How to Develop a Customer-Centric Business Approach – Part 2

(Written by guest contributor Joseph A Michelli Ph.D.)

Last week we talked about the importance of having a customer-centric business approach. But how exactly do you go about becoming a business like The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company that adds value though service excellence and desired experience? I take my clients through a very systematic process with delivery of that process adapted to the needs of their business. Typically this journey begins with an honest assessment of the best business strategy that will serve business objectives. The most common strategies explored are:

Product focused – This strategy emphasizes having the best product at the best price. This approach clearly is the driver for a company like Wal-Mart where price reductions, efficient distribution, maximum volume, and thin margins are the keys to greatness. While service is discussed, decisions that involve increasing costs to improve service versus decreasing costs to make products more competitive typically are resolved in favor of the less costly product.

Service focused – This approach accepts that a great product is important but that added value comes from the consistent delivery of the product. Companies that create “customer service scripts” or “service standards” often fall into this category. For example, in a business like UCLA Health System, it is not enough for patients to receive a high quality medical procedure if that procedure is offered in an inconsistent manner. As such, UCLA uses a C -I -CARE protocol which serves as a template for expected service behaviors that must occur in every interaction with every patient. For example the A in C-I-CARE stands for ASK and reflects the importance of asking for a patient’s permission prior to providing a service or medical intervention.

Customer focused – This strategy emphasizes delivery of relevant customer experiences. This may involve creating segmentations of your customer base, as some service experiences may be best received by certain customer segments while others are best oriented to other customer segments. This is a matter of realizing that a “size 6” customer experience does not fit every customer need.

Customer adaptive – This approach attempts to not only meet differing and relevant needs of your current customer base but also to constantly gain insights into the evolving nature of your customers. This adaptive strategy attempts to grow your business alongside of a shifting customer base so you are planning for customer needs that are, as yet, unarticulated.

There is always a risk in placing four categories out like this, namely that there is an inherent sense that the most complicated strategy has to be superior to the other three. Using that logic, a customer adaptive strategy would be obviously superior to the other approaches. In truth, the superior strategy is the one decided upon by leadership as best for their company, and the one that is being executed consistently at all customer touch points and all tactical decision opportunities.

Assuming your Internet business strategy goes beyond a commoditized exclusively product-centric approach, service consistency and emotional connection is likely to matter. Realizing that every customer in your business is having an experience – some of those experiences occur by default, others by design – your job is to design your optimal seamless customer experience. Great businesses create customer experiences that are built to exceed customer expectations, deliver beyond what is promised, and fulfill not only the stated but also the unstated needs of their customer base.

4 Key Actions

1. Design-in the Desired Emotional Connection

Experiential design is an applied business science that explores how to drive maximum customer value whenever the customer comes in contact with a product or service. It has evolved from “product experience design” where engineers “design-in” product features that add utility and benefit to the end user. For our purposes, experiential design is the strategic approach used to enhance your business in its connection with customers on operational and relationship-based dimensions.

Before you can define any product or service, you have to know the goal for which the product is designed. In the words of the Roman Senator Seneca, “No wind is the right wind if you don’t know what port you are sailing for.” The first step in the journey is typically establishing your desired design outcome, which I call your “Way We Serve Statement” (WWSS).

2. Assess Brand Experience

Once you determine your WWSS, you’ll need to assess your current brand experience. That journey involves a “WWSS Flow” assessment. The flow mapping process defines all employee and customer points of contact with your business. It also defines critical contact points referred to as “Top-of-Mind” (TOM) and “Top-of-Heart” (TOH) drivers.

3. Develop Strategies to Execute the Experience

Individualized strategies are then produced to drive your brand distinction, both operationally and emotionally, at all connection points between your company and its employees and customers.

4. Evaluate Opportunities

You then must examine opportunities to enhance experiences across multi-channel (web, phone, mobile device, etc) contact points both inbound (from customer to business) and outbound (from business to customer).

I am passionate about customer experience creation! I’ve personally and professionally watched businesses transform by mapping their way to customer experience excellence. Greg Gianforte, President of Right Now Technologies, said it best when he noted, “The rules of business have changed… It’s more and more difficult to compete based on product features alone. It’s impossible to compete on price and be profitable. The only lasting differentiation and sustainable differentiator really for any business in any industry is the quality of the customer experience you deliver to your clients.”