Customer Value at the Core of Your Business

Eight books and about 10 years ago we learned that customer value is the simple core of any company, according to Don Peppers and Martha Rogers, Ph.D.  Their most recent book, Rules to Break and Laws to Follow, even has it's own website and invites you into the conversation about the importance of balancing the priority of developing customer trust, even though your business wants more access to private information about your customers and their behavior and attitudes.

The "laws to follow" are imperatives, not suggestions.  They are requirements that must be met if any business wants to succeed over the long term, beyond the current financial period. There are 12 laws which yield to a sorting into four groups:

1. Customer value
2. Trust
3. Workplace culture
4. Balancing short-and long-term objectives

These laws help us face the daily challenges and show us what matters and what doesn't matter.

Isn't that all we wanted, anyway?  Great customers and a simple plan for a complex world?

What all of this has to do with my customer base--national associations, certification organizations and professional services businesses will be explained, in person, as Martha Rogers chats it up with the association executives in the Chicago area at the Association Forum of Chicagoland's  Annual meeting June 17th.

I'll be there and you might want to start making some plans to get thee to what will be a memorable and action-biased conversation about trust, social networking, innovation, empowered customers and networked employees.

Having a Tough Year At the Office? Help is Here.

We used to love that opening question, "So, how's business?"  These days, you might not like the answer.  There's not as much to brag about when customers are cutting the one area they think they can sacrifice--marketing.

When business slows you have two choices:  Use all that newly opened time, where billable hours used to be, to take a vacation and come up with fresh ideas for customer attraction.  The other option is to find some people doing well--making money like there's no recession, and listen to their advice.

Just when things looked the worse (before the government checks to boost the economy arrive in May), here comes the Microsoft Small Business Summit 2008 for an entire week of help and practical ideas.  Here's a few great points to act on:

• Four days of great presentations and practical help, starting  Monday morning, March 24th at 9 a.m. Pacific/12 p.m. Eastern.
• Four hours of presentations each day, one hour each.
• No charge.   You just have to register at the Microsoft Small Business Summit website.  While there, look at the line up of speakers and business coaches who will be speaking every hour.  Three or more speakers for each hour that the summit comes streaming to you through your web browser and speakers for your computer.
• John Jantsch is the kickoff speaker at 9 a.m. Monday (Pacific) presenting Duct Tape Marketing (simple, effective and affordable) and you also have the choice of hearing Andrea Lake present "Fearless Marketing" and Brian Kane present The "Word" on Marketing.

Personally, this will be a great adventure.  Call it the BlackBerry convention.  I will be on the go and in meetings most of those four days (taking care of customers) and my BlackBerry and blue tooth earpiece go with me.  I registered, studied the speakers/sessions possible each hour,  and can dial in and view the browser at the same time.  Because you can multitask and tune in to multiple presentations with multiple browsers, this means we can hear more of the presentations that we first thought possible. 

There's some other great reasons to experience as much of the Small Business Summit as you can.  If you had to pay a registration fee for this caliber of program, you'd probably be in the $850 range.  Extra benefits include the fact there is not exhibit hall in a massive concrete building that kills your arches and back after walking the aisles for several hours each day. This summit does not require the cost of airfare, hotel rooms, food and ground transportation.

What If You Need Hands-On Help and More Than a Presentation?

If you still want to do the in-person conference experience, which includes the added value of meeting people, networking and getting away from the normal office routine, we found another meeting for you on April 21-22 in the Houston, Texas area.  It's the first ever Small Business Marketing Unleashed Conference and the registration fee is $850.

This one might appeal to you just on the merits of their promotion copy.  If they can get your attention, then they can show you how to do the same for your prospects and customers.   Search Engine Guide and Small Business Brief are the sponsors and gave it a catchy title: A Different Kind of Marketing Conference. Real Ideas for Real Budgets.

Customer Champions 2007

How do you create that championship feeling every day, for every employee and every customer?

Our friends over at 1to1 Magazine just produced our favorite issue of the whole year--the one that honors 15 executives whose commitment to customers delivers bottom-line impact: Geoff Brock, Canadian Tire Financial Services;Bill Crutchfield, Crutchfield;Jason Ward, JetBlue;Joey Schultz, AT&T;Nick Gledich, Orange County Public Schools;Dan Thorpe, Wachovia;Kirby Drysen, Cisco;Bill Burris, Lexus;Jonathan Tisch, Loews Hotels;Mark Ballard, Ann Taylor;Jane Judd, Zappos;Art Hall, Netbank;Moya Greene, Canada Post;Laree Daniel, Assurant Health;and Stephan Chase, Marriott.

