Innovative Solutions

Customer Loyalty

No business exists without the customer. In today's globally-interconnected, high-tech world, where a customer can switch loyalty at the click of a mouse or flick of an index finger, creating and maintaining loyal customers is easier said than done.

As a leader, how do you truly engage employees so that their "DNA is as a consumer company -- for that individual customer who's voting thumbs up or thumbs down?" as Steve Jobs puts it. How do you create a belief that "our job is to take responsibility for the complete user experience. And if it's not up to par, it's our fault, plain and simply?"

To be able to put the customer first, you need more than a slogan. Talk is cheap. A lot of CEOs chant the “customer-first” mantra, but not very many in recent memory have believed in it so wholeheartedly and executed on it with such ferocity as Steve Jobs and Apple have. Very few companies put their money where their mouth is. They don’t invest in truly understanding and measuring customer relationships and perceptions and the employees who fulfill the promise every day.

Steve Jobs in a refreshingly honest, thoughtful, and profound answer in a must-watch 1997 video to a rather blunt, in-your-face question, says: “You have got to start with the customer experience and work backwards to the technology. You can’t start with the technology and try to figure out where you are going to try to sell it." He adds: "And as we have tried to come up with a strategy and a vision for Apple, it started with what incredible benefits can we give to the customer. Where can we take the customer?”

Little wonder then that Interbrand anointed Apple as the most valuable global brand saying, "Every so often, a company changes our lives, not just with its products, but also with its ethos. Few brands have enabled so many people to do so much so easily, which is why Apple has legions of adoring fans..."

Selected Success Stories

Many companies take comfort in some generic customer satisfaction survey results. Then after making the survey results a part of the incentive structure, they mistakenly believe that their job is done. They will even measure the NPS (Net Promoter Score), but conveniently forget that closing the loop is a central element of the Net Promoter System. When we get involved, however, we don't just hear the customer feedback, we bring the customer’s voice right inside the organization.

Case Study I

The Challenge:

After the loss of a major, global account panic alarm went off in this client's organization: "If we can lose this account with millions of dollars of annual revenues, who could be next?" We were retained to spearhead a project to identify and retain at-risk franchise clients.

Our Action:

We created a methodology to assess risk. We collected quantitative and qualitative data to identify the highest at-risk accounts among the Fortune 500 customers. We conducted in-person relationship reviews with key decision-makers. These interviews tested for emotional connections by asking open-ended questions covering the holistic relationship. And we debriefed the account management team with our findings, recommendations, and plans of action.

The Result:

The participation rate was over 90% resulting in very specific, customized plan of action for each at-risk account. The project generated significant goodwill. The recommendations became the catalyst to transform an internally-focused culture and achieve 100% customer retention targets.

Case Study II

The Challenge:

A 24x7, global customer service organization wanted to improve its Top-2 Box customer satisfaction score of 80-81%. There was no focus on customer satisfaction in an environment characterized by anxious, unforgiving callers, highly volatile and unpredictable call volumes with peaks at nights and weekends, chronic understaffing and high overtime, and a high-complexity operational structure.

Our Action:

Through a detailed market-level data analysis, interviews, and individual and team calls we identified several specific interventions in staffing, compensation, training, and resolved various process obstacles and technical issues. Most importantly, we focused on communication and employee engagement at all levels while building a compelling business case for customer satisfaction thereby improving the quantity and quality of call monitoring and creating an internal culture of accountability.

The Result:

The global customer satisfaction scores jumped to 84%, reaching the aspirational goal of 85%. In certain markets such as Canada, the improvement was even more dramatic with a 13 percentage points improvement over the lows reached just a few months ago. It was estimated that by reducing call abandon rates and improving the call quality, there was a positive impact to 40,000 emergency calls from global callers.

Publications:

Our customer satisfaction and loyalty related articles have been published in reputed publications as follows:

From training to performance: A case study (Performance Improvement Journal; Wiley)
Putting clients first (CEO Refresher)
A twelve-step program for alienating your clients (Top-Consultant - UK)
Inside the mind of the loyal client (The Wise Marketer)
Getting inside clients' heads (Rain Today)

Media Interviews

Journalists and reporters frequently ask us to share our views on today's customer satisfaction and loyalty related challenges:

How do you know what your clients want (The Leading Edge)
The Likeability Factor: Corporate Personality Matters! - Part 2 of 3 (ACORD)
Listening Exercise (Counselor magazine)
The Likeability Factor: Corporate Personality Matters! - Part 3 of 3 (ACORD)