The Customer Advocate Challenge™ is a self-assessment that measures
the mindset and practices in your organization that demonstrate your
Customer Advocate Culture™. Customer Advocate Culture™ is
the general operating mindset and practices of a company which ultimately
succeeds because of its focus on the success of its customers.
Of course businesses want to keep customers, find more customers,
sell more and make a profit. But a Customer Advocate Culture™
goes both ways. A business whose only goal is extraction of money
from its customers is unlikely to have loyal customers. Instead of
cultivating advocates that help you succeed, you spend more money on
customer acquisition to replace the customers you lose. If you help
your customers fill needs and accomplish goals then you have the potential
to create customer advocates who will help you grow.
How important are customer relationships to the
long-term success of your company?
For some businesses, customer acquisition is easier and less expensive,
and customers are more profitable. They may not need as much trust.
If you’ve determined that customer relationships are not important
to your business, then Customer Advocate Culture™ is a waste
of your time.
But here are some facts that illustrate for most businesses why customer
relationships are important for long-term success.
- Increasing customer retention by just 5% can increase profitability by 95%.
- It costs 6 to 10 times more to acquire a new customer than to keep one.
- A highly satisfied customer is 42% more loyal than a satisfied one.
- Satisfaction is not enough. 80% of customers who switch products and services express satisfaction with the previous vendor.
As if that were not enough, here are a few more consequences of ignoring the importance of customer relationships:
- Your competitors have their eyes on your best customers.
- Customers have a hard time differentiating the value of the products and services they buy.
- Customers are treating products and services as commodities.
- Customer apathy and lock-in are often mistaken for customer loyalty.
Strong genuine customer relationships can lengthen customer life cycles, which increase the chance
of new sales and marketing opportunities.
What does your company do to develop strong, successful relationships with
customers?
While a few businesses might command customer loyalty by having a scarce product or service, most
businesses have to earn customer relationships with superior service, excellent interactions, and
exceeding expectations.
Above all, it’s important to realize that what we think is above
expectations and extra value may not be what the customer believes is extra value. Many companies
say they believe in customer relationships, and then they either don’t really do anything to
invest in customer relationships, or they expect customers to appreciate things that aren’t valuable
to them.
If your customer retention is lower than you want, or your add-on sales are struggling, then we
would ask what you’re doing to ensure that your customers value the investments you make in
relationships.
What are you doing to deserve loyal customers?
How does your company know when customer relationships are successful?
Performance, growth and speed seem to be the only thing that matters to the executives and analysts
these days. The problem is not with demand for results; it’s that demand for short-term results can
lead to short-term thinking. And short-term thinking puts long-term investments, like customer
relationship, at risk.
The competitive advantage of superior, genuine customer relationships is not
necessarily that they will buy more this month. The benefit is that customer life cycle increases
so that lifetime value goes up because of the chance to generate new opportunities through customer
advocates.
Customer Advocate Culture™ pays off for some businesses even within a few months, but the true power
of genuine relationship building pays off in the long term in concert with brand, innovation and
communication. Customer relationships have more potential as customer involvement progressively
deepens.
How to Evaluate Your Customer Advocate Culture™
This section asks you some questions to stimulate thinking about your culture, strategy and practices.
What’s your mindset?
Companies with a Customer Advocate Culture™ achieve a sense of customer centricity, that is,
caring for the results that their customers achieve, whether with or without their products and
services. They are serving rather than selling.
How do you demonstrate that you care about your customers?
How do you measure success?
How do you encourage and motivate your people to focus on customer success?
How do you instill the awareness of, urgency for and accountability to customer success in everything
that you do?
How do you show your people that customer goals are important to the success of the company?
Who are your customers and what’s important to them?
Companies with a Customer Advocate Culture™ understand who their customers are and what their
challenges are. They don’t see customer challenges as simply the absence of their solutions. They
listen and look for the symptoms, the impact and pain it causes for customers. They know that their
own view of the value is irrelevant.
How do you know what’s important to your customers?
How do you know you're right?
Have you found the customers that believe in your value?
Are you changing, your market, your message, your service or all three in order to reach your ideal
market with the right value?
How will you serve your best customers profitably?
Companies with Customer Advocate Culture™ choose their markets wisely. Some customers are
better opportunities than others. They select markets in order to serve customers profitably and
to enhance competitive position. They learn from existing customers, other markets and emerging
markets to fuel innovation so they can serve their customers better, serve their customers more,
and find new customers.
Do you know how your solutions contribute to the success of your customers?
How does your business align high performance with customer focus?
Companies with Customer Advocate Culture™ have customer-centric performance. Their business
functions coordinate to serve the customer. Their seams become invisible to the customer. Their
performance metrics include customer results. They have customer-oriented standards and
accountability in every place that affects the customer.
How do you encourage and reward your people for the commitment to customer success?
How do you get the right people in the right roles for high performance?
Companies with Customer Advocate Culture™ have the right people. They also have the right
people in the roles where they will be top performers. Many companies waste time and money hiring
and training people that have to be replaced. Or they keep existing staff in roles in which they
will never excel. They spend money on training for people who will never reach the desired
performance because their natural potential is suited for another role.
How do you ensure that the right kinds of people are in the right roles on your teams?
How do you equip and motivate your people to deliver great customer
interactions?
Companies with Customer Advocate Culture™ know that the greatest impact on the perception of
value, brand and reputation come from direct interactions with professionals in sales, marketing,
operations and customer service. One bad interaction can lose a customer, but a relationship
provides the chance to recover from mistakes or make a customer for life. They supply standards,
accountability and authority for teams so they can make interactions valuable for the customer.
Their people have the personal pride, confidence and commitment to be top performers.
What are you doing to ensure that your teams in sales, marketing, and customer service have
productive, relationship-building interactions with customers?
How does your business earn and keep customer loyalty?
Companies with Customer Advocate Culture™ know they must earn customer loyalty, and not just
once, but continually. They invite participation and contribution from customers. They engage
customers and enlist their involvement and support.
They don’t rely on databases and discounts to
stand in place of genuine relationships. They retain their customers by giving them a reason to
become an advocate.
What are you doing to encourage your customers to stake a claim in your success?
What you can do next
Learn more about Customer Advocate Management Retreat
Get practical tips and techniques
on Customer Advocate Culture™
Learn
more about the Customer Advocate Culture™
Please contact us with your
questions about how the Customer Advocate Culture™ would enhance
the performance of your organization.
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