This is from the same great thought leaders who brought you Return on Customer--the ultimate reality check for your business.

The 1to1 Customer Champions spotlights executives whose time and energy is spent understanding customer needs and expectations, communicating them to employees at all levels, and helping to align how their organizations meet customer requirements with the overall business strategy.

In addition to fine tuning your own customership mantra, there's tons of practical information on where profits really come from in the stories of each Customer Champion.  The advice regarding your corporate culture why you should care is spot on: "Your corporate culture is the most important aspect of your company, really—it amounts to nothing less than your corporate character. And if you don't think everyone from the CEO down to the mail clerk helps to forge that, you're kidding yourself."

Happy Easter.  May this be a time of rest, renewal and rethinking your relationships at every level.

A Wowser of a Year, So Far

We felt the ground shake a little there at the end of 2006 and knew something really big was going to come this way.  It turned out to be one direct hit after the next and that makes Q1 of 2007 the most memorable, phenomenal period in our business and personal lives--ever. 

It's been a wowser of a year, so far, and it's time to climb back up in the blogging saddle and ride out the rest of this year, with you, our loyal customers and blog fans.  The great news is I have enough great information and stories to feed this Customers Count blog for some time.  Here's the top lines of what's going on and what you can look forward to.

1. Business is booming and the talent is terrific. It's not just professional football owners who scout the college talent for their first round draft picks--my company does the same thing.  We looked for a super achiever in communications practices and performance and found it in our newest member of the firm.  Because of blogging, UTube, social media, and all of the essentials communications consulting in the future, we now have a 20-something consultant who won the hearts and minds of all of our clients before we got to the end of January.  Most importantly--the customers are especially thrilled. 

2. The book--it's a big hit. Duct Tape Marketing was officially released on January 9th and that put our whole world on fast forward. We knew there would be a feeding frenzy the minute it came out and we have been delightfully swamped with the success, buzz and additional business coming this way because of the book.  We bought 100 copies to give away to 100 CEO's and marketing leaders who are our loyal customers and best referrals.  We have 100 great stories and that's another reason to stick this blog in your RSS feeder.  Come back often. You'll love theses stories. Okay, here's my favorite.  One recipient of a Duct Tape Marketing book is a super sharp consultant who is a Wharton MBA graduate.  She said, "Every time I read a business book I want to slap the author because they insult me or mislead the reader.  This Duct Tape Marketing is the first business book I've read where I didn't want to slap the author. It's good.  Really good."

3. Life gets in the way of blogging. We know the rules.  If you are on the Duct Tape Marketing blog team, you have to act like a #1 Blog author and that means posting several times a week.  My dad went into the emergency room of a hospital in January, ended up in the Intensive Care Unit and he died within 10 days. Intellectually, you know that everyone will die.  Emotionally, you don't think it's your turn. Not this month.   But it is.  The aftermath of it all takes months of appointments, decisions and paperwork.

4. Getting back on the blog. There are some bloggers who you should read anyway.  If you ever need a shot of inspiration or motivation to write good blogs, all the time, see if these do it for you (in addition to the whole Duct Tape Marketing Channels blog):

• Social Customer Manifesto

• Network Centric Advocacy - Advocacy strategy for the age of connectivity.

• Media Guerrilla

What makes them worth your time (which you will never get back)? They are interesting,frequent, and useful. They give you something every week that helps you find customers, connect with customers or increase value for your customers.

5. Learning to Live. When business and life is super intense every day, you discover the absolute necessity for taking time to recharge your battery.  For years we've heard how important this was and we just thought that was for those who are already wealthy or have too many customers.  Because of the extreme intensity of 2007 so far, we also learned about the ways to decompress and handle that stress.  It really is a killer and it will rob you of years of life, if unchecked.

There isn't a business person reading this who doesn't have a stressful job. Customers, no matter how much you like them, have a way of changing their minds, going outside of the scope of work and expecting more for less.  This can drain you and make you less than cheerful and generous with another customer or prospective customer.

