Wednesday, November 24, 2004

Customers are people - not so novel an idea but one for this time

Another book for my "wish list": Customers Are People: The Human Touch by John McKean (Wiley, 2004). According to the review by Poping Lin, the author breaks the evolution of the customer-centric approach to marketing into four periods:

- Before the 1980s, customers were treated as a homogeneous group.
- During the 1980s, customers became a prime focus of business.
- In the 1990s, customers were recognized as individuals.
- Since 2000, customers have been recognized as people.


Skipping ahead to another good quote from the review: To establish a customer-friendly business, the battle begins on the front lines with your employees, who must develop a “human touch competency” that creates “a feeling of acknowledgement, respect, and trust” in every customer. Of course, you must give your employees the same respect that you would want them to shower onto their customers.

Yes, it comes back to the primary of the three determinants for success: (1) service value (the price for your service needs to exceed your cost of delivering the service but one the customers will immediately recognize as a Value) (Not like the recent performance of the major American airlines) ; (2) customer satisfaction (recall the Tom Peters' WOW factor); and (3) associate satisfaction (in many cases, your only asset is your employees, you need to treat them with respect so they will do likewise with your customers). Jim Collins made this point in Good to Great with "First Who, Then What". You need to have the right people on the bus before you decide where you are going to go.

Do you have the right people on the bus?

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