After several personal experiences, readings related to experience marketing, relationship marketing and customer feedback, among others, the need arose for me to create a document that serves as a basis for everyone from their perspective to grasp that the focus on the customer is a necessity of every company, and that in turn, is the responsibility of each and every one of the people who compose it.
I initially start with 4 statements that different authors have made on the subject of marketing *, and which I widely share:
1) Companies achieve success by conquering, maintaining and expanding their customer base. (Don Peppers and Martha Rogers)
2) Every new product or service must be backed by a marketing plan that provides a return that compensates the corresponding investment of time and money. (Philip Kotler)
3) Project the appropriate image, since the image permeates all aspects of your business and the product or service offered, from the outside of your premises, to the attitude of all employees. (Peter Hingston)
4) The key for an organization to achieve its goals is to be more effective than its competitors in creating, delivering and communicating value to its markets. (Philip Kotler)
Similarly, I consider it important to make a brief summary of the current situation or reality of the market:
- Increasingly educated, knowledgeable and demanding consumers. Every day more saturated markets (competition). The globalization of the economy reduces or has reduced many products to the condition of generics (or "commodities"). Every day more mature markets (cycles).Competition increasingly aggressive and technical. Loyalty and differentiation schemes and mechanisms increasingly difficult to create and implement, and are quickly copied. Difficult brand creation (large proliferation of brands and increasingly reduced prices to cover and sustain these costs) and reduction of loyalty towards them. New methods and channels of communication and negotiation (Internet with all its varieties (advertising, newspapers, messages and videos), electronic auctions, tenders for periods of time, merchandise on consignment, etc.) Administrative tendency to evaluate and wait for the results in the short term in the performance evaluation. Lower and lower profit margins.
From this, we can visualize how the market situation is complex enough so that at the internal level of our organizations, we generate greater complexity that leads us to breach any of the 4 initial statements; and this is where I start the awareness work:
Based on the statement 1) "Companies achieve success by conquering, maintaining and expanding their customer base", basically 3 things are sought: Conquer or get more customers (new customers), keep all current customers active (reduce to maximum loss of customers), and expand the portfolio of purchases of the same (more products in the same customers).
Therefore, initially we could wrongly say ** that compliance with this statement is the sole and exclusive responsibility of the marketing and sales area.
Statement 2) "Every new product or service must be backed by a marketing plan that provides a return that compensates the corresponding investment of time and money", is a complement to statement 1), in that it claims that all action that is generated within a company in relation to a new product or service, must have a basis, a prior analysis, strategies have been defined and implemented and put into operation as agreed; in other words, that there has been a planning.
This coincides with a basic principle of every business, according to which, understanding what customers need from your company, and discovering what motivates them, is vital to the success of the company; task that is not easy, since “Consumers do not know, nor do they care, what is their value for the company; they are only concerned with seeing their problems resolved and their needs met ”(Don Peppers and Martha Rogers).
Among many other questions that must be known for each of the clients (and that are not the object of this document), I consider it important to highlight the following:
What part of the customer's purchases destined today to the competition, could be captured by our company?
How much more could be obtained from the client if our treatment is modified?
How many other product lines can this customer consume?
What other services or products could the customer consume if our company had them available?
How to fully identify customer needs? (how to find out the needs that are not yet known?)
What should our company do to guarantee that this client recommends us to other possible clients?
Therefore, initially we could wrongly say ** that compliance with this second statement is, again, the sole and exclusive responsibility of the marketing and sales area.
From statement 3) "Project the appropriate image, since the image permeates all aspects of your business and the product or service offered, from outside your premises, to the attitude of all employees," I consider It is essential to quote author Lewis P. Clairborne with the following phrase: “Every consumer has an experience with the products and services they consume. When the experience leaves him indifferent, he falls into oblivion. It is enough that it be negative on one occasion so that it does not return. However, in order to strike a chord with the customer and make them come back satisfied over and over again, you have to provide them with an experience that meets their wants and needs. ”
And it is specifically here where I will focus to broaden the concept of customer focus, since the evolution of marketing has been transcending from the supply of an essential item to the supply of a product; from the supply of a product to the supply of a service; to the point of reaching today, not the supply of a service, but the supply of an experience.
As an example, ask yourself: Why do you prefer to buy in one supermarket over another? Why do you prefer one beauty salon over another? Why do people change from cell phone operator, mechanic or auto shop, or even store even without knowing the new option? It is clear that people choose to make a selection according to both functional and emotional reasons; However, each one decides according to her own experience, and it is there where the value of the experience is born.
Today, what the customer acquires is much more than a product, the product is part of a whole; and therefore, customer loyalty is more a reaction to the total experience than a rational response to separate products or services.
In three words, customers today evaluate "the total experience"; therefore, the tangible attributes of a product or service influence less and less the preferences of a client, since they are taken for granted and influence decision-making between 5% to 10%, while emotional elements associated with experience, they influence between 90% and 95%.
Starting from this point, all the actions, operations and processes that occur and are carried out within a company, and all the interactions, communications and actions that are presented towards the outside of the same; they are generating experiences with clients, and therefore, are the direct responsibility of all employees, managers and shareholders.
