December 18, 2006
Experience Breeds Devotion
Consumers rate some products as great. They give companies such as Harley-Davidson are Starbucks even higher grades. They are products consumers cannot see themselves doing without, according to a report in Pepper and Rogers’ 1to1 Weekly.
That was the message of Chip Bell, author of the Knock Your Socks Off book series, who delivered the keynote address at the North American Conference on Customer Management (NACCM).
“People are not devoted to products, they’re devoted to an experience,” he said.
According to Mr. Bell, there are seven steps that companies can take to create devoted customers.
Engagement
Companies need to listen to customers and make clear they are valued. “Customers judge you on what they think ought to happen, not on what you’ve ‘trained’ them to anticipate,” he said.
Enlistment
“Companies should beg for feedback and celebrate it like the gift that it is,” Mr. Bell said. “We can become ‘blind’ to the details of our customer experience unless we listen to what customers tell us.”
Enlightenment
“Customers are devoted to companies that help them learn and make them smarter,” he said.
Empowerment
“Unpredictability drives us (consumers) nuts. Every associate must be clear on the signature experience their company wants to create.” At Disney, Mr. Bell pointed out, parking lot attendants and shuttle drivers tell customers the name of their parking area three times to make very sure they remember where they parked.
Enchantment
“Companies need to personalize the experience in a way that surprises customers,” said Mr. Bell.
Entrustment
“All trust begins with a leap of faith. If you trust customers first they will respond to you in kind,” he said. “Service recovery is about managing betrayal,” he said. “It’s not about fixing the problem only, it’s about how you communicate empathy.”
Endearment
This is all about how we bring energy to the job and how we celebrate our customers,” he said. “Customers like dealing with employees who are committed, but they love dealing with employees who are passionate.”
Discussion Questions: What are your views on what it takes to create devoted customers? What companies, inside or out of retailing, best exemplify your
view?
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I love low-end stores that offer surprisingly good service and high-end stores that treat every customer like gold. In the former category, oddly enough, are various associates at Wal-Mart stores. Many take complete ownership of their departments and they love learning, sharing what they know, and facilitating sales. If only Wal-Mart could find a meaningful way to incentivize and reward these folks and replicate their success. In the latter category, Barney’s comes to mind. Such a fantastically opulent environment, filled with tastefully-selected pieces presented by fabulous-looking NICE people who love what they do. My how time flies at Barney’s! In the middle and consistent as can be is Sephora. They do whatever it takes to ensure that well-trained, enthusiastic associates greet you, help you, check out your purchases, then bid you a fond farewell. No touchpoint is ignored and it’s the same whether at South Coast Plaza, SOHO or Pinnacle Hills right here in Bentonville!
Chip Ball’s list of seven ‘E’s is precisely what retailers and consumer brands alike portend to aspire to yet all too often these simply become buzz words without direction. The Harley Davidson brand and the experience it represents has taken years of hard work to define and, to their credit, it was the employees who bought Harley Davidson that became stewards of that brand through hard work and passion.
There is a local sport shop, Gear West, that caters to Nordic skiers that is developing and nurturing Chip’s seven ‘E’s. And they are reaching beyond the local scene and catering to a national audience. The products they represent can certainly be purchased online from anyone, yet these folks live and breathe this sport and their passion becomes infectious. (Even passion can’t get me to pay $130 for 2 grams of wax! Yet my son still tries!)
It takes time and tremendous focus to nurture these experiences and moments for brands to dissolve, as noted with Craftsmen and Lands’ End.
I suspect there are C-level executives who understand this but the culture of Wall Street may curtail the commitment needed to develop these trusted customer relationships because of the reward for short term gains – this at the expense of developing trusted relationships through the seven ‘E’s.
Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers. Encredible. Enstructional. Enbelievable.
Yet another list, made ever so much more precious with headings that look like they were born in the same litter. What’s suspicious about this device, of course, is if a relevant topic cannot be listed with the others because of a spelling challenge, is it not encluded?
With customers, you’ve just got to love and respect ’em. I respond to thirty or more customer service emails daily from current and potential customers. Because of the nature of this particular business (high cost and nervous female customers), lots of written reassurance is required. Fortunately, facial expression, verbal tone, and body language are eliminated from email exchanges, reducing the chance of misinterpretation. But love and respect must nevertheless be made clear. Over half of our customers are outside the country and/or speak a foreign language, so extra effort must be devoted to communicating how much we care about them. It works.
I certainly hope the author is not suggesting that these are in sequence, as highly rigid hierarchical approaches are simply wrong in a “blink” society. The different concepts are pleasing enough, however, and are all the right things to shoot for.
