Monthly Archives: April 2012
cartridgesave.co.uk: an organisation that gets service and shows up as being caring
I am delighted with cartridgesave. Why? The short answer is that my experience with cartridgesave shows up as experience that could only have been crafted by an organisation operating from a context of service. How best to convey this to you? Let’s start from the beginning.
Cartridgesave makes it easy for me to buy: information, messages, process
On Friday morning, breakfast, my wife told me that her Brother printer had run out of toner. Shortly after breakfast I typed in “Brother MFC-7820N” in Google and various vendors came up. I tried the first one and I found that the page displayed toners for the Brother 94…. I didn’t notice this at first and then I did. My feeling? Anger – “How dare you show up in my search if you don’t have what I am looking for?”. Then I looked at the next vendor – a whole bunch of Brother consumables for all kinds of printers (on the first page) except the one that I was looking for! Then I clicked on the cartridgesave.co.uk listing. Viola, the very first item displayed was exactly what I was looking for.
Two messages stood out for me. First delivery – next day provided order were placed before a certain time. Second, free shipping. These messages were displayed prominently – obviously cartridgesave have figured out the kind of questions buyers are asking when they are considering buying something. Everything stacked up so I made the decision to buy. Within a couple of minutes I had chosen the toner, entered my credit card details, set up an account and made the purchase – easy! In the process I was told to expect delivery on Monday. My thinking? “It would be great if it arrived tomorrow and I can live with Monday.”
Delight: the order arrives two days early!
Saturday morning the toner arrived. I was delighted: how that showed up in my world “Wow, this is great, what a great company.” I have noticed that the turnaround time between placing an order and receiving the order matters – it matters a whole lot. Clearly the folks at Zappos have recognised and act on a human truth: when we buy we want the item immediately and in the online domain that is the next day!
Delight: the importance of the personal, of the human touch that says “I care about you, I am here for you”
As I opened the package I noted that the toner had been carefully packaged – the quality of the packaging said it all. Then I noticed and read this letter:
This letter grabbed my attention. Here is what showed up for me: the letter is not personalised (it is not addressed to me, it does not mention what item I have purchased etc) and yet it is personal! There is big difference and personal matters more than personalisation. What am I pointing at? Just be with the whole letter: logo, fonts, language, what is in bold, what is ‘handwritten’, the clearly displayed phone number and email address for customer service. Here are the four aspects I noticed:
“Thanks for your order – we really appreciate it”
How many companies write that? How many write it such that it shows up in my, the customer’s, world as words with power as opposed to empty words not worth the paper they are written on?
“If you have any problems whatsoever….please get in touch…”
Notice the word “whatsoever” and “please get in touch”. The first conveys an absolute commitment to service and the second lands as a personal invitation. How?/Why? The “whatsoever” refers not only to the order itself but also to technical support! Clearly cartridgesave does not see itself as being in the business of selling toner. It sees itself in the business helping customers deal with their printer issues. Did you notice that the email address is “help@cartridgesav.co.uk”? It occurs to me that the folks at cartridgesave get that when customers ring in they are looking for help with something. Finally, do you notice the difference in how “please get in touch” differs from “contact us”? Do you notice the difference in the tone and how this impacts you?
“Thank again, Laura”
What a great way to end a letter – with thanks and from a human being. Yes, it matters to me that it is “Thanks again” as opposed to “Yours….” and it matters to me that it is signed by Laura.
“PS put this sticker on you printer and you will never have to search for us again!”
Simply fantastic – that is marketing/selling done right. Why? How? Because it does not land in my world as marketing/selling – the company simply looking after its own interest. This invitation occurs as an act of caring. And given what has gone before (my experience to date) it is a perfect ending. It is an invitation that is likely to be taken up.
What did I do with that sticker?
I peeled it off and put it right on the front of the printer where it is obvious. Why did I do that? Because cartridgesave did everything right (process wise) and spoke with/to me in a way that shows up as caring. So why would I want to buy from anyone else? Why would I want to take the risk of buying from another company that does not care?
