"Our planet Earth is at the centre of the Universe and all the stars revolve around it." No, I am not a Rip Van Winkle, just woken up from a deep slumber from the time of the Greek astronomer Ptolemy, who propounded that the Earth was at the centre of the Universe. I'm just stating what was the reality for all those who lived during that era. This changed when the Polish astronomer Copernicus came up with his theory that it was in fact the Sun at the centre, with all the planets including the Earth revolving around it; and theory became accepted reality when Galileo invented the telescope.
Why this lesson in cosmology, you may well ask when what I am writing about is customer-centricity. Well, it was what first came to mind when I looked at the changing realities of the market place, and how the customer is now treated as nothing short of a celestial being.
Before the business world became smaller, or as some management experts prefer to say, flatter, dissolving territorial boundaries, and increased competition, organizations laid all emphasis on products and product selling. The product ruled, and the customer was constrained to choose from whatever was on offer. Today, it is the customer who is at the centre, whose needs and satisfaction are borne in mind right from the stage of idea inception to production, through advertising, marketing, and after-sales. Customers are now seen to help co-create value jointly with the organization.
This reality itself is in a state of flux. Customers, exposed to the torrential rain of information on various products and services, find their aspirations and expectations constantly shifting. Understanding customer's latent needs, or unmet needs, and finding appropriate solutions is the way forward to establish competitiveness for organizations. This process is akin to looking at the multi-coloured, ever-changing patterns created by the subtle movement of a kaleidoscope. With every subtle rotation of the kaleidoscope, the patterns of the designs change. Each static point highlights a pattern which is valid for that particular moment and segment. The potential opportunities for organizations for identifying different segments and successfully catering to these, hence, are endless.
It is easy for organizations which are not in sync with these changing realities, to go out of orbit and add to the debris of unsuccessful companies in organizational space. How does one stay competitive? One way I can think of is to go back to school, and brush up on our ABCs.
A. Align the organization towards Customer Focus, and develop a means of measurement
This is familiar territory for all of us across the various companies in the Mahindra Group, where the customer is expected to be our focal point. Our focus is to enhance customer satisfaction by providing superior products and services, and by responding to the changing needs and expectations of our customers speedily, courteously and effectively. How does one measure the success of such an initiative? A concept known as CaPS (Customer As Promoter Score) was introduced about two years ago in the Mahindra Group. Its main aim is to measure the emotional connect of the customer with the organization. It seeks to measure whether the customer feels valued, important, cared for and respected. It's a very powerful and effective concept, and helps align the organization towards delivering superior value proposition to customers.
General Electric is another organization that utilizes something similar - Net Promoter Score (NPS). In fact, when Jeff Immelt took over as the Chairman and CEO of GE in 2001, he kept NPS on top of his agenda for bringing focus towards customer-centricity within the organization. CaPS or NPS measures in a simple-to-understand score, the customer's overall experience with the product or service, and with all the customer touch-points in the organization. It also provides an insight on the customer's keenness to actively "promote" the organization to friends and colleagues, thereby acting as a brand ambassador for the organization, garnering new customers. In addition, the benefits of a delighted customer likely to become a repeat customer cannot be overemphasized. The quest for imparting a memorable customer experience always has room for improvement and CaPS measures the direction of such progress.
B. Build a culture of teamwork and empowerment
To provide a memorable experience to the customer is not just the responsibility of the field force, or those in Sales. It is the collective responsibility of the entire organization. The organization needs to ensure that there is a high level of cooperation and teamwork across the various functions like Sales, Marketing, Accounts, Manufacturing, Supply Chain, etc. The inter-connectedness between these various departments makes such cooperation critical. Imagine a scenario, where a customer needs to urgently have fixed a critical machine sold by your organization that has had a break-down at night. If the machine is not fixed in time, the customer is likely to suffer huge financial losses, and even potential loss of reputation and future orders. The customer dials the toll-free Customer Service number to lodge a complaint, and finds out that there is no response. The customer then dials the Sales Officer, who initially made the sale of that machine to the customer. The Sales Officer understands the seriousness of the matter, speaks with the various people from relevant departments, and personally ensures that a Servicing team is sent out to the customer's premises to resolve the matter. Should the Customer Servicing department send their team to the customer's place for fixing the machine when there is no written approval? Would it mean non-compliance of some of the internal processes set up by the organization? Would there be a trade-off between customer satisfaction and compliance? Does the culture of the organization support such actions? The moot question is: Do organizations consciously plan to build such a culture of teamwork and empowerment to facilitate customer-centricity?
C. Communicate customer-centricity messages across the organization
Every member of the organization needs to understand the importance of customer-centricity if they are to make a meaningful contribution in executing their roles effectively. Communication, and the regularity of it, plays an instrumental role in energizing the batteries of the employees. When employees are able to see the "connect" between their individual roles and how they, in their own way, help in providing a memorable customer experience for their organizations, they tend to constantly keep putting in their best.
