A show don’t tell approach to customer centricity
What being customer centric really means? That’s actually a very good question. To answer it let me tell you a story, the story of the company with one of the most customer centric strategies in the world: Zappos
From Shoes to Customers, the Zappos’ fairytale:
Once upon a time, a friendly guy named Nick was looking for a pair of shoes. After going through all the stores at his local mall, he couldn’t quite find the right fit. So he got home and looked on the internet.
Unfortunatelly he didn’t have much more success with online shopping.
That’s when Nick had an idea: why not create an online store dedicated to shoes!
Nick quit his day job and Zappos was born.
He started building an online shop customers would actually love, offering overnight shipping and free return. It was an awesome idea and customers started to buy like crazy.
Soon the company was faced with a difficult decision. Should they offshore their customer service department?
So they contacted offshore call centers and tried out a few of them but nothing seemed quite right. That’s when one of their best decision was made: never compromise on customer service!
The team was kept in-house and every new employee was even required to take part into a customer service training when joining the company.
And you know what the best part is: employees are allowed to do a lot for customers. There are no call time limits, no scripts and everyone is even invited to make a personal connection with customers by talking about… well anything they want.
How can they afford to offer such a high level of customer service you might ask?
They cut costs on marketing. With one of the highest customer retention rate in the industry and word of mouth working for them, they don’t need to invest millions in huge marketing campaigns.
Zappos decided to truly focus on customers and they lived happily ever after.
Now that’s what customer centric means:
- A product that’s build with customer’s needs in mind
- Customer Service that’s not limited to a department
- Marketing by and for customers
Anyone can say they have an amazing customer centric strategy but guess what: customers don’t care about what you say, they care about what you do!
With that in mind, take a good look at your business’ values and ask yourself the following questions:
- Are those values making your customers’ life better (by solving a problem or answering a need)?
- Are your employees really living by those values?
- How is your team communicating those values to customers?
- Are those values at the core of every business decision you make?
- Is your marketing reflecting those values and not only talking about them?
If you can’t answer or the answer seems off, you might need to either change your values or change the way you do business.
It all starts with a customer centric company culture
Glassdoor published a list of the “best companies for values and culture in 2014” and 24/7 Wall St a “customer service hall of fame” list.
One one side we have employees ranking their company’s culture and on the other customers ranking the service they received from companies.
The mix of those two give us a good idea of companies with widely adopted customer oriented values. Let’s just say if the employees love their company and customers love dealing with those employees, we have a company that’s doing things right!
Only Chick-Fil-A managed to make both Top 10s, even if Apple is mentioned later in the Glassdoor list.
Let’s take a closer look at our clear winner: Chick-Fil-A. What makes this company so special that both customers and employees love it?
For those of you who, like me, are not familiar with the brand, here are a few things you should know. Chick-Fil-A is a chicken fast-food restaurant famous for its “chicken sandwich”.
The brand is also known for its christian CEO Dan T Cathy, and his controversial stand on gay marriage.
The company’s culture is widely influenced by its CEO’s faith, giving birth to policies like “restaurants must be closed on Sundays” or to a purpose statement mentioning God: “To glorify God by being a faithful steward of all that is entrusted to us. To have a positive influence on all who come in contact with Chick-fil-A.”
Let’s leave religious convictions aside and see how the company designed a customer centric strategy to set themselves apart. During a conference at SAS Headquaters, Cathy said that their key to success is to remember that “we’re all people with a lot of emotional things going on that don’t necessarily show on the surface”.
Following that way of thinking, employees and franchisees are encouraged to come up with any idea to delight customers.
Most will for example offer to carry heavy trays for mothers with young kids, while a restaurant even offers “expired” (passed the freshness time set by the brand but still fit for consumption) nuggets to pet owner so they can give some to their dogs.
Cathy is a firm believer that it’s the “little things” that build great customer experiences and is determined to teach that to his employees.
Another important aspect of Chick-Fil-A’s excellent service is the positive language they use. When you say thank you after receiving your order, employees won’t reply with a simple “You’re Welcome” or “No problem”, they will always answer “My Pleasure”.
According to an article on FastCompany, the founder of the chain got the idea while staying at Ritz Carlton where employees are used to use this kind of distinguished language. He then thought, why not offer our fast food customers a first class experience and great them like VIPs. Indeed, why not?
Finally, the brand spends more than $1 Million a year evaluating his service. They run focus groups, and send out surveys to customers in order to know what they could improve. Following the survey, each location is sent a report highlighting what works and areas of improvement, making sure every single restaurant is working hard towards customer satisfaction.
The company might have been in the news a lot in the recent years for its controversial culture but it’s important to highlight that their success is due to the other aspect of their culture. The one that’s focused on people and how to serve them.
Employees are not simply trained for efficiency, they are trained to be courteous and creative in the way they delight customers. And that’s why Chick-Fil-A manages to win as much money in 6 days as McDonalds does in 7.
This is an extract of our “Building a Customer-Centric Strategy. A Show Don’t Tell Approach!” article.
Click here to read the full article on our blog.
More on the subject of customer centricity:
- SlideShare: 5-Steps Guide to Building a Customer-Centric Company
- Linkedin Article: How to Hire Customer-Centric Employees
- Pinterest Inspiration Board: Become Customer Centric