Final thoughts
It is not enough to be competent. It is not enough that you care. If you want to connect with the customer – to get his attention at an emotional level (and that is the only kind of attention that matters) then you absolutely have to aim for creating that “Wow!” in the customer. That is how the customer gets that you care – it is getting like a getting a punch in the stomach as opposed to getting as in reading a book and understanding some concept. When do you need to do that? The first time that the customer interacts with your company and places and order with you. Create a “Wow!” and you have created, in the words of NLP, an ‘anchor’. Result, you are ‘anchored’ in your customer’s heart and that buys you both ‘attention’ and ‘forgiveness’.
You cannot fake caring. Why? Caring requires that you notice and take care of all the details; caring is in the details! Finally caring has a certain quality to it: it is like body language it leaks through subconsciously irrespective what words you are speaking and what impression you are seeking to cultivate.
What is the ‘secret sauce’ of success?
What is the ‘secret sauce’ of this company’s success?
I was at a gathering where the topic of ‘secret sauce’ came up in the context of the ‘secret sauce’ of the company’s success. After the main forum I ended up in a conversation with two colleagues – one of whom (D) had posed the ‘secret sauce’ question and other of whom (J) has been working with me on a recent consulting engagement. Talking about ‘secret sauce’ J pointed out what he sees as my secret sauce: analytical skills, financial skills, workshop facilitation skills, consulting skills, being straight with clients, articulating my point of view, getting along with people……
What is my ‘secret sauce’? Is it what it seems to be?
Does my secret sauce come down to a bunch of skills, behaviour, frameworks and tools? Is it possible that what J is pointing at are simply the visible aspects of the iceberg and the ‘secret sauce’ is hidden from view especially from those with a scientific orientation which neglects the inner dimensions of the human being? If I have a ‘secret sauce’ then it lies in my inner dimension – my being, my stance, the context from which I operate, how I see myself.
What if I told you that my ‘secret sauce’ is CARING? I care deeply about this client – the people who have placed their trust in me. I care deeply about the what we (the client and I) are up to – the project we have taken on, the outcome which we wish to manifest in this world. I care deeply about the impact this will have on the lives of prospects and customers who touch this business. I care deeply about how it will impact/improve the lives of the people who work within this business;. And I care deeply about excellence – doing great work impeccably.
What if I told you that my ‘secret sauce’ is the conscious choice to operate from a context of service and of contribution – of making a difference to the quality of our lives and the ‘workability’ of the world that we share? Yes, I am straight with people and that includes sharing/disclosing what they do not necessarily want to hear. What J does not see is that I can only be straight because this being straight arises out of this context of service. What J does not see is that when it does not matter, when it does not contribute to the game I am playing, I strive to keep my mouth shut. Furthermore, what J does not see is that in my consulting work I operate from the educational/coaching paradigm: I help clients see, explore and get to grips with the options that are available to them and once this is done I make it clear that the responsibility for choosing the path lies with them as it is ‘their baby’ and I am simply the ‘midwife’ – they have to live with the consequences of their choices whereas I can walk away.
Lessons
Am I sharing this with you because I am on an ego trip today? Possibly and I hope not. I am sharing this with you to point out the following:
- We live in a culture where the default is to look for success recipes that take away the inherent uncertainty, unpredictability, messiness of life and replace it with certainty, security, guarantees;
- The number of explanations for anything that shows up is limited only by the number of worldviews / ideologies / perception filters that are available and used to make sense of the ‘situation/data at hand’;
- We live in a culture where our search for these recipes is often only on the outside – that which is visible to the naked eye;
- Often the recipes don’ work out because we only looked at the surface and did not dig deeper to get at the true ‘secret sauce’.
This probably occurs as ‘abstract and intellectual’ to you so let me share some example with you to make it more concrete. Lets start with Honda to show how smart people can come up with multiple interpretations based on their worldview or the secret-sauce they want to promote (because they have a vested interest in promoting it).
