Customer focus… at what cost?
Are you kidding me?
I recently attended a webinar about how to develop a customer-centric culture. One of the questions during the Q&A at the end of the webinar was something along the lines of, “Doesn’t more customer focus means less focus on products, etc.?”
I happened to have just taken a sip of my coffee, and I think it came out of my nose. I cleaned up the coffee and held my breath, in hopes that the presenter would answer the question the way it should be answered. She did.
And yet, at the same time, I’m shocked that someone would ask that question. (OK, only mildly shocked, given the challenges that we CX professionals have, but go with it.)
Isn’t it all the same stuff?
Listen. It’s all about customer focus. It’s all about the customer. It’s all about the customer experience.
What’s the purpose of a business? Why are you in business? To create and to nurture customers, right? Can’t do that if you’re not infusing the customer into everything that you do! What are you doing? Why are you doing the things you’re doing for your business if it’s not in the best interest of the customer?
This is not about creating more work or adding more to your plate. You’re already doing these things: enhancing the product, changing processes, updating the website, revising policies, hiring new people, etc. All we ask is that, while you’re doing your day job, you think about: your customers, the impact of what you’re doing or creating on your customers, how customers would feel about changes you want to make, etc.
That’s not so hard, is it?
Instead, we get push back that it takes too much time or that there’s no budget for customer experience. What?! How does that even happen?!
It’s all customer experience. If it’s not, you’ll be joining the likes of Blockbuster, Borders, Kodak, etc.
You’ve got to start with the customer experience and work back toward the technology – not the other way around. -Steve Jobs
Read the original post here.