One thing to keep in mind — product (and service) quality is a poor predictor of PERCEIVED product and service superiority. Consider iPod and Dyson vacuum cleaners — they are not superior in functional performance according to testing agencies but they certainly are perceived that way by owners. The goal is not functional superiority but to create a high degree of engagement with customers and then deliver on the promise — not OVER-deliver; but don’t disappoint either.
eBay is one of the best-loved retailers around. People love to give feedback and they love to receive it. They like to see their votes recorded. No other major retailer has caught onto this. For most retailers, think of the bravery it would take to request feedback from everyone and then publish it immediately. It would be worthwhile if the feedback helped inspire performance competition internally, assuming the top performers were rewarded. Some fast food chains, such as Burger King, offer free coupons for people who call their toll-free evaluation phone numbers. But only eBay publishes the results for all to see. And their profit is over a billion dollars annually. Maybe it pays to be brave.
Chip Bell does a great job of summarizing what should be our Golden Rules for appealing to the empowered consumer walking our stores today. However, as much as we are hearing this kind of talk, we’re not seeing enough retailers walking rather than talking. We have had many discussions on why this is…internal mindsets, conflicting agendas, media-driven mentalities…you name it. But whatever the reason, many I speak to (and work with) feel that it’s time to get serious as an industry about focusing on our customers. And the C-level chiefs are going to have to embrace this and hold their teams accountable to it for it to happen.
Who’s doing it well? Google has certainly set the bar. They openly state that “we provide people the information that they want and then figure out how to make money.” No, they aren’t retailers…but they have shown us that people commit to those that commit to them. It’s really pretty simple. They are also excellent at mining their consumers on “what do you want next?”– putting it out there in a timely manner and evolving it based on product feedback posts.
Just imagine if every major retailer asked their customers what they wanted, activated the top requests quickly, secured feedback to evolve the ideas for field roll-out and committed to continue this loop into the future?
Once again, this seems pretty simple. It’s the attitudes and power issues around this approach that make it complex.
These are wonderful ideas. W. Edwards Deming began promoting these ideas in 1952, and for the last 25 years, there seems now to be a chorus of hundreds of voices saying the same things. How well are we reaching the retail world with this message? Ninety-six percent of all retail organizations meet 70% of their customers’ expectations or less — that is not a positive statistic. Something is wrong here.
We note that retail does the same things it has “always” done but expects different results. Aren’t we (consultants, industry analysts and watchers, former retail executives) doing the same thing?
Our data shows that retail executives as a whole:
– Believe that their own organizations have higher customer service levels than their customers say they do.
– Believe that their customer service improvement efforts are more effective than they really are.
– Believe that customer service does not matter as much as industry watchers say it does.
– Do not pay attention or give credibility to industry watchers who say that retail needs to get a lot better at customer service.
Ninety-six percent of executives will make no significant change in their organizations or their own areas of responsibilities if:
– The information is general (relevant to many organizations and not only theirs);
– The information is delivered by someone they don’t know and trust; or
– The information is not presented in a way that monitors and adjusts for defensive responses.
We say the same things to retail in the same ways and in the same formats and venues, and then we expect that somehow, after years of making little progress, that we will suddenly have a big impact and retail will change dramatically. Unfortunately, the data seems to say that books, articles, speeches, workshops, presentations, and almost any other kind of one-way communication and data analysis cannot help organizations.
Chip Bell’s comments are of course on target. However, I believe there is one undeniable “pinchpoint” in the customer relationship. Do you care for me after you have to? In more traditional parlance — service after the sale.
This is make-or-break time in any significant customer relationship. It is also why companies like L.L.Bean, Orvis, Filson’s, Cabela’s and Country Home Products are trusted friends to many — and why Craftsman and Land’s End once were. It is what GM is trying to establish with “Mr. Goodwrench” and what Hyundai has established with its 10 year, 100,000 mile warranty pledge.
If only…
Mr. Bell’s theory is interesting and potentially helpful but I have to wonder how many companies would agree enough to practice what he preaches. The problem, as always, lies with trying to generalise too much. Perceptions of quality, service, price and value are very subjective. What one customer may like, another may find irritating or insufficient, too much or too little. If one customer asks for something or makes a particular suggestion, following through doesn’t necessarily please lots of other customers. There has to be some degree of discretion involved and an instinct about where to draw the line. Having that instinct is rare and hard to learn but something for which most companies, retail or not, should strive.
I’d really like to add something to such a great conversation. However, Mr. Cowgill said just about all that need be said.
The amazing thing is, as is pointed out, all of the teaching and information is out there. Sadly, it’s rarely used. Also, due to the marketplace being so broad and open, the majority of retailers really don’t have to use it. Consumers, while unhappy, generally continue to open their wallets. Unpunished, poor retailers hang around regardless of their behavior.