Honda: what was the secret sauce behind Honda’s successful entry into the US motorbike market?
What accounts for Honda’s successful entry into the US motorbike industry back in the 60s/70s? The answer depends on the worldview that you hold, the lens that you use to pose that question and dig around for answers. Here are three different answers due to three different lenses:
“The first is the BCG Report [1975] story of Honda’s cost advantage, developed (the story goes) by the successful exploitation of scale and learning, and of the “segment retreat” response of British and American competitors. Anyone who received an MBA between 1979 and 1985 was almost certainly exposed to this version of history.
The second, explicated by Pascale [1984], offers a revisionist account of Honda’s motorcycle success.’ According to Pascale’s interview with six Honda executives, the company’s early scale in Japan came from its having a better product, flowing from design skills. Furthermore, Honda did not “target” specific market segments in the U.S., but rather showed an ability to experiment, to learn quickly from mistakes, to rapidly revise design problems, and thereby to discover opportunities.
The third, described by Prahalad & Hamel [1989, 1990], couples Honda’s success in motorcycles with its successful entry into the U.S. automobile market. Here the center of the story is Honda’s remarkable ability to go from “nowhere” to prominence despite the earlier entry of very efficient competitors like Toyota and Nissan. Prahalad and Hamel have given the names “intent” and “stretch” to the processes which underlay this success and the name “core competence” to the central skills and abilities that Honda built upon.”
If you want to read more then check out / download the following: HONDA Enters Into US
Zappos: what is the secret sauce?
If you read about Zappos the taken for granted answers are: culture and wow service. One or more astute observers have also noted logistics – Zappos wow service is enabled in part because Zappos has a finely tuned logistics operation that can get goods quickly to customers. So is that the secret sauce?
I say that these are simply the visible manifestations of the secret sauce. I say that if you read “Delivering Happiness” by Tony Hsieh you will find that the secret sauce is Tony Hsieh. Tony has a particular philosophy: living a meaningful life, an affinity for people, an affinity for fun, strongly family ethos, a desire to get into and be a part of the nuts and bolts of business, getting that when you create happiness you are the first one to be lifted by this happiness. And everything that is visible at Zappos is a manifestation of Tony Hsieh.
Starbucks: what is the secret sauce?
Is it the quality of the coffee? Is it the location of the stores? Is it the layout / feel of the stores? Perhaps it is the baristas that serve customers? Maybe it is the machinery and the processes?
From where I stand I am clear that the secret sauce is Howard Schultz. Go read “Pour Your Heart Into It: How Starbucks Built a Company One Cup At a Time” and “Onward: How Starbucks Fought For Its Life Without Losing Its Soul”. Read deeply enough and you are likely to find that Starbucks is simply the manifestation of Shultz’s love of coffee, the coffee experience and his stance/relationship towards ordinary people.
Schultz knows first hand what happens to people and families when people are not treated well, recognised, acknowledged, not given an opportunity to develop, to progress, to shine. So is it a surprise that he fought so hard to give the barista’s – part time employees – pay and rights (including medical coverage) that were unheard of in the retail industry?
What happened when he handed over the reins? Starbucks did lose its soul – the person who replaced Shultz was not Schultz and did not live Shultz’s philosophy when it came to the quality of the coffee, the coffee experience, how people should be treated….. Incidentally, I do know that Howard Behar and is philosophy about people and relationships complemented and made a big impact on Schultz and how he ran Starbucks.
Final thought
Be skeptical of any and all ‘secret sauces’ that are put forward. Why? For any phenomenon a multiplicity of stories can be constructed to explain and give meaning to that phenomenon. The number of stories is limited only by the imagination and the number of voices that get to speak and be heard. Furthermore, perhaps the challenge is to come up with, create, construct ‘secret sauces’ rather than find existing ones. Where would Apple be if it had looked for the ‘secret sauce’ rather than invented it? Where would Starbucks be? Where would Facebook be? Where would Google be (remember that Yahoo was the master of the online universe then)?