I've written on the ABCs of working towards customer centricity. Time and space restrict me from an in-depth analysis, but I hope I have provided a starting point for further thoughts on the subject. The D - Zs can be worked out by each one of us, so that we add our individuality to an endeavour that will surely take us zooming to new horizons.
Why this lesson in cosmology, you may well ask when what I am writing about is customer-centricity. Well, it was what first came to mind when I looked at the changing realities of the market place, and how the customer is now treated as nothing short of a celestial being.
Before the business world became smaller, or as some management experts prefer to say, flatter, dissolving territorial boundaries, and increased competition, organizations laid all emphasis on products and product selling. The product ruled, and the customer was constrained to choose from whatever was on offer. Today, it is the customer who is at the centre, whose needs and satisfaction are borne in mind right from the stage of idea inception to production, through advertising, marketing, and after-sales. Customers are now seen to help co-create value jointly with the organization.
This reality itself is in a state of flux. Customers, exposed to the torrential rain of information on various products and services, find their aspirations and expectations constantly shifting. Understanding customer's latent needs, or unmet needs, and finding appropriate solutions is the way forward to establish competitiveness for organizations. This process is akin to looking at the multi-coloured, ever-changing patterns created by the subtle movement of a kaleidoscope. With every subtle rotation of the kaleidoscope, the patterns of the designs change. Each static point highlights a pattern which is valid for that particular moment and segment. The potential opportunities for organizations for identifying different segments and successfully catering to these, hence, are endless.
It is easy for organizations which are not in sync with these changing realities, to go out of orbit and add to the debris of unsuccessful companies in organizational space. How does one stay competitive? One way I can think of is to go back to school, and brush up on our ABCs.
A. Align the organization towards Customer Focus, and develop a means of measurement
This is familiar territory for all of us across the various companies in the Mahindra Group, where the customer is expected to be our focal point. Our focus is to enhance customer satisfaction by providing superior products and services, and by responding to the changing needs and expectations of our customers speedily, courteously and effectively. How does one measure the success of such an initiative? A concept known as CaPS (Customer As Promoter Score) was introduced about two years ago in the Mahindra Group. Its main aim is to measure the emotional connect of the customer with the organization. It seeks to measure whether the customer feels valued, important, cared for and respected. It's a very powerful and effective concept, and helps align the organization towards delivering superior value proposition to customers.
General Electric is another organization that utilizes something similar - Net Promoter Score (NPS). In fact, when Jeff Immelt took over as the Chairman and CEO of GE in 2001, he kept NPS on top of his agenda for bringing focus towards customer-centricity within the organization. CaPS or NPS measures in a simple-to-understand score, the customer's overall experience with the product or service, and with all the customer touch-points in the organization. It also provides an insight on the customer's keenness to actively "promote" the organization to friends and colleagues, thereby acting as a brand ambassador for the organization, garnering new customers. In addition, the benefits of a delighted customer likely to become a repeat customer cannot be overemphasized. The quest for imparting a memorable customer experience always has room for improvement and CaPS measures the direction of such progress.
B. Build a culture of teamwork and empowerment
To provide a memorable experience to the customer is not just the responsibility of the field force, or those in Sales. It is the collective responsibility of the entire organization. The organization needs to ensure that there is a high level of cooperation and teamwork across the various functions like Sales, Marketing, Accounts, Manufacturing, Supply Chain, etc. The inter-connectedness between these various departments makes such cooperation critical. Imagine a scenario, where a customer needs to urgently have fixed a critical machine sold by your organization that has had a break-down at night. If the machine is not fixed in time, the customer is likely to suffer huge financial losses, and even potential loss of reputation and future orders. The customer dials the toll-free Customer Service number to lodge a complaint, and finds out that there is no response. The customer then dials the Sales Officer, who initially made the sale of that machine to the customer. The Sales Officer understands the seriousness of the matter, speaks with the various people from relevant departments, and personally ensures that a Servicing team is sent out to the customer's premises to resolve the matter. Should the Customer Servicing department send their team to the customer's place for fixing the machine when there is no written approval? Would it mean non-compliance of some of the internal processes set up by the organization? Would there be a trade-off between customer satisfaction and compliance? Does the culture of the organization support such actions? The moot question is: Do organizations consciously plan to build such a culture of teamwork and empowerment to facilitate customer-centricity?
C. Communicate customer-centricity messages across the organization
Every member of the organization needs to understand the importance of customer-centricity if they are to make a meaningful contribution in executing their roles effectively. Communication, and the regularity of it, plays an instrumental role in energizing the batteries of the employees. When employees are able to see the "connect" between their individual roles and how they, in their own way, help in providing a memorable customer experience for their organizations, they tend to constantly keep putting in their best.
I've written on the ABCs of working towards customer centricity. Time and space restrict me from an in-depth analysis, but I hope I have provided a starting point for further thoughts on the subject. The D - Zs can be worked out by each one of us, so that we add our individuality to an endeavour that will surely take us zooming to new horizons.
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