Brand Autopsy

It is a little bit baffling to me that businesses actually talk about being "customer-focused" with a straight face. I mean, that's the whole point right? Customers. John's first point is the best, since there's just nothing like BEING a customer. If your C-level team wouldn't be target customers of your product or service, you'd better find some that could.

John, you don't make it easy to agree with Kotler. His answers all smell of bureaucracy. I'll just change one thing, tho:

Empower the employees... to be able to ensure the customer's satisfaction.

I saw a waitress getting quized about a 29 cent charge on a bill yesterday. She had to explain to the customer why, regardless of how silly it was. If she could just say, yes its silly, let me take it off the bill, she could have probably kept her tip. But I didn't see one on the table afterwards. That's bad for her and the restaurant. All the marketing talent/planning/task force Kotler recommends won't save that customer from not being satisfied.

Dave ... yeah, I admit ... I'm selecting answers Kotler gave in his book that seem off-kilter to me. Then again, if we all agreed ... there wouldn't be much to talk about. Eh?

I'll try to post some answers where Kotler and Bloggers will agree more than disagree.

I agree with John's first point and the first comment by Aaron, but I'll take it a little further. Only hire enthusiasts. Or at least heavy users of your brand. Who better to market then those that love your product.

Our company was built on relationships. Slowly, over the years, we lost our way, in part because of an overweight bureaucracy that distanced itself from the customer and in part because of over-confidence that comes with being large and over-sold.

We are in the midst of the long and arduous journey, refocusing our people, realigning our processes and reconfiguring our systems to be, once again, customer-centric.

I will not pretend that it has been easy. Those visitors who have peered inside The Small Office (http://www.bigpicturesmalloffice.com)
know well by now that there is no task so simple that we cannot find a way to do it wrong.

That said, we have, to a significant degree, succeeded in reattaching the loose strands of DNA and codifying into it the ecological imperative and systemic capability of putting the customer in the middle of all things.

What are the steps we have taken (that work) and which are underway (that we are confident will ultimately work)?

Step 1: Create the position: appoint an ‘independent’ Customer-Centricity Manager reporting directly to the President. This manager operates outside the authority and beyond the direct influence of any one department, be it marketing, sales, customer service or operations. Having cross-functional responsibility is essential but, without the authority derived from the TOP (The Office of the President), there would be much bark and little bite.

Step 2: Prepare a Brown Paper describing the current situation. This would cover all contact points with customers and review all processes related to the order management cycle. Analysis would include customer visits and customer surveys. Ask customers who their best suppliers are regardless of product category and then ask why. We like ‘salt and pepper’ surveys, with some non-customers sprinkled into the mix.

Step 3: Benchmark your company against customer expectations, against competition and against the best in the business regardless of industry.

Step 4: Different customers require different services and different levels of service. Understand the impact of each customer (use Pareto’s 80-20 rule or this task will never be done). Look not only at the contribution each is making to the business (include the cost of servicing), but also at the lifetime value of the account. Think about the risks (including financial) associated with the account. This will enable you to determine which customers justify special treatment and which should be favored in the event an allocation program is required.

Step 5: Design optimal processes and create easy-to-follow process maps. This is the White Paper. No area of the company should be left unchanged. This includes the telephone and web response mechanisms, order file management, and the movement of goods (inventory management, shipping capacity, optimizing the transportation carrier pool and synchronizing its movements).

Step 6: Set targets and develop appropriate metrics (with customers). Monitor on an ongoing basis and share results regularly with all employees.

Step 7: Review the staffing at all customer contact points. Put in place a recognition system that rewards, in a tangible way, customer-centric behavior.

A lot of steps, to be sure. And along the way, most likely, a lot of missteps. You will need a determined leadership and a disciplined organization to make it work. But, if you can succeed in putting your customers in the center of things, they will find it exceedingly difficult to make their way out.

Customer-centric... customer-centric... just keep repeating this phrase and it will be almost as if you are doing something meaningful... customer-centric...

Questions: is there a customer-centric way to fire an employee for sexual harassment? Is there a customer-centric way to report a lower price-to-earnings ratio to your board than you'd anticipated? Is there a customer-centric way to shave 5% off the cost of heating and cooling your warehouse facilities over the next 5 years?

Here's the thing -- yes, customers are important. But so are employees and shareholders, if you are working in a publicly traded company. If you are privately held, then it's just employees and owners. If not-for-profit, employees and members or the board. You get the picture.

And here's another flash from the dark side of the moon; customers aren't omniscient. And they don't know as much about your industry as you do. And they don't care if you're company is around in 10 years or if you have good healthcare for your employees or if your dividends are up (unless they are also shareholders). Customers are often very selfish. They are often very schizophrenic. They are often confused and contradictory. That's OK; they have money, you have stuff, and you can make a deal.

There are companies that I really, really love. Two of them. USAA and UPS. And the love has nothing to do with marketing. I hate UPS's marketing and USAA does almost none. I love USAA because it's run for its members; no shareholders. Yee-hah! Insurance shouldn't be, in my opinion, a profit game. I love UPS because they are awesome and quiet about it.

Everyone else? I'll switch for a 15% price premium. That's the price of my devotion. Pure and simple. And I bet everybody has a price on their "customer-centrism," too. Maybe it's 10% or 30%, but, at some point, you will wave "Bye-bye" to the love and walk across the street for the deal.

I don't know. Maybe I'm just feeling glum tonight. But I've just been having this feeling lately that all the hoo-hah about customer-centric, touchy-feely marketing may, in fact, be pure crap. Good advertising works, I know that. Good price-for-value works, I know that. But lots of this other stuff... I don't know. I haven't seen the ROI numbers yet.

I'm gonna go watch the Daily Show and, perhaps, feel better later.

Big Picture Guy and Andy ... thanks for adding your well articulated and passionate perspective. Great stuff fellas ... great stuff.