Author: JoAnna Brandi

I'd love to say that every organization out there understands what customer-focused really is, but I can't. In fact, in some ways we're further from it than we were 20 years ago. So in honor of the last 20 years of learning, I've started this list of what customer-focused really means.

At the beginning of last month I celebrated my 20th year in business. That went fast.
 
Twenty years ago I left the corporate world to set out on my own with the idea that companies really needed to understand that having brilliant marketing wasn't all that was needed to get and keep customers. I had a notion that in addition to having a compelling message and an irresistible offer to get the customer to say "YES" the first time, companies should be thinking about how to take really good care of the customers once they jumped on board.
 
The words "customer loyalty" hadn't even passed the lips of most of the people I knew at the time - acquisition was the name of the game and the more the merrier! I knew companies that spent thousands of dollars to get potential customers to call their 800 numbers but then neglected to tell the people that answered the phone that there was any special offer at all. I knew companies whose "upfront" marketing was brilliant but whose back end follow up left the customers cold, angry and fed up trying to connect in a meaningful way.
 
And so I began to form this idea of the front end and the back end of the marketing process, and clearly wanted to move from teaching the former in favor of the teaching the latter. Why? I knew that true profits lay squarely in realm of selling more stuff to people who already know and trust us vs. the sexy short term thrill of getting good response rates and "closing the sale."
 
From the very first few months I was in business I began the discussion with potential clients of the difference between "closing the sale" and "opening the door to long term life time relationship." 
 
To some people that life time stuff is boring, not nearly as exciting as NEW! But when I did the math (after 12 years of running a profit center I knew how to do that) I knew that long term growth depended on having a reliable group of customers who will be honest with you, give you useful feedback, come back frequently with money and often refer others to you.  It seemed a highly unpopular notion in the very early 90's in the grip of yet another recession.
 
That made me work harder. It made me study more, it made me bravely get on the phone with the leaders of companies that seem to be doing the right things to delight their customers and keep them coming back. When I went to Florida in 1993 to write my first book I took 10 crates full of notes, articles and magazines with me - all notated with the names of companies that seemed to already be doing what I was teaching. Besides my own experience of what I knew worked to keep customers happy I was hungry to connect with the people that were on the leading edge of what I sensed to be a "movement" in business.
 
As customers gained more power and more say in the marketplace I knew that companies needed to respond with their focus and their attention if they wanted to keep them happy. Henry Ford's notion that "You can paint it any color, as long as it's black" was indicative of how powerful manufacturers felt at the time - post WWII.  That power was clearly beginning to shift from the people who sell to the people who buy - and just last year when Twitter came on to the scene can we truly begin to understand that power is CLEARLY in the hands of those who buy. Customer focus clearly became more important.
 
So after all this time and all that business has been through in the last 20 years, I'd love to say that every organization out there understands what customer-focused really is, but I can't. In fact, in some ways we're further from it than we were then. So in honor of the last 20 years of learning I've started this list of what customer-focused really means. I've learned this stuff from some of the best and the brightest in the business.
 
It's free form at the moment (I'm in a hotel room and it's nearly 10 PM at night, so you'll forgive me for not putting it in perfect order).  The list is long and I'll deliver it in two "tips" (watch for the next one). When it's done I'love if you'd add to the list the items I've surely forgotten. Let's get started.
 
Customer focused means:

• Having a set of values that includes the customer relationship

• Defining the values and "operationalizing" them throughout the company

• Talking about  the values and how they show up, praising those who exemplify them

• Defining and designing what you want the customer experience to be - how you live the values

• Creating a hiring process that reflects those values - only taking in those who already embody the key values - only letting those who "get it" get in

• Orienting and training new people so they know how the customer needs to be treated and what experience - what emotions - you want to evoke at what touchpoints

• Understanding the "math" of getting new customer vs keeping the ones you have happy

• Knowing (and teaching all others in the organization) what the lifetime value of a customer is

• Defining "service" from the customers point of view and making sure that people understand it

• Understanding the customer's expectations

• Creating quality standards based on those expectations

• Recognizing the importance of the "internal customers" in taking care of external customers

• Listening to understand (not just to respond), listening "naively"

• Breaking down silos and opening up communication because the customer experience goes across silos 

• Valuing the complaints that customers bring to us

• Making changes when customers notice a "gap" in our service delivery

Okay - that's a good start. Yes, there are other items on my list - but this one is enough to ponder for now. I'll pick up on it in the next issue. Can you check off all the items on the list as something you do regularly (if you are reading my tip - you just might be one of the companies that are doing it right. If you're not there yet, sharpen your pencil and dig right in.)
 
So, it's been a big month for me. A time of reflection and a time of creation - a big new business plan in the works. And as I think of it all I'm paraphrasing an old Paul Simon song and singing "Still passionate after all these years."
 
Thanks for reading, listening and being part of the dream.
 
All the best,
 
JoAnna

Continue with Part 2 

JoAnna Brandi is Publisher of the Customer Care Coach® a weekly training program on mastering "The Art and Science of Exquisite Customer Care." She is the author of books such as "Winning at Customer Retention - 101 Ways to Keep 'em Happy, Keep 'em Loyal, and Keep 'em Coming Back" and "Building Customer Loyalty - 21 Essential Elements in ACTION."

Copyright 2010 by JoAnna Brandi. Used with permission.