The Case of Missing Customer

1. When Prior Strengths Become Your Weaknesses

Deadly sins of successful organizations

• Arrogance • Resistance to change

ar·ro·gance

• an attitude of superiority manifested in an overbearing manner or in presumptuous claims or assumptions

• Find more about here: http://articles.businessinsider.com/keyword/arrogance

Exercise 1. Put some text below this cartoon to illustrate you view about business arrogance

re·sist·ing (to change)

• to remain strong against the force or effect of change : to not be affected or harmed by change

Exercise 2. Put some text below this cartoon to illustrate you view about resistance to change

Things to reflect to

• “… they had little or no regard for direct customer feedback when it conflicted with their own views or prior customer experiences.

• When someone cited desires, issues, or concerns raised by their customers, the executives often countered with their own personal beliefs and discredited or belittled what their customers had said.”

Things to reflect to

As an example, when told that in their deteriorating marketplace consumers visiting an automobile showroom tend to immediately examine a car’s coffee-cup holders, a top auto exec retorted, “We build cars for driving, not for drinking coffee.” The correctness of his (internal) view was supported by vigorous head-nods around the board table. At that moment a chart could be seen on the wall behind, from one of their industry’s most respected consumer research firms, which screamed that seven out of ten of this firm’s customers would not return. Silly customers. We know best. So, what was the problem? Who had stolen their customers? (And why did they leave?) Pogo knew. We have met the enemy and he is us.

What about a new viewpoint of a successful company

“An emotional, vital, innovative, joyful, creative, entrepreneurial endeavor that maximizes individuals’ growth and elicits maximum concerted human potential in the wholehearted service of others.” Read this http://www.tompeters.com/blogs/freestuff/uploads/ChangeThis_EnterpriseAtBest.pdf We will use many things from this manifesto!

Join the course group on facebook and start discussing and sharing your thoughts about the following topics

Now, what if you’re the customer?

• What really entice you? • What can move you later to change suppliers? • How would you feel about a supplier who continued to play the role

of expert and expected you to remain only a passive user/recipient?

Mirror, mirror…

• What about your customers? • What were the strengths that originally made your company a

success in their perception?

Mirror, mirror…

• How are you developing your essential competencies in order to stay aligned with a changing marketplace? How does your organization listen to customers and make them the tireless focal point for the design of products, services, and customer-facing processes?

• How does your company sense the changes in the marketplace and what your customers value, and then respond to those? How does your firm anticipate and prepare for those, in advance?

Mirror, mirror…

• When you are a customer, you know what moves you today to change vendors.

• What if you were your customer? Could you be easily stolen away? • What if you were your competitor? What might you do to attract

away customers? • If you aren’t doing those things today, who is the enemy

responsible for your lost customers tomorrow?

End of module essay 2 pages max

Customers describing their service experience as “superior”:

8%

Companies describing the service experience they

provide as

“superior”: 80%

—Source: Bain & Company survey of 362 companies, reported in John DiJulius, What's the Secret to Providing a World-class Customer Experience?