Digging into ‘customer-centricity’: what is the defining feature of a ‘customer-centric’ company?
My last post (a practical enquiry into service, customer experience and customer-centricity) generated some interesting conversations. A particularly interesting conversation took place between Bob Thompson and me – you need to scroll towards the bottom and read the comments. In this post I want to address the key question that Bob raised:
“Customer-centricity is at least as vague a term as CRM and CEM. Is it a strategy? A state of mind? A loyal relationship? Personally, I’ve defined “being customer-centric” as delivering value that customers care about. The end results should be more loyal customers. But it’s not quite that simple. How do we explain the success of Ryanair, which offers a low-cost service, gets lots of travelers and makes money, but can hardly be said to have raving fans?“
If you have looked into that conversation between Bob and myself you will see that I addressed the Ryanair issue. So what I up for addressing is the question: what clues can you look for that helps you to distinguish a ‘customer-centric’ from a ‘not customer-centric’ company?
Is listening / responsiveness the distinguishing feature?
In this post Bob Thompson asserts that Starbuck is customer-centric because it listened to him. Bob had an issues with his local Starbucks: “we started noticing that about 30 minutes before the store officially closed, employees brought the tables and chairs from outside and piled them up inside the store. Frankly, it made the store look like “we’re closing” and customers weren’t welcome.” So Bob wrote an email to Starbucks pointing out the issue, he got a response within 24 hours letting him know that the matter would be discussed with the store manager. And then Starbucks acted on Bob’s email request: “Not only did Starbucks listen, they did something. Fast! That evening, and all the evenings since then (I checked) the tables and chairs were left outside until closing. And what do you know, there were customers actually using them!
So my question is that if a company makes it easy for you to contact it, responds quickly to your contact and then sorts out your issue / gives you what you are asking for (like Starbucks did with Bob) does that make that company customer-centric? From where I stand and view customer-centricity the answer is NO. Why?
Think back to my last post and in particular the issue that arose between the customer and Joe the bartender. Joe acting in the best interests of the customer (including the customer’s wife and three children) refused to serve more alcohol to the customer. The customer had an issue with this, he reached out to the company, the company gave Joe (the bartender) a telling off, fixed the issue and compensated the customer for his trouble by giving him two free drinks. What was the end result? The customer got heavily drunk, drove home, had a crash and died – taking three other people with him.
Purpose-Vision-Mission statements – do these help us distinguish a ‘customer-centric’ company from a ‘not customer-centric’ company?
When you read the following vision/mission statements I’d like you to be present to what emotions they evoke in you as well as what thoughts bubble up for you. Let’s start:
Ryanair: “Ryanair’s objective is to firmly establish itself as Europe’s leading low-fares scheduled passenger airline through continued improvements and expanded offerings of its low-fares service. Ryanair aims to offer low fares that generate increased passenger traffic while maintaining a continuous focus on cost-containment and operating efficiencies.”
Yahoo!: “Yahoo!’s mission is to be the most essential global Internet service for consumers and businesses.”
Microsoft: “Microsoft’s mission is to enable people and businesses throughout the world to realize their full potential.”
Dell: “Dell’s mission is to be the most successful computer company in the world at delivering the best customer experience in markets we serve.”
OK, now lets move on to a second set of companies. As you read these mission statements please be present to how these land for you – what feelings and thoughts do these evoke for you?
Chick-fil-A: “Chick -fil-A’s corporate purpose statement reveals the heart of our company: “To glorify God by being a faithful steward of all that is entrusted to us and to have a positive influence on all who come in contact with Chick-fil-A.” Chick-fil-A’s mission statement reveals our commitment to service: “To be American’s best quick-service restaurant.”
Southwest Airlines: “The mission of Southwest Airlines is dedication to the highest quality of Customer Service delivered with a sense of warmth, friendliness, individual pride, and Company Spirit.”
Amazon: “Our vision is to be earth’s most customer centric company; to build a place where people can come to find and discover anything they might want to buy online.”
