CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE 2.0 is a new and revolutionary way of thinking about your business. It focuses on helping companies increase SALES and DIFFERENTIATION by creating the customer experience customers want – each and every day.
Customer Experience 2.0 is a unique and new way of thinking about customers, your company and how you can improve loyalty and sales today and into the future. It marries and leverages the tools and concepts of Social Media with the needs and wants of your customer – creating a much more engaging and rewarding customer experience. This combination leads to increases in customer loyalty and retention, sales and market awareness. It creates a more innovative and personal way for you to engage, understand and support your prospects and customers.
If an organization understands the Promises their customers want them to keep, and uses these Promises (called a Promise Inventory) to deliever the experience(s) they want, they are able to increase their Sales and Loyalty. By delivering this experience, they are able to Differentiate themselves from their competitors and create a competitive advantage. This all works to help increase both sales and loyalty for the organization – which is why we call it the Ultimate Economic Advantage for companies.
Let me give you some background on each of these areas.
LOYALTY is and “earned” state. It isn’t gifted to anyone. It has to be earned over time by continually building TRUST with the person/organization. However, TRUST is also an “earned” state. You may be given a certain level of trust by someone initially, but it is how you act after that point in time that will determine whether or not you keep it, lose it or build upon it. We believe, and has been demonstrated over time that one of the strongest ways to earn TRUST is to keep the PROMISES you make, consistently and repeatedly. Promises Made = Promises Kept.
The reason we call this the “Ultimate Economic Model” is because of all the research in the market that points to one simple fact – if you have LOYAL customers, they will generate more sales for your organization. Why? Because customers have demonstrated the strong desire to have a ”consistent” and “repeatable” customer experience and for this, they are willing to give you increased sales. Loyalty is not about price – Loyalty is about giving keeping the Promises to your customers that they want you to keep, each and every day, so they can enjoy this consistent and repeatable experience.
This blog is all about sharing information with you, our readers, on what it means to be Promise-Driven and to be committed to building Loyal Relationships built on Trust. We want to offer our readers, and those that visit, the opportunity to both learn and share their experiences in these areas.
We call organizations that understand this approach, Promise-Driven Organizations. We have gathered the thought leaders and innovators behind the concept that we believe will fundamentally improve the ability of Organizations to build Trust, Relationships, and Loyalty with Customers.
One of the key areas of focus for Promise-Driven Organizations is that of improving Customer Experiences. Promise-Driven Organizations are expert at integrating all of the various functions within an Organization and effectively focusing them to reliably deliver a set of “Strategic Promises.” You could also call them “Brand Promises”, or “Customer Promises.” Whatever you call them, these Promises define the collective focus of the ENTIRE Organization, creating an exceptional Customer Experience from lean, responsive Organizations. Promise-Driven Organizations focus on reliably delivering Promises that your customers want and that are important to them.
This blog is different than functionally-oriented business blogs. The group we have collected is a set of senior executives with business backgrounds spanning Operations, Sales, Marketing, Engineering, IT, Finance, Accounting, Strategy, Product Management, Consulting and other areas. Collectively, we have worked in software, manufacturing, distribution, retail, aerospace, government, financial services, accounting, legal, food processing, defense, metals, engineering, construction, and transportation industries, to give just a TINY sample of the breadth of industry experience we bring. We have worked in every situation – startups, fast-growth, mature industry, turnarounds, mergers and acquisitions, and international business. Simply stated, our team of bloggers has extensive experience solving complex, challenging problems in all types of industries.
Exceptional Customer Experiences can and do happen by accident, or intermittently because of incentive systems, or because of an employee willing to “go the extra mile.” They can be coaxed from youthful, exuberant employees by providing recognition programs, until youth and exuberance diminishes. They can be fostered by training, until the training is forgotten in the midst of the daily crisis. They can be perceived but not systematized by surveys. They can be designed by Operations but not embraced by Sales. They can be conceived by Marketing and flatly ignored by Operations. They can be touted by consultants and ridiculed by the pragmatists in the company. We’ve been there and seen it all, and it doesn’t work! The problem isn’t making changes that effect improvements – the problem is making improvements that are “consistent and repeatable” and THAT LAST!
Exceptional Customer Experiences, if they are to be reliably executed on a day-to-day basis, over the long haul, can only be sustained by organizations with a holistic, comprehensive, and laser-focus on serving Customers. This was the foundation of our book, “Creating and Delivering Totally Awesome Customer Experiences” and remains the backbone of where we have taken our new, leading edge thinking to today. Piecemeal programs simply don’t work! It may be obvious, but surprisingly few Organizations actually bother to find out what their Customers want. Call it self-centered, myopic, or just plain human, but Organizations tend to focus on internal priorities rather than those of their Customers and the ones their customers generally don’t care about.
Again, this blog is different. We’re not here to point out problems – anyone can do that. We actually present to you a comprehensive and long-lasting solution we believe works for most organizations in most situations – Promise-Driven Organizations focused on creating Loyal, Trusted Relationships. Promise-Driven Organizations are Market Leaders, because their nature is to build teams, capital structure, branding, and other necessary business infrastructure that is appropriate to market, differentiate, and deliver on a set of Promises. Promise-Driven Organizations engage in a very intentional effort of defining a very specific set of Promises that build Customer Loyalty, Market Differentiation, Increased Profitability, and Employee Loyalty.
Fundamentally, this blog is about HOW to build Loyal Customers and Employees utilizing the concepts of being a Promise-Driven Organization. Join us for a very rewarding journey!
Blaine Millet, Co-founder and Principal