Here are some proven strategies that will help you stay where you prefer to be--on top of things.

1. Laughter. A lot of laughter, with friends, for at least 15 minutes over something really funny will make you feel great.
2. Music. Go for the music you love--the kind that makes you move your whole body.
3. Exercise. If nothing more than a fast walk outside for 15 minutes, exercise is a key to staying emotionally balanced and positively charged.
4. Recreational reading.  This is not the book you think you should read--go for the one you think is totally stupid or diversionary.  It will help you decompress and stimulate parts of the mind you thought were deep fried with burnout.
5. Special time with family or friends. Don't assume they will always be there. Do something that shows them how much you count on them, caring about you.
6. A special place or special activity. These always feel like guilt, such as four hours playing golf or a weekend getaway instead of working constantly.  This is what you really need the most.
7. Extra sleep. This is what renews and restores you, so why are we all cutting into our sleep time to check off five more items on our super hot priority list?
8. Massage. My husband, who has to have a massage every week for a medical condition, introduced me to the health-promoting aspects of this.  See item #6.  This feels like luxury at first.  Then you realize it is one of those things you'd better do, like dental hygiene, if you want to stay well.

Taking care of yourself if the same as taking care of your customers.

Who is telling your story? You or your customers?

While you were snuggled in for a long winter's nap last week, the Customer Counts Commando Unit was actively seeking evidence of businesses that Walk the Talk of "customer centric."  Before telling you about a great find, let's clear the air of senseless jargon.   

Customer centric does not mean, "Sure, we love customers, as long as they don't cause problems."  It means you organize your thinking, your business model and your "org chart" with different sizes of blobs (not pretty circles or squares) representing different portfolios of customers.  It means the one in the company with the biggest check and perks is the one with the highest customer scores, in every way that the company can possible measure customers who count the most.   

Essentially, it's easy to toss jargon around but what impresses us are the customer scores for your business and the people who delight your customers. 

We found a company who presents what they do in terms and words that come from their customers.  I found them while reading a book at Christmas.  The book was so great and immediately valuable for the customers of my customer-creation consulting business that I wondered, "Who publishes great books like these?"  I guess they anticipated such an question because on the last page, I found the story of the publisher, Berrett-Koehler.

It was exciting and well written.  It made me go further and look at their story on their website.   First of all, I was inspired by the story.  Next, I thought--every business that says they are customer centric ought to have a website that reads and looks like this.  It sure makes one want to go talk to some more customers and redo some pages on your own website.   I'm already all over this with my web team.

From the Berrett-Koehler story:  "Just as our publications are redefining the boundaries of business literature, we are also "opening up new space" in the design and operation of our company.  Our aim has been to create a new kind of publishing business based on partnership with our authors, suppliers and subcontractors, employees,  customers and societal and environmental communities."  It goes on with more great content.   Visit their site, read their books and notice the way they walk that customer centric talk.

Thought Leadership & Customers

When did thought leadership become a popular topic?   This is not a trick question.  If you have THE answer, please drop right down to the bottom of this post and send your comment right back this way.

The marketing advice and business success blogs, plus customer-focused newsletters that fill our inbox every day seem to have a lot on thought leadership these days.  Can this be the silver bullet or instant-success answer to high-impact, low-cost marketing that many actively seek?

Before blogging and before the Internet had the first browser, there were thought leaders walking around our marketing firm.  We know how very cool, powerful and rare they are.  We never realized how fast their value would rise, here in 2006.  Blogging and all of this open discussion seems to bring out the greater need for original thoughts.  In a world where everyone cuts, copies, pastes and searches through Google for information, the blogs with original thoughts seem to grow quickly. 

Did you notice that most of this thought leader talk has something to do with attracting customers to your business? Did you notice, for example, that there's not much talk about thought leadership in music, dance, dairy farming, plumbing, or waste management.  So this is probably a marketing and differentiating-yourself thing?

Wikipedia tell us  thought leader is a buzzword or article of jargon used to describe a futurist or person who is recognized among their peer mentors for innovative ideas and demonstrates the confidence to promote or share those ideas as actionable distilled insights.  You can find evidence of this over in ManyWorlds,  a concentration of thought leadeship for business.

