelf memory! The whole thing left me with a very sour taste in my mouth.
Nickle and diming customers in this way is a great driver of disloyalty. So much for the Sony customer experience.
Graham Hill
Independent CRM Consultant
Interim CRM Manager