Sorry for the morbid title, but it’s the only way I can hopefully get you focused on what might be happening in your business today when it comes to your customers. Customer Loyalty is at an all-time low…customers are switching companies faster than they change their underwear it seems. But it doesn’t have to be that way…you can create more customer loyalty and advocacy faster than any other time in history!
Mediocrity is death in today’s fast, ever changing market. Customers DON’T REWARD MEDIOCRITY…they REWARD EXCEPTIONAL.
Unfortunately, when it comes to delivering a differentiating, awesome, and mind blowing customer experience, the majority of companies are mediocre…at best. You may think you are above being mediocre, and you may very well be, but upon further analysis, most aren’t. How can you tell?
3 Ways Customers View You as MEDIOCRE
Let me back up and describe what customers view as “mediocre” when it comes how they are treated by most organizations. They summarize it in 3 main ways (or areas).
1
The Customer Experience isn’t MEMORABLE
If your customers aren’t saying, “WOW, I love the way everyone at this company treats me as a customer…I always feel special and like I really matter to them,” then you aren’t delivering a memorable and remarkable customer experience. Delivering a “good” or even “great” experience today is mediocre…everyone is doing it. The bar has been raised because there are so many more competitors fighting for your customers business. But adding some very specific Customer Experience Maps to your organization you can change your experience from mediocre to awesome and spectacular. It won’t happen overnight, but it will definitely be differentiating.
2
The Company Doesn’t Keep Their Promises
if your customers believe you don’t keep your promises you are basically “dead man walking” in today’s economy. This is one of the easiest ways to kill a company. But the real issue is whether you even know the promises your employees are making…most leaders don’t. And often time’s employees may not think they are making a promise but the customer feels like they are making a promise.
This misalignment of "promises made with promises kept" is fatal. This, too, can be overcome when an organization creates a “promise inventory” and is able to identify specifically what promises are being made to their customers. Once you understand the promises you can incorporate process changes that allow your employees to keep these promises. Again, it won’t happen overnight but you can change this into a significant positive pretty quick and your customers will notice the difference immediately.
3
The Company Doesn’t Help Me Improve My Life
This may seem subtle to some but it is big to your customers. When they don’t see you going out of your way to help them improve their life or their business they simply think you don’t care. Companies that are viewed as not caring are commodities today. It’s easy to find a company that doesn’t really show they care and when the customer does, they shop on price.
But there are many ways you can take advantage of the opportunity and change how your employees interact with your customers. You can arm them with incredible tools they can use to help their customers in every role the customer audience plays…this can create a WOW factor very quickly when implemented. Again, it doesn’t happen overnight and needs a very specific strategy so your employees can be consistent with how they help your customers. When this happens over and over, you become very differentiated in the eyes of your customers.
Back to the test…how do you stack up in each of these three areas? Not from your perspective…from your customers perspective. If I went out and talked to a mere 20 of your customers selected at random, what would they tell me about how you perform in each of these 3 areas?
If you don’t think you would get resounding applause from them in all 3, you’re mediocre. Sorry, but it’s the way your customers feel about you. And unfortunately, being mediocre is the same as being a commodity in today’s marketplace. Anyone can be mediocre…there isn’t any differentiation between mediocre companies…except price.
The OPPORTUNITY...
This is where the opportunity lies for those leaders who can see past living in a state of mediocrity and moving their company to a state of being memorable, differentiated, unique, in high demand, and being more profitable…they have made the move to becoming Customer Obsessed! All of these words describe Customer Obsessed companies…they are just different.
Take the time to do an honest assessment of your organization with your leadership team. It is worth the investment to truly understand where you are today. Don’t believe your own internal hype from all your employees telling you how great they think the company is…ask your customers. Better yet, get someone not a part of your company to ask your customers. I always get different answers when I interview customers for clients than they get when they talk to them about how they feel. Get the real story so you know how you stack up in these areas.
Invest the time to better understand why your customers don’t see you (or do see you) as memorable, or someone who doesn’t (or does) keep their promises, and why they don’t think (or do think) you are helping them improve their lives or their businesses. I can guarantee you it will open your eyes to what you have either chosen to ignore or are not aware is going on with your customers.
Once you understand, then, and only then, can you begin to put together a strategy to change your situation and start to take advantage of the opportunity that exists in everyone’s marketplace, in every industry. The opportunities are boundless today…but only those who have the foresight and vision will take advantage of them. Are you one of them?
What To Do Next?
If you ever have any questions about this or any other aspect of what it’s like to be Customer Obsessed, just ask and I’ll be happy to answer them. Or if you want to understand it in more detail and how you could move your company to becoming more Customer Obsessed, I’d be happy to meet with you (complimentary of course) to discuss it further for your own particular situation. And if you found this helpful and are thinking of someone you know who could benefit from this post, please help them out as well and share this with them.
I hope you decide to take advantage of the massive opportunity that awaits you and become Customer Obsessed so you can be known as a company that is memorable, remarkable, incredibly helpful, delivers and unbelievable customer experience, and who keeps their promises 100% of the time. That would be awesome!!
