6 Billion Kings – Why Your Approach to Customers Must Change

  

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Customers are often referred to as “consumers” for a reason: they pay for consumption.  We buy and use things; it can be throwaway commodities, state-of-the-art electronics, or even ideas. We take resources and utilize them as-is, or blend and mold resources for new or more complex use cases. In the past consumption was driven by necessity, that same mother of invention.  Today however, consumption is primarily governed by a precept of kingly entitlement.

Consumers place greater prioritization on the activity of consumption, to the exclusion of others, because they have endless variety and low-cost barriers at a time when productivity output is higher than at any other time in the history of humanity.  In short, we have idle time and ample resources; both of which are (pun intended) consumed with the act of consumption.

Post-modern consumptionism (my made-up word meaning the act of consuming vs. the identity of being a consumer) developed by way of our self-reinforcing activity.  First, we consumed.  Next, we felt entitled to consume to reward our own good behavior. Then we became desensitized to our own consumerism as a social norm; we have come to look at consumption as an expected reward, regardless of the way we behave. And finally, today, we entirely disregard our own consumptionism, instead projecting our entitlement on the providers of that which we consume.

At various points in the consumer lifecycle we consumers have prioritized various qualities of pre-consumption, such as lowest perceived price (think Wal-Mart), highest quality (think Tiffany & Co.), most convenient (think Domino’s pizza delivery), or a combination thereof (think Amazon.com).  But, this is about to get much more complicated.  If you want to compete for these consumers, you’ll need to be prepared.

The King is Fickle
You see, there are virtually no companies left on the planet capable of sustaining their market position through the price, quality, convenience, or uniqueness of the products and services they offer.  The number of competing products available means endless choices for consumers.  Shared supply chains and ubiquity in surplus labor value make it is difficult to compete on price. Nearly any product or technology can (and usually does) get knocked-off in a matter of days, thus making the things we create no longer rare.  And, what was merely cheap, convenient, or of exceptional quality yesterday is now a consumer entitlement (expectation) today.  The only competitive advantage remaining in the marketplace is Customer Experience (CX). 

In the not-so-distant past, the products and services that companies provided were rare.  Not everyone could have them, and those of us who didn’t merely aspired to ownership.  Today however, nearly any product or service is within our grasp at the price, quality, and convenience we have come to expect.  What has changed is that the power ascendancy [controlling influence] has shifted from the corporation to the consumer because supply far outweighs demand and consumption is finite.  The customer is no longer “King” just because a business treats him that way; the customer is King because he is.

When You Approach the King – Genuflect
A number of companies figured out that CX was all they had to set themselves apart in a crowded marketplace.  As more companies became better at getting CX right, consumers have come to expect the best. This has created what we’ve all seen at one point or another: the snotty customer.  You know who I’m talking about: the woman standing in a customer service line hemming-and-hawing because she can’t believe SHE has to wait in line, or the guy sitting in a $10/plate restaurant who complains that his chair (throne) is uncomfortable and feels entitled to berate the wait staff. 

And it’s not just them.  It’s you and me.  We’re the canaries in coal mine for the lengths companies must go to successfully win and maintain us as customers. Naturally we expect all products to be affordable, aesthetically pleasing, and convenient.  But now we also expect that every interaction – each and every touch point with the business – is seamless.  Customer service will no longer be a corporate value, it will be the difference whether the Company stays viable, or not.

The King Doesn’t Come to You, You Go to Him (but if he does come to you… roll out the red carpet!)
In the 1960s there were four places you could market to consumers: radio, television, print and out-of-home.  Today the number of channels is daunting: radio, television, print, out-of-home, plus websites search engines, social media, applications, gaming, and a mix of connected devices.  If you want to reach the consumer, not only do you have to go to them, but you have to do so through integrated marketing across countless channels.

At the same time, consumers have unlimited choices in how and where they will consume information and media.  There is so much noise that CX has also become one of the few ways a Company can actually create signal with consumers.  This noisiness has also further shortened consumer attention spans.

The company-consumer communication process is bi-directional.  Not only is it more challenging to reach the consumer, but now the consumer expectation is that your Company enables them with the tools to communication with you on their terms.  Yes, phone and email are still alive and well, but now you have to take into consider a range of unique customer communication preferences, including: social media channels (Facebook & Twitter), customer-initiate real-time text/audio/video chat wherever your Company has a digital presence (website, social media, phone, tablet), and also that all these communication channels work flawlessly within your retail doors. If you falter in your bi-directional communication strategy execution, your customer is ready to simply select one of numerous vendors with the press of a button.

The King Doesn’t Do the Heavy Lifting, You Do
Very rarely will the customer ever go out of their way to do business with you.  Travelling to your store is inconvenient.  Calling your business creates anxiety.  The key to servicing the King is to do everything they expect, without having to ask, and more. 

The best thing I could think of to help you mature your CX processes is to create an inventory of questions that you can ask of your business.  While asking these questions may be difficult at first, my hope is that you’ll identify the areas of CX that have room for improvement at your Company, and use that self-awareness to rally your team and grow.

• What is your customer retention rate? Churn?
• What does your customer think of your business? How would they describe your products/services?
• What does you customer tell others about your products/services?
• How do your customers expect to be treated, and why?
• What is the expected outcome customers have when they do business with you?
• Where are all the places customers can buy from you?
• Where are all the places customers could/should come in contact with you?
• How do you service customers when they get there?
• Who, in your Company, is responsible for anticipating customer needs?
• When a customer gives you praise, how do you respond?
• What a customer has a problem or frustration, how do you respond?
• What are you currently doing that frustrates your customers?
• How do support your customers’ use of your products/services?
• Do you perform good follow-up with your customers?  If so, how?
• What channels do you use to communicate with customers? Are those their preferred channels?
• What are your response rates? How quickly do you react to customer opportunities/problems?
• Is your Company proactive, or reactionary to prospects and existing customers?
• Do you consider your customers’ connections as part of your extended customer network?
• On the “Friendly Scale” of 1-10, how would your customers rank you?
• In what ways do you deliver the unexpected to your customers?
• What is your CX vision, goals and tactics?
• How does your overall CX performance impact your sales/profitability?