Organizational advocacy for the customer will be the difference-maker in the future. Because you understand their needs more clearly, they will advocate for you in return. That’s the essence of customer loyalty.

Prevention is always better than repairing problems for customers. Empower employees to challenge and change current processes that create customer effort.

Many companies claim that they want to "exceed customers' expectations." There’s a problem with this mantra, however. It is based on the supplier’s view of what its customers expect. And this is inevitably shaped by the rules and procedures that have been built up to "protect" the business. There are built-in limits. Employees understand that […]

When organizations focus on what their customers will tell others, it opens performance to a new dimension. Suddenly, everyone from front-line employees to executives takes on a creative role that embraces exciting new ideas.

It’s good that the world is paying more attention to the amount of effort that a customer must exert in order to do business with us. Nevertheless, there is still a lot more that companies should be doing. “Stop Trying to Delight Your Customers” (Dixon, Freeman, and Toman in the HBR, July-August 2010) introduces the […]

I always want to know the back story of feel-good customer service stories.

Recently, a young traveler, with no money, was fed for free by the Wolfgang Puck restaurant in Chicago-O’Hare Airport. It’s a great story.

But I wanted to know how the executives of the organization handled the situation after it happened. I wrote to the Contact Us portal on the Wolfgang Puck website. Here is the response that I received from Lesley within a few minutes of my online request:

In December, a panel of speakers on customer service topics discussed “Is Customer Service the New Marketing?”. The panel makes the case for marketing how well an organization serves its customers. This is not new. It’s the traditional ideas being warmed over. The panel’s message to organizations is, essentially, don’t change your approach to customer service; simply market it better.

Customer 3D organizations are re-visiting all of their traditional ways of doing business from the customers’ viewpoint – before customers question it themselves. It’s long overdue.

The lessons of improv comedy for businesses are to allow freedom to explore new areas that will make the connection with customers (or the audience). Instead of being restricted by what you perceive as rules, be open to where your customers want you to go. Be natural, but with a sense of play. Enjoy the freedom to say “yes…and” if the results are better for the customer.

Every company will tell you it is customer-centered. But, you can’t call your organization customer-centric if you see-saw back and forth to being product-centered and occasionally adding a little customer-friendliness. Being customer-centered is intentional.

In Customer 3D organizations, telling customer success stories helps to spread the behaviors that created the good ideas. What results is a shared passion for helping customers which manifests itself in greater employee empowerment and collaboration.

When Customer 3D capabilities are in place, employees are prepared to deliver exceptional customer-centered performance when needed. They can draw on a confidence and reserve that 1D organizations simply cannot understand. It is very much a difference-maker.

The Customer 3D™ system uses a measurement process, which can quantify the progress toward becoming more customer-centered. 3D leaders never stand still in their search for new ways to make their organization work better for their customers.

The Customer 3D™ system inside an organization measures momentum or the “amount of motion” that is happening for customers. It transcends individual transactions to ask, “What else can we improve?” It tracks how organizations touch customers' lives.

Customer 3D™ organizations are driven to change customers' expectations – by proactively delivering better, more collaborative outcomes. They have a system and a strategy that measures its success by its ever-improving performance for the customer.

“The future of search is verbs.” Bill Gates made this comment to Esther Dyson to describe the transition to a new mindset, in which, as the world becomes more familiar with high-powered search engines, people “aren’t looking for nouns or information; they are looking for action.” (quoted in Curation Nation). The same concept is true […]

But we don’t pay attention until they are really good. Exceptionally customer-centered organizations have an energy that attracts faithful customers who have noticed what makes them different and rewarded them with go-nowhere-else loyalty. Customers show up because of the company and the product is no longer part of the decision. They already know the product is going to be good.

One-dimensional companies look at what they can or cannot do, rather than what the customer needs or values. Customer-centered companies think proactively and innovate with creative ideas that will benefit the customer and that will also work out better for employees.

Ironically, being customer-centered also makes your products better. Why? Because these products and services that you are offering are now being designed based on what matters to your customers.

There is a pattern in all of the four pictures of Matisse, which allows the viewer to recognize him. Likewise, in organizations there is a wholeness, which is recognizable by customers. This wholeness is the real nature that determines everything about the organization.

A great measure of an organization’s focus on customer success is how customers perceive their Return on Effort. High-performing companies are always searching for ways to design more user-friendly processes. This goal of reducing customer effort can best be achieved in a “question-everything” organizational culture.

A culture of sharing reinforces the belief that you and your customers have a common purpose. And this spirit of collaboration translates into a message that these customers can trust you to work on their behalf. It is empowering, both for employees and customers.

Boundaries disappear with a customer strategy that is proactive and focused, not reactive. It should articulate a basic philosophy that aligns all employees and brings confidence and clarity to how they can contribute to stronger customer connections.

In order to WOW customers, change your culture from supplier-focused to customer-focused. Thinking like a customer will make it clear to everyone what WOW means.

First-time customers offer a unique opportunity to gauge the quality of the customer experience that you offer. Use VOC feedback from this group to enhance the experience for all customers--new and returning.

The efforts of customer-centered organizations to move to the upside for customers inspires confidence—for customers and for employees. What’s missing in supplier-centric organizations is a system to design and deliver creative ideas that will improve the experiences of customers.