I think the list is good, but what is missing, especially to get the devotion of the younger generation, is you must have a cool quotient. It seems this age group is very image conscious and while it doesn’t necessarily have to be an expensive brand (think Hello Kitty – who would think stars in their 20’s would be devoted?) it does need to have that certain “Je ne sais quoi” that makes it hip.
Last week my favorite XM radio station introduced a new tagline, “we love you, we’re not ‘in love’ with you. I thought that was an interesting difference that keeps ringing in my head. Maybe that is how we should be thinking about customers, if we could figure out what it means. As several correspondents have noted R-E-S-P-E-C-T is probably the greatest emotion (gosh there is another of those ‘E’ words) that a retailer can offer a customer. And I think that is what ‘We love you’ means. Treating the person standing in front of the sales counter or checkstand, the same as the person standing behind it would want to be treated. I think that the list of e words all have meaning, I just wouldn’t have worked so hard to make them so similar.
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I love low-end stores that offer surprisingly good service and high-end stores that treat every customer like gold. In the former category, oddly enough, are various associates at Wal-Mart stores. Many take complete ownership of their departments and they love learning, sharing what they know, and facilitating sales. If only Wal-Mart could find a meaningful way to incentivize and reward these folks and replicate their success. In the latter category, Barney’s comes to mind. Such a fantastically opulent environment, filled with tastefully-selected pieces presented by fabulous-looking NICE people who love what they do. My how time flies at Barney’s! In the middle and consistent as can be is Sephora. They do whatever it takes to ensure that well-trained, enthusiastic associates greet you, help you, check out your purchases, then bid you a fond farewell. No touchpoint is ignored and it’s the same whether at South Coast Plaza, SOHO or Pinnacle Hills right here in Bentonville!
Chip Ball’s list of seven ‘E’s is precisely what retailers and consumer brands alike portend to aspire to yet all too often these simply become buzz words without direction. The Harley Davidson brand and the experience it represents has taken years of hard work to define and, to their credit, it was the employees who bought Harley Davidson that became stewards of that brand through hard work and passion.
There is a local sport shop, Gear West, that caters to Nordic skiers that is developing and nurturing Chip’s seven ‘E’s. And they are reaching beyond the local scene and catering to a national audience. The products they represent can certainly be purchased online from anyone, yet these folks live and breathe this sport and their passion becomes infectious. (Even passion can’t get me to pay $130 for 2 grams of wax! Yet my son still tries!)
It takes time and tremendous focus to nurture these experiences and moments for brands to dissolve, as noted with Craftsmen and Lands’ End.
I suspect there are C-level executives who understand this but the culture of Wall Street may curtail the commitment needed to develop these trusted customer relationships because of the reward for short term gains – this at the expense of developing trusted relationships through the seven ‘E’s.
Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers. Encredible. Enstructional. Enbelievable.
Yet another list, made ever so much more precious with headings that look like they were born in the same litter. What’s suspicious about this device, of course, is if a relevant topic cannot be listed with the others because of a spelling challenge, is it not encluded?
With customers, you’ve just got to love and respect ’em. I respond to thirty or more customer service emails daily from current and potential customers. Because of the nature of this particular business (high cost and nervous female customers), lots of written reassurance is required. Fortunately, facial expression, verbal tone, and body language are eliminated from email exchanges, reducing the chance of misinterpretation. But love and respect must nevertheless be made clear. Over half of our customers are outside the country and/or speak a foreign language, so extra effort must be devoted to communicating how much we care about them. It works.
I certainly hope the author is not suggesting that these are in sequence, as highly rigid hierarchical approaches are simply wrong in a “blink” society. The different concepts are pleasing enough, however, and are all the right things to shoot for.
One thing to keep in mind — product (and service) quality is a poor predictor of PERCEIVED product and service superiority. Consider iPod and Dyson vacuum cleaners — they are not superior in functional performance according to testing agencies but they certainly are perceived that way by owners. The goal is not functional superiority but to create a high degree of engagement with customers and then deliver on the promise — not OVER-deliver; but don’t disappoint either.
eBay is one of the best-loved retailers around. People love to give feedback and they love to receive it. They like to see their votes recorded. No other major retailer has caught onto this. For most retailers, think of the bravery it would take to request feedback from everyone and then publish it immediately. It would be worthwhile if the feedback helped inspire performance competition internally, assuming the top performers were rewarded. Some fast food chains, such as Burger King, offer free coupons for people who call their toll-free evaluation phone numbers. But only eBay publishes the results for all to see. And their profit is over a billion dollars annually. Maybe it pays to be brave.
