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Executive Interviews: Interview with Christopher Meyer on Customer Centric Organisations
December 2010
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By Dr. Nagendra V Chowdary
Now let's leap forward. Globalization
increasingly requires manufacturing
companies to design and deliver
products for locations far beyond
their home base. For example,
agriculture equipment used in the
wheat fields of Europe, US, and
India all have to plant, harvest and
transport grain. If customer
experience didn't matter, then the
same equipment would be used
across the globe. We know that's not
true. John Deere learned that square
bumpers are required on tractors in
India because tractors also transport
people in rural areas and it's more
comfortable to sit on a flat surface
than a round tube.
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What makes customer experience
critical to all industries is that at the
end of the day, the purchaser is a
human being. Our journey through
life can be thought of as a series of
experiences. Therefore, the question
for manufacturers is not whether
experience is important but which
customer experiences will put you
on top once the basic requirements
are met.
Is there any relationship between
companies ranked highly in different
customer satisfaction indices and
customer-centricity? Customer
satisfaction being the effect, what
could have been the traditional
causes of satisfaction and how can
customer experience management be
the new cause of customer
satisfaction?
Customer satisfaction and customer
experience are often used
interchangeably. Customer
experience is the experience a
customer has with your company
through direct and indirect contact.
Customer satisfaction is a judgment
that people make based on that
experience relative to their
expectations. The only way to change
customer satisfaction is to set
different expectations or deliver a
better experience.
The real question is: have the
experiences that drive customer
satisfaction changed? I'd suggest that
in most cases, ATMs do a better job
than bank tellers. They're available 24
hours a day, fast, accurate and often
located much more conveniently than
a bank. At the same time, Starbucks
and the corner cafés win by providing
a social setting augmented with food.
That's hardly new.
I'd make this observation. Digital
technology and the Internet have had
a huge impact on customer
experience and satisfaction. The
underlying technologies improve by a
factor of 2 within a year or two. Soon,
we'll have disposable devices costing
less than a cup of coffee with more
computing power than the first PC.
Compare that to the pace of human
evolution. Our DNA is hardly
different from our ancestors and
while human lifetimes are extending,
not nearly at the rate technology
advances.
Customer experience lives and
breathes because it's part of the
human condition. Therefore the core
needs of people for shelter, safety,
belonging, and self-actualization
remain the foundation.
Can there be any plausible
relationship between customer
satisfaction rankings and best
companies to work for?
Yes, but I don't know of any definitive
research. My experience is that if an
employee's work experience is not
very good, the chances of providing
customers with a great experience is
unlikely. There have been some
consulting studies that have
positively correlated internal
employee satisfaction scores with
external scores such as NetPromoter. -
What according to you is customer
lifetime value and how can better
customer experience management aid
in improving the customer lifetime
value?
Good customers are likely to be
growing customers. By growing, I
mean that they run their business in
such a way that it continues to grow
as they grow their business with you.
We see this often with startups here
in Silicon Valley. Not only do
customers grow their business with
you but it lowers marketing costs as
well as the startup costs associated
with a new customer. In short, loyal
customers are more profitable.
Additionally, they are the best source
of referrals which in many cases is
more valuable than their own
revenue.
1.
The Multi-Branding Strategy Case Study
2. ICMR
Case Collection
3.
Case Study Volumes
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