Shining light, or casting a shadow?

As a Leader you have a major impact on the culture of your organisation.  The behaviours you display and the symbols you present to your team and customers say a lot about who you are and what you stand for.  Your behaviours can provide light and inspiration, or cast a shadow over your team. After years of observing organisations and teams on their customer focus journey, there are invariably 3 behaviours that truly customer focused leaders exhibit – they connect with customers, they share their passion for customers, and develop strategies that focus on the customer. So, if you’re working [...]

Shining light, or casting a shadow?2014-04-28T00:22:27+00:00

Reinvigorate your Customer Experience

It’s never to late to reinvigorate your customer experience! Have you ever felt your competitors have overtaken you? As new entrants they’ve been nimble and responsive to customer needs. In contrast you’ve invested in systems and infrastructure that make it harder to adapt quickly. What options do you have to respond, to let customers know you’re still around? Like many in Australia I have done my fair share of flying. I recently travelled to Perth to facilitate a customer strategy workshop for a client. When it comes to domestic plane travel I am a big fan of Virgin. They are [...]

Reinvigorate your Customer Experience2014-04-28T00:22:46+00:00

The Pitfalls of Generic Customer Service

When designing a customer service experience we’re often seeking to ensure consistency, reducing the risk that someone will leave dissatisfied.  This strategy can be sound, however when ‘generic’ turns into ‘automatic’, and we ignore the nuances of each individual interaction we run the risk of dis-engaging our customers… or in this case at Apple, embarrassing them! I'm a fairly new convert to Apple and am delighted by the intuitive attention to detail that their products offer. Whoever would have thought that my phone would be so smart as to take photographs, record messages, enable me to ‘face time’ my friends [...]

The Pitfalls of Generic Customer Service2018-11-04T00:55:57+00:00

Who Cares for your Customers?

When we think of customer support, we generally think of the important role that our front-line sales and service people play, but it’s critical to think carefully about the role that every person plays in supporting your customer experience. I mentioned that my new car broke down a few weeks ago (Give your Customers a Break).  The breakdown was one thing, but when they damaged the car trying to get it out of my garage, the issue became a lot more complex. After 5 weeks, 4 re-sprays, 3 attempts to collect the car only to find it wasn’t up to scratch, 2 customer [...]

Who Cares for your Customers?2014-04-28T01:48:35+00:00

Keep your shirt on… again!

Is a superior product enough to build customer satisfaction, or is it important to take a more holistic approach to your customers and their experience? For those of you who read my earlier blog on my search for a ‘no-crease’ cotton business shirt, you may be interested to know what happened next… I think it will surprise you! I take up the story seeking to find more shirts like the amazing Abelard one I discovered recently. My first option was to browse the Abelard website. Why pay a mark-up for something when I can buy it online? I knew my [...]

Keep your shirt on… again!2014-04-28T01:52:40+00:00

No Parking? No stress.

It can be easy to focus on the poorly designed experiences, but every so often something comes along that makes you realise that companies just might be using customer insights to develop innovative new products and services.  Take ‘Secure-a-Park’ for example. One of the great benefits of being a Consultant is that I get to work with many different clients.  This also means that some days I’m racing in between the City and suburbs to get to meetings – bringing the challenge of city parking in to the equation.   Depending on the time available I might try and find a [...]

No Parking? No stress.2014-04-28T01:54:12+00:00

Feedback: You get what you ask for!

Feedback.  Nuggets of Gold.  Customers often provide it, but not many companies choose to hear it, even less actively seek it.  Seeking feedback is one of the most simple things you can do to improve your customer-focus, so it’s exciting to see a company encouraging customers to have their say.  Or is it? Sitting in a car service department last week, I saw the sign on the right asking for feedback.  Can you spot the issue? Having completed a few surveys from this company, I’ve learned that ‘Completely Satisfied’ is the terminology reserved for a top rating.  When I bought [...]

Feedback: You get what you ask for!2014-04-28T01:55:39+00:00

Keep your shirt on!

Not all customer needs are created equal. Some are 'nice to have', while others are really 'showstoppers' that can make all the difference between brand loyalty and a customer looking for a new provider. Do you know what matters most to your customers? Do your products and services meet that need? If not, how are you gathering the customer insights that will make the difference? When it comes to business shirts there is one need I have that seems to be particularly hard to find. I prefer cotton as I inherited my father's sensitive skin, and it breathes better in [...]

Keep your shirt on!2014-04-28T01:58:37+00:00

Give your customers a break!

Aligning your organisation systems, customer experience and employee engagement to your strategy can create a truly customer focused business.  Misalignment can leave your customers shaking their heads… and for some organisations this must happen on a daily basis. My car was playing up last week – intermittent, but potentially hazardous.  After a couple of days of believing I must have been at fault (customers do that all the time!) I decided to call the service department of my local dealer to see if they could check it out while I was in the area.  Bear in mind, this claims to [...]

Give your customers a break!2014-04-28T02:00:00+00:00

The ‘Peak End’ Rule

The ‘peak end’ rule applies to customer experiences where the process may be drawn out over a few hours, days, weeks or even months, and looking back we tend to only remember two aspects of the experience. The emotional peak, when the experience was at its the most frustrating or enjoyable, and the end, how did it eventually turn out. Once such instance occurred just last week when my wife and I were lucky enough to attend a concert, which doesn’t happen too often these days. The opportunity to see Paul Kelly and Neil Finn playing together rolling out more [...]

The ‘Peak End’ Rule2014-04-28T02:02:26+00:00
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