Chip Bell does a great job of summarizing what should be our Golden Rules for appealing to the empowered consumer walking our stores today. However, as much as we are hearing this kind of talk, we’re not seeing enough retailers walking rather than talking. We have had many discussions on why this is…internal mindsets, conflicting agendas, media-driven mentalities…you name it. But whatever the reason, many I speak to (and work with) feel that it’s time to get serious as an industry about focusing on our customers. And the C-level chiefs are going to have to embrace this and hold their teams accountable to it for it to happen.
Who’s doing it well? Google has certainly set the bar. They openly state that “we provide people the information that they want and then figure out how to make money.” No, they aren’t retailers…but they have shown us that people commit to those that commit to them. It’s really pretty simple. They are also excellent at mining their consumers on “what do you want next?”– putting it out there in a timely manner and evolving it based on product feedback posts.
Just imagine if every major retailer asked their customers what they wanted, activated the top requests quickly, secured feedback to evolve the ideas for field roll-out and committed to continue this loop into the future?
Once again, this seems pretty simple. It’s the attitudes and power issues around this approach that make it complex.
These are wonderful ideas. W. Edwards Deming began promoting these ideas in 1952, and for the last 25 years, there seems now to be a chorus of hundreds of voices saying the same things. How well are we reaching the retail world with this message? Ninety-six percent of all retail organizations meet 70% of their customers’ expectations or less — that is not a positive statistic. Something is wrong here.
We note that retail does the same things it has “always” done but expects different results. Aren’t we (consultants, industry analysts and watchers, former retail executives) doing the same thing?
Our data shows that retail executives as a whole:
– Believe that their own organizations have higher customer service levels than their customers say they do.
– Believe that their customer service improvement efforts are more effective than they really are.
– Believe that customer service does not matter as much as industry watchers say it does.
– Do not pay attention or give credibility to industry watchers who say that retail needs to get a lot better at customer service.
Ninety-six percent of executives will make no significant change in their organizations or their own areas of responsibilities if:
– The information is general (relevant to many organizations and not only theirs);
– The information is delivered by someone they don’t know and trust; or
– The information is not presented in a way that monitors and adjusts for defensive responses.
We say the same things to retail in the same ways and in the same formats and venues, and then we expect that somehow, after years of making little progress, that we will suddenly have a big impact and retail will change dramatically. Unfortunately, the data seems to say that books, articles, speeches, workshops, presentations, and almost any other kind of one-way communication and data analysis cannot help organizations.
Chip Bell’s comments are of course on target. However, I believe there is one undeniable “pinchpoint” in the customer relationship. Do you care for me after you have to? In more traditional parlance — service after the sale.
This is make-or-break time in any significant customer relationship. It is also why companies like L.L.Bean, Orvis, Filson’s, Cabela’s and Country Home Products are trusted friends to many — and why Craftsman and Land’s End once were. It is what GM is trying to establish with “Mr. Goodwrench” and what Hyundai has established with its 10 year, 100,000 mile warranty pledge.
If only…
Mr. Bell’s theory is interesting and potentially helpful but I have to wonder how many companies would agree enough to practice what he preaches. The problem, as always, lies with trying to generalise too much. Perceptions of quality, service, price and value are very subjective. What one customer may like, another may find irritating or insufficient, too much or too little. If one customer asks for something or makes a particular suggestion, following through doesn’t necessarily please lots of other customers. There has to be some degree of discretion involved and an instinct about where to draw the line. Having that instinct is rare and hard to learn but something for which most companies, retail or not, should strive.
I’d really like to add something to such a great conversation. However, Mr. Cowgill said just about all that need be said.
The amazing thing is, as is pointed out, all of the teaching and information is out there. Sadly, it’s rarely used. Also, due to the marketplace being so broad and open, the majority of retailers really don’t have to use it. Consumers, while unhappy, generally continue to open their wallets. Unpunished, poor retailers hang around regardless of their behavior.
I think the list is good, but what is missing, especially to get the devotion of the younger generation, is you must have a cool quotient. It seems this age group is very image conscious and while it doesn’t necessarily have to be an expensive brand (think Hello Kitty – who would think stars in their 20’s would be devoted?) it does need to have that certain “Je ne sais quoi” that makes it hip.
Last week my favorite XM radio station introduced a new tagline, “we love you, we’re not ‘in love’ with you. I thought that was an interesting difference that keeps ringing in my head. Maybe that is how we should be thinking about customers, if we could figure out what it means. As several correspondents have noted R-E-S-P-E-C-T is probably the greatest emotion (gosh there is another of those ‘E’ words) that a retailer can offer a customer. And I think that is what ‘We love you’ means. Treating the person standing in front of the sales counter or checkstand, the same as the person standing behind it would want to be treated. I think that the list of e words all have meaning, I just wouldn’t have worked so hard to make them so similar.