Any experience can be chronologically divided into 3 stages:
i) Perception: It starts with preconceived ideas and concepts, whether they are conscious or unconscious, good or bad, right or wrong. These may come from advertising, comments (or word of mouth), previous experiences, website, etc.
ii) Interaction: It involves direct contact with people and the physical environment in which the experience takes place. It is what is called "moments of truth".
iii) Remembrance: This combines all the rational and emotional thoughts and feelings related to the experience.
When for some reason there was a circumstance within the experience with a client that was not well managed, a negative memory of the experience may occur on the part of the client, since a single negative circumstance can decrease the assessment, overshadow or in some cases, cancel all positive management carried out. Therefore, for the value of the total experience to be positive, it is necessary to recognize each and every one of the possible interactions and viable circumstances to present with the client, and manage them appropriately.
This is how all operations and processes of marketing and sales, production, research and development, quality assurance, customer service, collections (portfolio), supply chain (purchases), logistics, systems (computer technology), maintenance, Human management and others, within a company must be aligned with the strategies not only of the company, but also, be committed and focused on the customer focus.
Remember that the delivery of a product or service to a customer is the responsibility of the entire company, not a specific area, and therefore, the experience of that delivery to the customer (positive or negative), does not fall on that area specific, but about the entire company.
At the level of exemplification of some situations that seem to have no initial impact on the experience with clients, we could cite among others the following:
- Ease of access, speed and clarity of the company's website (systems area). Opportunity, clarity and quality of responses to the different external contacts via email (systems, marketing and sales, etc.). Quality (accurate information), agility and attention in phone calls (receptionists and secretaries). Agility, organization, attention and management of physical visits to our company (security guards or gatekeepers of the company and all personnel involved in the visit). (never assume), agility, clarity and attention in taking orders and delivery agreements with customers (marketing and sales, and customer service). Clarity and order in the information on prices, presentations and conditions agreed with customers (marketing and sales, and customer service).Quality (work well done), organization and agility of all internal operations so that the client is not affected by situations considered of low relevance but high impact when it comes to fulfilling the client (logistics, production, maintenance, systems, portfolio, etc.) Accurate and timely (effective) response on the status of customer orders (Customer Service, Marketing and Sales, Logistics). Clarity, agility, security and billing opportunity for customers (customer service, logistics, systems, marketing and sales, etc.). Complete deliveries, within specifications and timely of products or services to customers (Logistics). Quality (complete information), agility, organization, opportunity,attention and effective response to the different claims (Quality assurance and marketing and sales). Assertiveness, organization, attention and opportunity in the collections of the client portfolio (collections, marketing and sales). Opportunity, agility and organization in the reports, consumption reports and commercial documents required by customers (marketing and sales, customer service, systems, collections, etc.). Quality, opportunity, clear information, coordination and organization in the work that somehow has to be done by any company staff where clients (maintenance, systems, collections, accounting, logistics, etc.). Quality, agility and timeliness in responses to concerns not directly related to the sale to clients (marketing and sales, research and development, systems, accounting,logistics, maintenance, etc.) It is essential to emphasize that any bad attention, intention or comment by any company official is, in itself, a negative circumstance that can overshadow the entire process.
The experiences or opportunities of experiences with the clients do not have a beginning or an end, but are a continuum; And before this, the unconscious emotions that have been engraved in the memory, and that are ultimately what determine the commitment to a brand or company, can be permanently modified. It is important to emphasize that a single negative circumstance requires approximately 5 positive circumstances to be opaque, which is not the case with positive ones, since with a single negative it is erased.
Customer orientation is an attitude, with which all employees of a company should view the customer as a productive asset of the company.
Regarding affirmation 4) "The key for an organization to achieve its goals is to be more effective than its competitors in creating, delivering and communicating value to its markets", it seems important to me to emphasize that any operation that is carried out seeking to better serve the needs of customers, it must be perceived and valued by them, otherwise, it does not support any competitive strategy of the company, and in a few words it can be said that it does not contribute, does not serve or should be discarded. An operation can only generate lasting value for a company to the extent that it first creates value for its customers.
It is necessary that there is a new mentality, a new culture and new employees committed to customer focus, since in this process it is necessary to analyze, plan and define as a company how to interact with customers. An easy way to explain and understand it would be for all employees to be aware when interacting with them that "You always have to treat customers the way we would like to be treated."
To achieve this, fundamental skills and competencies such as teamwork, collaboration, effective communication, the ability to actively listen, flexibility, openness and negotiation are required.
Bibliography
Catch in: How to keep customers coming back again and again; Lewis P. Clairborne; Leader summaries, experience marketing, 2006, Internet.
Return On Customer: Creating maximum value from your scarcest resource; Don Peppers & Martha Rogers; Book summary, Management, 2006.
The 6Rs that will allow you to build loyalty and make profitable your current and potential clients; Roberto Friedmann; Harvard Business Review Latin America; conference October 25, 2006.
Effective Marketing, Peter Hingston, Prentice Hall, 2002.
Marketing Director, Philip Kotler; Prentice Hall, 2000.
The 10 Deadly Sins of Marketing, Philip Kotler; Management 2000, 2004.
- I am sure that there will be many more statements that could have a place or that could be more accurate for what is intended in this document, however, I consider that from this point we can reach the stated objective. You will see later, all the tasks of direct and indirect interaction with customers are the responsibility of all company personnel.