It seems important, then, to get away from the buzz and break this thought leadership conversation into meaningful  bits of actionable information.   Help is on the way.  Brian Fling has posted a great piece on the Blue Flavored blog entitled Thought Leadership which covers the subjects of think tanks, research, blogging, trust, and modern business practices.

One way you spot a thought leader is the not-so-predictable title on their business card, website or blog.  This one is our favorite for today: Colin Coulson-Thomas, Professor of Direction and Leadership at the University of Lincoln.  With a title like that, you just know that Colin is going to come out with something original and useful, don't you?  He did! He is author of ‘Shaping Things to Come’ and the forthcoming book ‘Winning Companies; Winning People’ and he has recently advised over 60 entrepreneurs on how best to build their businesses.  If you want to find out more about this customer-attraction, business-building bonanza, go to Small Business Digest and learn how "Board Of Advisors Can Speed Growth Of Small Businesses, Improve Corporate Governance."

Are You a Winner or Sinner?

Welcome back to the center of intensely practical marketing information you can use immediately. Today we look you in the eye, turn up our BS-o-meters and then ask, "Do you have the courage and the marketing system to ask the The Ultimate Question:  "Would you recommend us to a colleague or friend?"

Be careful how you answer that because we have the statistics and great information from Fred Reichheld, founder of the Loyalty Practice at management consulting firm Bain & Co. in Boston, that tells us "Many companies treat their customers shabbily for a simple reason: It can lead to short-term growth and help managers meet their financial goals. If you can get $8 for a gallon of gas, why leave that money on the table?"

You'll find this article in Computerworld but don't let that limit your thinking or cause you to throw up excuses because your business is "different" from Computerworld types and doesn't get customers that way.  Remember, the BS-o-meter can pick up lies and lame excuses if it comes into the same zip code of this blog conversation.   

Bain & Co. is a global business consulting firm that focuses their army of consultants on "helping make companies more valuable."  Remember, it's a company that was founded in 1973 on the principle that consultants should deliver results - not just reports - to their clients.  They work in 15 industry sectors for which they have specific pockets of expertise and best practices, from Aerospace and Defense to Transportation.  That's right, nothing starting with U,V, W. X, Y or Z.   That ought to cover just about any business that checks into this blog for customer-creation assistance.

Many companies don't even know if they are winners or sinners, Reichheld says, but winners have a high proportion of customers who answer yes to the "ultimate question": "Would you recommend us to a colleague or friend?" Customers who answer yes are "promoters," Reichheld says, and those who answer no are "detractors." The best companies have net promoter scores (percentage of promoters minus percentage of detractors) above 50%. Sinners often have a negative NPS -- more detractors than promoters -- and the NPS of the typical company lies between 5% and 10%, he says.

We hope you are asking, what can you do to move the needle from sinner to winner?  Start with Referral Flood if you don't have this already.  Get it.  Do it.  Benefit immediately.  It costs very little.  It will give you the confidence you need to ask that question of everyone you've ever served (and you ought to make a point of doing that):  Would they recommend you?

Customers Clamor to Communities

You want to run your own business and you want customers. Is that what you want? How good are we at doing those two things at the same time--using our greatest gifts and talents in our chosen profession or craft and getting someone to see more value in it than we do, to the point they will give us money for what we do?

A recent article in Fast Company provided a deep review of The New American Workplace, an updated version of an extremely popular and powerful book that first came out 30 years ago. The latest version of this book looks at work and customers in America. It reckons with technological forces and a global economy that are radically and rapidly disrupting business organizations.

This passage stopped me in my tracks:  "It appears that working alone in homes, cars, hotel rooms, libraries, Wi-Fi cafés, Starbucks, and FedEx Kinko's is gradually replacing working with others in traditional offices, factories, and stores. We find that one of the major sources of societal discontent is the loss of the "community" that was once found in traditional workplaces. While freedom is a good thing, it is hard to put a happy face on the increasing social isolation of the American worker."

Why is that isolation not happening to me?  What am I doing differently now than five or more years ago when all of this increasing isolation was gaining ground?  Ah ha!!! It's the blogging!   For those of you who remember the old American Workplace 30 years ago, you will also remember the emergence of a company called Apple Computer. Guy Kawasaki is one of those famous Apple Computer pioneers and his blog is great for those who may be slipping into isolation.

