How should we manage customer relationships?
Short Answer:
Get as many people in your organization as close to their counterpart at your customer as possible. This includes your accounts receivable people making friends with the payable clerks. Second, have as many on your team as you can experience what the customer experiences. Aflac has all their people file claims so they know what that’s like. Hagerty insurance, which insures collectible cars, has all their employees drive similar cars, including learning how to drive a stick shift. Third, do business with yourself. Call your phone number. Place an order. Request a quote. You’ll be surprised what you learn. The key is building customer empathy across the organization.
Longer Answer:
Dr. Hermann Simon, author of Hidden Champions of the 21st Century, details what privately held, many family-owned, businesses do that dominate their niche. One is they have twice as many people in their organization in direct contact with customers as their competitors. And the goal is to anticipate what the customer needs so there are no issues for the customer relationship to manage. We’re fans of the Net Promoter System (NPS) that asks customers one simple question – would you refer a friend on a scale of zero to 10. Anyone answering with a six or less, quickly ask for a phone call to see what you need to do to fix their situation. Research finds that unhappy customers who get their issues resolved are even more loyal than those who never complained.
One of our clients goes a step further. They resolve the issue and then send a box of cookies. This extra gesture raised their NPS score even higher. They also called those giving them a 7 or 8 to see how they just missed getting a 9 or 10. And they have their salespeople call the 9s and 10s – not to ask for referrals but to learn what they did right. This gives their salespeople a positive boost and stories they can share with prospective clients.
Ultimately take a page from Intuit, the providers of the #1 accounting software package used by 86% of the 32 million small businesses in the US. They have a “follow me home” program where 500 times a year – roughly twice a day – someone at Intuit visits a customer and stays with them all workday observing how they use their software and what else that person does that Intuit might add to the feature set of their software. The key is being one step ahead of what your customers want so the relationship doesn’t need “managed.”
One warning – and why it’s important to read Dr. Frances Frei’s book Uncommon Service – customers can want, want, want you into bankruptcy. Be clear the three promises you make to your niche; be the best at keeping these promises; and forget the rest of their wants. Otherwise, you’ll end up looking like all your competitors who are also talking to these same clients, trying to fulfill the dozens of needs of your customers. Be the best at a few things
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