What Does Great Customer Obsession Look Like?

Joe DiDonato | Chief of Staff | Baker Communications, Inc.

This topic got my attention when I saw an article by Craig McVoy, CCXP, entitled “80% of CEO’s Believe They Deliver [a] Superior Customer Experience.” What threw me was the byline: “Only 8% of their customers agreed!”  He was referring to a study that was done with 362 businesses and their customers by Bain & Company.  That perception gap just floored me.

The point of Craig’s article was that keeping your attention on delivering a great customer experience really helped your success by retaining customers longer.  Customers with a long tenure cost less to service, less to attract, and they deliver more referrals and recommendations than any customer type you might have.  So why wouldn’t you focus on their retention?

The point is that you would.  So as a CEO, you’d better be able to find answers if your customers are churning on you, or you’ll be in a race to fill your funnel with a lot more new logos each month to replace the customers that left.

But even more intriguing to me personally, was why would there be such a huge gap in the perception between the C-Suite and their customers.  My guess is that it could be due to a lot of things, so here’s a quick list of causal factors for you to consider – and please note that I’m not saying that these are not important, but it is in the execution where oftentimes the message is lost:

• When is the last time you told your company that your customers are your most important asset?
• The focus on year over year growth can be enormous. Have you accidentally sent the wrong message are overly incenting “new customer acquisition” in your compensation plans?
• Are you chasing a competitor’s moves in a market, and then robbing existing customers’ resources to get on equal footing with your competitor?
• Are you paying a premium for increasing revenue per customer, versus looking at whether you are truly meeting the needs of that customer as the first step when you’re adding additional items?
• Perhaps you are trying to keep your operational costs in line. Are you doing that by limiting the time spent with customers resolving their problems in customer support?

The list could go on and on, but the message is clear.  How are your policies impacting the performance of your customer-facing teams?  Are you sending down clear guidelines as to how to interact with your customers?

If we look at some of the companies that really shine when it comes to customer obsession, there are a few names that stand out: Amazon, USAA, and Zappos, to name a few.  What do they do that’s so different?

Would it surprise you that the number 1 (of 14) Leadership Principles that drive Amazon is about “Customer Obsession?”  It’s explained in this way: “Leaders start with the customer and work backwards.  They work vigorously to earn and keep customer trust.  Although leaders pay attention to competitors, they obsess over customers.”

In a quote from Jeff Bezos, which is easily found on the internet, he says, “It’s our job, every day, to make every important aspect of the customer experience a little bit better.  If you do build a great experience, customers tell each other about that.  Word of mouth is very powerful.  Obsess about customers, not competitors.”  It has to be very clear to your company where you stand on taking care of your customers.

Another example is USAA.  Personally, it’s the only company that I’ll ever use for insuring my home and automobile.  Why?  They just care about me and my well-being when something goes wrong.  They also go the extra mile to make my problem their problem.  And every time a repair goes awry with one of their contractors, they fix it immediately.  And if that’s not good enough, they throw in a lifetime guarantee.  Has that policy worked?  My relationship with USAA is longer than any other relationship I’ve had in my life, whether that be personal or business.  Does it help USAA?  I’ve probably recommended over 100 customers to them during my lifetime, and you can be sure, that this same customer experience was passed along to each of them.

And lastly, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention Zappos.  Some of the stories that I’ve heard borderline on unbelievable.  In an article from SharpenCX on the customer service strategies behind Zappos’ success, they pointed to one example where their agent empowerment and focus on customer outcomes showed up as a heartwarming story.  It was about an agent named Kelli, who worked the late shift.

She received a live chat from a customer at 4:30 AM in the morning.  Instead of being dismissive about the chat at that hour, Kelli learned that her customer, Tommy, was in the military.  He had ordered a pair of shoes to wear while he was in Afghanistan.  She talked to him for nearly two hours, exchanging stories and getting to know her customer.  In that exchange, Kelli found out Tommy’s nickname was “Gummy Bear.”

So not only did Kelli ship Tommy a new pair of shoes, she sent him a care package along with it.  She put in the Zappos culture book, Rice Krispies treats, a 5-pound gummy bear, and a 12-inch, hand-stitched teddy bear that she named Tommy.

As if it couldn’t get much better, Tommy sent a thank you letter and pictures to Kelli, and so did his Colonel.  Kelli recruited help from her fellow Zappos agents, and it led to the sending of dozens of packages, supplies, and thank you cards to all the soldiers for the holidays.  The base commander told Kelli that people like her really made a difference in the soldiers’ lives.  So, her simple act of kindness boosted the morale of Tommy’s whole unit.

When’s the last time you did something like that for one of your customers?

Want to learn more about how to create customer obsession?   Join us for our webinar entitled, “How to Create Customer Obsession in a Recession.”  Sign up here: https://bakercommunications.com/webinars/How-to-Create-Customer-Obsession-in-a-Recession.html.