Sometimes it seems that the business would be much better without customers. We could run our internal meetings smoothly, set up strategies we like and understand, decide where the funds should go… life would be so easy… no clients, no tears (to paraphrase a famous song). Of course, this scenario conveniently forgets that it is the customer who pays our bills.

There is no doubt that the customer must be at the center of any business strategy, and yet it often seems that focusing on them is an afterthought, a single paragraph in a business plan, nothing more (the famous ‘They’ and we’). ‘ strategy.)

Let’s face it, while the title of this article would make any salesperson cringe, it’s still common practice to make decisions without the customer in mind…and stay successful (but for how long?)

Thinking about the customer is not a natural function for many companies. Even many marketing departments avoid it, even though their raison d’être is to understand their customer. After all, isn’t marketing’s favorite discussion about how well they understand the customer, often better than anyone else in the company?

Unfortunately, even the relationship between ‘salespeople’ and customers is eroding and in today’s fragmented place of business, customer interaction and customer service are often managed by a branch manager, relationship manager, a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solution, or even a website or calling system. If you take a critical look at many businesses, you’ll find that many marketing decisions simply have little impact on customers.

Do you remember the 4Ps? There was a time when marketing was defined by the 4Ps (price, place, product, and promotion). In Asia, very few marketers actually manage them all, as they are decided at headquarters or by someone who has no direct responsibility for marketing.

The 4Ps are gone

The complexities of delivery, marketing to the right people, business in general, have shown time and time again that companies must strive to understand their customers beyond products and demographics, beyond the marketing department.

Interestingly, most of us as consumers have experienced cases that suggest that many companies simply don’t care much about us. And yet, we rarely carry this learning into our own businesses.

There’s an old proverb that says, ‘If you can’t smile, don’t open a shop.’ This simple warning should be enough to decide if you have what it takes to serve customers day in and day out. After all, customers are becoming more sophisticated, more aware of, and more involved with the brands they choose (and thus less and less involved with the brands they don’t).

The practice of taking care of your customers primarily revolves around three main players in the business arena: the customer, the marketer, and the business owner. Of course, there are many other stakeholders, but it is these three that drive the business.

The case of the ‘sophisticated’ client

‘We are all customers’ should be the new mantra. But are we all good customers?

It goes without saying that customers around the world have become more sophisticated. Today they have the power to compare prices, buy abroad, buy directly or online, travel more and buy more. More importantly, they know they can complain to the right person (often with less effort than going through ‘customer service’).

However, this sophistication is at a crossroads. Today, the customer can no longer assume that companies will try to take over their business. Let’s face it, we should hardly expect corporations to treat us well if we’re not ready to commit, if we’re not ready to be involved in their success.

This might mean focusing on one brand per category, for example, in return for which we might expect to be recognized as a “good” customer. We must face the fact that corporations are becoming Masters at recognizing that not all customers are the same.

When you are bombarded with irrelevant offers and other marketing messages, deciding to be a good customer is a Life strategy. If you don’t, your life could become increasingly difficult to manage.

We have the right to select a brand and ask to be treated correctly. We have the right to put all our accounts in one bank and then ask to be treated well… if we don’t, then we don’t have much to ask for in return for our lack of commitment.

Marketing tip: Understanding that the customer is only as sophisticated as he or she wants to be (no more, no less) could reduce the many marketing mistakes we make by trying to be too smart, too cute, or too funny.

The case of the ‘sophisticated’ marketer

At the same time that customers were becoming more sophisticated, so were marketers, aided in no small part by the advent of the Internet.

Marketing as a discipline has changed in the last 100 years, and not always for the better. Reading some of the oldest marketing texts from over 60 years ago, it seems like they might have been more in touch with customers than they are today. It also seems that they were more aware of their role in growing the business.

Today’s salesperson is often so sophisticated that they have lost touch with customers. Hiding behind research numbers and focus groups, the marketer often has a distorted view of what actual customer behavior really is. Behavioral analytics is very much in vogue and is an attempt to recapture that lost insight.

While fortunately not all vendors are this remote, we all need to beware of the ‘ivory tower’ syndrome and ensure that we and our team dig deep into the trenches where customers vote with their credit card.

Marketing tip: keep an open mind and constantly ask the right questions (like how can I help sales?) The consumer is the only one who can say if a marketing campaign works, everything else is opinion.

The case of the ‘sophisticated’ entrepreneur

Last but not least, the role of the business owner in customer service cannot be ignored. Although not always among them, your beliefs and business philosophy will determine whether or not a company is customer-centric. The danger is, once again, being too remote. Never treat customers like numbers, or worse yet, financial numbers. It’s that easy. If the business leader is not customer-centric, no internal strategy or training will make the company customer-centric.

From experience, it seems that how people are paid has a direct effect on a company’s customer strategy. If salespeople, for example, are paid to generate business but not to build rapport, then the customer won’t get much after-sales service. To be fair, that’s not your role in this example. Can you imagine, however, a customer who only sees a salesperson when he wants something? What are the implications in the medium and long term? Would this affect the brand of the company in general? I bet you would, and most likely negatively.

Marketing Tip: If you’re a salesperson and your most difficult customer is the General Manager, change jobs. You want to work for someone who uses the best tools available to be successful, including marketing.

Remember…

Becoming a customer-centric organization is no longer a strategic issue, it is a necessity. You have to become one. If you don’t, your competition will and your customers will follow. And while you can use all the technology you need to enable your business to be customer-centric, if your business philosophy is focused on something else, you’ll never achieve that goal.

Points to remember: – The customer must be at the center of any business strategy (easier said than done, but not impossible) – The 4Ps are gone, move on – Customers are sophisticated (and we are all customers) – The marketers are sophisticated (sometimes too sophisticated for our own good. Let’s get back to helping sales) – If the business owner doesn’t believe in marketing, you may be fighting a losing battle – And don’t forget that your sales force focuses on what they get paid, NOTHING else.

Copyright (c) 2006 Frédéric Moraillon