Heed his advice and years of experience in The Art of Creating a Community and share it with someone you know in small business or struggling in isolation with their own business.

Blogging, my friends, is about building business and creating the communities that customers clamor to join.

The whole idea of blogging for business (rather than blogging for your own ego or no purpose at all) is to provide that community that your customers like to participate in--with you and because you solve their problems or provide something of great value to them.

Every day someone reads this blog who is totally new to blogging. Here's your reward for reading this far--a great tip. Invest in your self and your business by buying Blog Lightening.  It's the most effective, most practical handbook on the subject of your success and what blogs have to do with your success. 

The Patter of Little Feet--There Goes Your Customer

For the most part, customers are patient.  They will put up with bad service, arrogant attitudes, and the endless ways businesses think up inconveniences for the customers in the name of "work processes." They will tolerate it because it's more painful and inconvenient for them to break in a new service provider, at first.  Then when they've had it, they will leave, forever.  And they will tell a whole lot of people about the departure as well as the repeated incidences of abuse and neglect.

On the average, businesses lose 50 percent of its customers every five years.   They depart silently.  Oh, they may have tried to get your attention for some time, but you couldn't hear that.  In every complaint or criticism came the opportunity to reconnect, stuff your ego and innovate around changing needs.  If you thought of complaints as negative, then the only thing you may hear is the sound of feet as they leave.

Bain & Company, a global management consulting firm, recently conducted a survey of U.S. corporation and reported on this state of customer satisfaction. Silence is your warning signal.  This is not an on/off switch.  Here's the good news--it's a volume control.   As you hear things going away or getting more distant, that is the time to act. 

What is this gap between your good intentions and your actual performance?  How did this happen?  What needs to happen before you are totally beyond saving?  Most companies are kidding themselves and blowing smoke about their "customer-centric" devotion.  Read and learn: Closing the delivery gap: How to achieve true customer-led growth.

What are you going to do about this?  What about the account that is getting smaller or stagnating and the same level, order after order? Why is that relationship not growing?

How many ways, in person, on the phone, through your web site, are your encouraging customers to let down their hair and tell you want you need to do to clean up your act?  How many ways do you act on that information and get back to them to tell them what a difference they made?

Get out from behind that computer screen, ditch the electronic surveys and feedback forms. Remember what it's like to have a live dialog, where you are completely open and eager to get to the core of their angst with you and into the real pain and struggle in their business, so you can find or provide solutions.

Chances are good you are going to lose that 50% just by being a good business.  If you are breaking most of the rules of customership and loyalty, then your churn rate might go higher.  Frankly, that's exhausting and expensive to acquire customers. Finding and winning new customers is 7 to 10 times greater than keeping the customers you have.  Folks, that's real money that comes right out of profits, then your savings.

Frederick Reichheld, author of Loyalty Rules!, argues that loyalty is still the fuel that drives financial success - even, and perhaps especially, in today’s volatile, high-speed economy - but that most organizations are running on empty.

How do you think you would score on the customer loyalty meter?  Ask your customers the same question and really listen.  What you may hear, if you are really lucky, is what you must do to excite and engage them more.  You want to hear that--not the sound of feet.

He Taught Us Customers Count

Who was the first person who taught you that nothing counts more in business than customer? For many of us, it was Peter Drucker, the pioneer in the fields of management, performance and customer-focused values.

Peter Drucker died on Friday at the age of 95.

Drucker’s ideas have been disseminated in his 39 books, which have been translated into more than 30 languages. His works range from 1939’s The End of the Economic Man to Managing in the Next Society and A Functioning Society, both published in 2002, and The Daily Drucker, released in 2004. His last book coauthored with Joseph A. Maciariello, The Effective Executive In Action will be published by Harper Collins in January of 2006."

Peter Drucker's work has been an inspiration to learning, development and leadership colleagues around the world.  His legacy is carried on by the Leader to Leader Institute, led by Frances Hesselbein, which he founded to support organizational effectiveness in the non-profit world.

Peter Drucker was one of the most unique, powerful and influential thought leaders in our business and in the world.

Because of our work with hundreds of nonprofit organizations, we had opportunities to meet Drucker and Hesselbein personally and to experience, first hand, what that term "thought leadership" really means.   It was always inspiring and moved us to put action  to all intentions.