USAA: “To facilitate the financial security of its members, associates and their families through provision of a full range of highly competitive financial products and services; in so doing, USAA seeks to be the provider of choice for the military community.”
Starbucks: “Our mission: to inspire and nurture the human spirit – one person, one cup and one neighbourhood at a time.”
Virgin Atlantic: “At Virgin Atlantic, our mission statement is simple…To grow a profitable airline…Where people love to fly…And where people love to work.”
Did you notice the key differences?
Customer-centric companies are in a totally different league when it comes to the game that they are playing. Did you notice that their mission statements:
1. start with / draw attention to customers, what jobs they will do for their customers, what value they will create, how they will treat their customers?
2. speak words that speak to human beings in terms of their ‘concerns’ as human beings: ‘glorify’,’ faithful’, ‘positive influence’, ‘service’, ‘warmth’, ‘friendliness’, ‘pride’, ‘spirit’, ‘dedication’, ‘member’s, ‘worthwhile satisfying employment’,'discover’, ‘financial security’, ‘competitive products’, ‘families’, ‘nurture’, ‘human spirit’, ‘love’, ‘people’..?
3. are concrete, meaningful and even inspiring to customers (and employees) whereas the mission statements of the ‘not customer-centric’ companies are vague, amorphous, general and generally meaningless and uninspiring?
Customer-Centricity: being of service, enriching lives and contributing to a better world
From where I stand I am clear that the key characteristic that characterise and distinguish a ‘customer-centric’ company from a ‘not customer-centric company’ is that the ‘customer-centric’ company is playing a totally difference game.
The ‘not customer-centric’ companies (including those that espouse customer-centric rhetoric) see customers as tools, as instruments, as means for enriching the Tops and the the people who represent the shareholders. And within that context there is no consideration of the longer term, stewardship of the world that we live in, the dignity of our fellow human beings. Anything goes as long as ‘rent’ is extracted from customers to line the pockets of the Tops and shareholders.
Under the rhetoric of ‘customer focus, customer experience, customer-centricity, customer obsession’ is the urgency to sell, sell, sell the products that the companies has to sell. The customer rhetoric is there only because it has become hard to sell because customers are more demanding, more discriminating and their is a high level of competition. The whole edifice is built on fear, greed and the “I-It” orientation towards customers, employees, suppliers, partners, communities in which these companies operate. In short, this is business as usual – the standard economic/industrial/organisation model that is in place today and accepted as best practice, the smart way to do business.
The ‘customer-centric’ companies are primarily coming from a context of being of service, of contributing to our fellow humans, of making a genuine and worthwhile difference to the lives of the people who touch and are touched by the company- customer-centric companies live a “I-Thou” orientation. The Tops who founded and/or are running these companies get the importance of making profits. Yet, that is not the purpose nor the mission of these companies. To ‘customer-centric’ companies profits are like the air that we breathe necessary to survive and profits are the reward that customers/employees bestow on the company for the service that the company has rendered. Profits are marker of the level of contribution they make. And profits are the grain that can be stored today for when the ‘seven years of famine’ strike.
A warning or two
First warning: ‘customer-centricity’ does not necessarily guarantee financial success. Customer-centric businesses can and do go out of business – all that is needed is a disruptive innovation.
Second warning: you actually have to live up to the ‘customer-centric’ mission statement to be viewed as being ‘customer-centric’ by your employees and customers. Starbucks espoused the mission but took all manner of actions that did not fit in with the mission to grow revenues and profits to meet shareholder expectations. It got into a mess and the man who had formulated, fought for and lived the mission statement (Howard Schultz) had to come back, take over and turn around Starbucks – get the people in the business connected with and living the mission wholeheartedly. Today, Tesco is where Starbucks was at. It espouses a fine mission – “Our core purpose is, ‘To create value for customers to earn their lifetime loyalty’. We deliver this through our values, ‘No-one tries harder for customers’, and ‘Treat people how we like to be treated” - and it failed to live up to it for several years and is now paying the price.
