17. Marketing’s Secret Weapon

So far, we have discussed how to analyze and segment your existing customers and track customer information to develop effective CRM strategies. These are the basic mechanics for fostering customer loyalty and building a more profitable customer base. Customer experience and a customer-centric culture are the elements that add the magic.

A strong customer strategy requires a company culture that values customers and nurtures this philosophy among employees. It’s easy for business leaders to talk about creating a customer-focused culture, but actually doing it is a completely different matter. Companies that are customer-centric do more than put programs in place. They design a culture that values creating a rich customer experience, and strives to exceed customer satisfaction. Employees in companies like this realize that customer satisfaction is important, but it’s just the price of admission for competing in their industry. They know that exceeding satisfaction creates customer loyalty and a high-performance organization.

Many companies adopt a “customer is always first” mantra, but it’s my experience that this is wrong—it’s backwards. If you put employees first, they will always move mountains to take care of customers. It just doesn’t work the other way around. If you have ever experienced an employee who is complaining about how the company treats them poorly while trying to service you, then you know what I mean. Customers will not feel valued unless employees feel valued, too. Companies that truly value and appreciate their customers create a culture that is respectful to both customers and employees. It’s really quite simple. Employees want to please customers. The biggest reason they don’t is because they don’t feel valued or don’t understand how; therefore, how could they provide great customer experiences? Employees need to know the rules of customer engagement and what their boundaries are so they feel empowered to do the right thing for customers. It’s simply playing by the Golden Rule: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”

It may sound easy to build an employee- and customer-centric strategy, but don’t be fooled. According to a survey of CRM users, 87 percent of those surveyed said the failure of their programs was largely due to the lack of adequate change management. Even though there was a desire to be customer focused, the culture did not support the strategy. If customer strategy is not crystal clear and integrated into company values, culture, and daily processes, even the best of intentions will be disappointing.

A company’s ability to foster customer loyalty is closely linked to the company purpose and culture. When a company has a strong foundation of values and principles, and has processes in place to nurture them, executives and employees can naturally do the right things to stimulate customer loyalty. If you did a good job of defining your company purpose in Section I, “Purpose,” you have taken a huge leap in the right direction.

Another great lesson about creating a customer-and employee-centric culture can be learned from The Ritz-Carlton. In Chapter 6, “How The Ritz-Carlon Creates and Sustains a High-Performance Culture,” I described how all new employees at The Ritz-Carlton are required to attend training prior to ever setting foot on the job. There is strict adherence to this rule because the company realizes that they are in the business of creating unique customer experiences. In order to do this, employees must understand the company values, principles, and what it means to “anticipate and respond to a customer’s unexpressed wishes.” This is very hard to do in a service environment where every customer service moment is unique.

A company can only teach employees what their values mean, provide them with examples, and clearly state what their boundaries are to meet this goal. To this last point, The Ritz-Carlton’s employees are allowed to spend up to $2,000 a day to make sure a customer is satisfied. Employees rarely tap into this fund because they know they have a high degree of flexibility and creativity to make customers happy—and happiness is not usually tied to money.

Company culture is the secret weapon of good marketing. A talented marketer can create brilliant marketing programs, but if the underlying culture can’t support it, even the best programs will fall short.

The following is a list of a few rules of the road to keep in mind as you design a company culture linked to customer strategy.

Tips to Create a Customer-Centric Culture

1. Company culture starts at the top. If the CEO or senior leadership team does not value culture, you have quite the battle in front of you. If you are a marketing executive in a company with a problematic culture, focus on the things you can do to help your company move toward building a customer-centric culture.

2. A powerful external brand begins with a strong internal brand:

• Is there regular, ongoing communication across the organization so people understand the company strategy, goals, and how their daily work contributes to this?

• Do people understand the company purpose, mission, vision, and values?

• Are values defined and communicated often so people understand what types of behaviors are associated with the values?

3. Educate and train employees to do the following things:

• Treat different customers differently. To do this, they will need to understand who your best customers are, as well as understand the criteria and rational for customer segmentation. Share the outcomes of the A, B, C, D exercise.

• Handle difficult customer situations. If employees are trained and armed with ideas and examples about how to handle a variety of customer situations, they will be much more relaxed and feel more capable to respond.

• Set broad boundaries. Give people the latitude to solve customer problems. If they understand what the boundaries are, you can leave it to them to be creative and do the right thing for customers.

4. Invest in training for new employees, especially in areas like company culture and values. This will set them up for long-term success.

5. Provide feedback mechanisms so that front-line employees can easily communicate customer needs to the rest of the organization. Feedback should not be limited to only the marketing and sales departments, but should be shared throughout the organization so everyone can learn, interact, and respond to customer feedback.

6. Reward employees who provide outstanding customer service. Not only will you retain your best employees, you will set an example for others in the company.