Business in the past was valued on it’s financial performance, it still is. Increasingly, it will also be based on influence, followers and fans. If we own something we try to protect it. In fact, we can become over protective. For years we have been conditioned to think that we own stuff at work; our team, our customers, our products. Tesco thinks it owns it’s suppliers!

This over exuberance can be detrimental, if not a tad delusional. We can spend lots of money defending something that we actually don’t own. The future, we know, will be based on the value of our relationships with our fellow humans. You can only part own a relationship. You will only part own a product as we collaborate more, you have never owned your people, especially in a war for talent. And customers just ain’t buying that ‘priviledge’ thing anymore.

You don’t own the buildings you work in, you probably don’t own that car you drive and your company probably only lease that computer and mobile you use. We need to shift our mentality from one of ownership to partnership. That way we can work positively on the things that really are meaningful and rationally focus our efforts.

People will often say that your brand is like Marmite, they either love it or hate it. Your retort should always be, as long as people don’t find us indifferent. These ARE times for ’sticking your head above the parapet’ and ’sticking out like a sore thumb’ as long as it’s for something exceptional of course.

Being in an indifferent position is fundamentally a difficult place to be. Customers don’t see you and therefore ignore you. It becomes inherently difficult to build any traction on the customer loyalty front. Many companies initiate the worst action with poor consequences by trying to buy customers through traditional marketing tactics. That only gets you bad profits which you can’t sustain over the long term.

Better have a smaller list of customers who love what you do, promote what you do and buy more of what you do again and again. Rather than the ‘yeah whatever’ group that aren’t listening. Those that hate you…..well that’s just life!!!

Are you keeping people out or inviting them in? It costs very little to pick a great customer who has fabulous ideas and creates value for your business and then mix him/her up with a few of your other customers and let them come up with the next developments you need to make. Imagine how that may impact your reputation too!

A friend recently told me about a change the organisation he works for (a corporate) are going to implement at a cost of hundreds of thousands. They had received one piece of feedback from a customer who was displeased. Turns out only 9% of other customers agree with that complaint. It seems the organisation are more interested in rapid problem solving than logically making the correct decision.

Survey and respond to the right customers needs. Know you’re top 20% of customers as they are probably delivering 80% of your profits, give or take. These are the customers who are likely to become advocates of what you do and will constantly refer without any incentive.

Never randomly survey your whole customer base, its not efficient. Always gain feedback from all of your top 20% and then take a random sample from the rest. The top 20% are you’re most valuable customers, it would be crazy to miss even one out.

What’s your churn rate? How many customers are you losing per annum? How close are you to companies in the mobile, financial, travel sector in terms of poor retention rates? True customer loyalty brings about long-term sustainable growth and that’s what really matters.

It’s interesting asking small business that question; what’s your leakage and how much are you spending on marketing to plug that leak? The results can be staggering. Some company’s I’ve spoken to have a 25% churn and are spending around 25% of turnover on new customer acquisition by buying growth, crazy and absolutely mad. In fact, it’s the most expensive route to growth.

So do you have a strategy of buying growth through promotions, sales pitches and bribery, or, are you organically growing through unabashed, superb customer experience and word of mouth.

Those implementing, measuring and growing through true customer loyalty are the ones who are spending very little on marketing and that dreaded word advertising. Increase your customer retention rate by 10% and what will that do to your bottom line?

In London at the moment at the Online Marketing Show. Last night whilst waiting for a friend, I bobbed into a wine merchants. Okay it wasn’t your ordinary Oddbins but it did prove that you can put customer experience into practice, by hell you can.

Apart from the outstanding courtesy and respect that was afforded me, I now know about:

1. Sulphites and how they affect wine making

2. Bio Dynamic Agriculture - this was a new one on me, fascinating!

3. How fragile wine making is and why its considered an art, a craft and a vocation

I came away with a modestly priced bottle of wine, yet had my experience enriched because the guy who served me believed it was his job to educate someone who appreciates wine (I’m obviously getting to that age) but who doesn’t really know the first thing about wine production and how it impacts on what I buy. I couldn’t get away. Absolutely fabulous, it cost them nothing. Just shows what you can do, if you make sure you have the time…actually you really can’t afford not to.

Phew! The books are now uploaded and ready to be viewed and purchased. Hope you like them. Take advantage of the free marketing book I wrote a couple of years ago first so you get a taster of what they are about!

Click on the links to the right or just go to the ‘My Books’ section on this page. Happy reading!

Beware, there is a rant coming on! Just been to Enterprise Cars to pick up a car for four days that I had booked online last week. I’ve used them a couple of times recently and they have been okay. First time I had to wait half an hour for the car and the second time I had to wait about 15 - 20 minutes. Bit annoying as its my time but hey ho! I use rental cars a lot and spend between £200 - £300 per month. I was giving them one last chance to see if I could get my car on time this time before moving on to someone else.

I turn up and get asked for additional ID to my driving licence. Fair enough. Only last time I was told it wasn’t needed as I ‘d already shown it the first time I’d booked - hope you are following this? So, of course, this time I don’t take it. Now I can’t take the car as they have changed the policy as another customer has probably not returned a car! Their point not mine. I say “I’ve walked a mile to get the car and I’m not walking back to just walk back again.” Blank look on the guys face. Don’t get me wrong, he has been polite but you can’t help thinking this guy has been sucked into the corporate approach to annoyed customers which is a ‘can’t do anything about it madam but with a smile.’

I refuse to hire the car and cancel. They could have done all sorts of things to sort this out but were not interested, were not creative enough. I’m a regular customer, where is there advocacy program? When delivering customer experience it has to be consistent, the customer cannot be kept guessing at what the new rule is. They have spent an enormous amount of money on getting me attracted to them only to forget that once I have bought a few times. As I was leaving he said ” its a rule thats come from above.” That is not an explanation its an excuse. I pity people who are in jobs where they blame people above and believe truly that that is just the way it works.

The experience is oh so traditional, oh so mundane and oh so dangerous. Not for me, I have plenty of choice but for them, there are only so many consumers around! What’s more intriguing is that on the coffee table in reception is a book on exceeding customer expectations…how ironic!

……particularly in the service industry. It costs nothing to present  a spark in your dealings with customers. Being actually nice is a start. Hub have got this sussed in St.Ives, Cornwall. Spent a bit of time there this week as its the only place I can get a decent internet connection with my dongle. I’ve witnessed a consistent approach to the customer experience.

Not one person sticks out for being rude, obtrusive or grumpy and not one stands out for being outstanding. Thats because they all genuinely have manners and thats down to recruitment, training and values. Nothing is too much trouble, always on hand to help and offer extra drinks with sincerity, conversation and humour. It takes a lot to make me feel elated by service like this. It really isn’t that difficult to be different and better! So why the hell is it so rare?

Failure to adapt to shifting customer trends – Customer expectations have changed, however, most businesses are failing to respond to this. The traditional differentiators have almost disappeared; product, price, place etc. Social media is heavily influencing the agenda. We are a lot less impressed with average stuff and customers can find you easier than you can find them! When all things are equal what is it that people buy?

Mass marketing and weak universal appeal are dead, yet we still need to create and develop a loyal customer base. That means developing a new relationship with existing customers and those prospects that are showing signs of being great future ones.

Not all customers are equal. Businesses that succeed recognise that and organise their business accordingly. It requires two simple strategies. Customer acquisition where you are trying to change the prospects mind and customer retention where you are trying to maintain the mindset. The two need a slightly different approach. Any proactive marketing and customer loyalty programs need to focus on the great customers not attracting the poor ones.

It’s a case of not fearing customer rejection but customer indifference.