Marketing’s Secret Weapon

Marketing’s Secret Weapon

 So far, we have discussed how to analyze and segment your existing customers and track
customer information to develop effective CRM strategies. These are the basic mechanics
for fostering customer loyalty and building a more profitable customer base.
Customer experience and a customer-centric culture are the elements that add the magic.
A strong customer strategy requires a company culture that values customers and
nurtures this philosophy among employees. It’s easy for business leaders to talk about
creating a customer-focused culture, but actually doing it is a completely different matter.
Companies that are customer-centric do more than put programs in place. They
design a culture that values creating a rich customer experience, and strives to exceed
customer satisfaction. Employees in companies like this realize that customer satisfaction
is important, but it’s just the price of admission for competing in their industry.
They know that exceeding satisfaction creates customer loyalty and a high-performance
organization.
Many companies adopt a “customer is always first” mantra, but it’s my experience
that this is wrong—it’s backwards. If you put employees first, they will always move
mountains to take care of customers. It just doesn’t work the other way around. If you
have ever experienced an employee who is complaining about how the company treats
them poorly while trying to service you, then you know what I mean. Customers will not
feel valued unless employees feel valued, too. Companies that truly value and appreciate
their customers create a culture that is respectful to both customers and employees. It’s
really quite simple. Employees want to please customers. The biggest reason they don’t
is because they don’t feel valued or don’t understand how; therefore, how could they
provide great customer experiences? Employees need to know the rules of customer
engagement and what their boundaries are so they feel empowered to do the right thing
for customers. It’s simply playing by the Golden Rule: “Do unto others as you would
have them do unto you.”
It may sound easy to build an employee- and customer-centric strategy, but don’t be
fooled. According to a survey of CRM users, 87 percent of those surveyed said the failure
of their programs was largely due to the lack of adequate change management. Even though there was a desire to be customer focused, the culture did not support the strategy.
If customer strategy is not crystal clear and integrated into company values, culture,
and daily processes, even the best of intentions will be disappointing.
A company’s ability to foster customer loyalty is closely linked to the company purpose
and culture. When a company has a strong foundation of values and principles, and
has processes in place to nurture them, executives and employees can naturally do the
right things to stimulate customer loyalty. If you did a good job of defining your company
purpose in Section I, “Purpose,” you have taken a huge leap in the right direction.

Customer-Focused Culture at OrangeGlo
One day I was visiting the office of OrangeGlo, a family-run business that was
on a path to turn its small cleaning business into a multi-million dollar brand.
(It was eventually sold to Church and Dwight, makers of Arm and Hammer
products, for $325 million.) When I walked through the front door, it appeared
that nearly every employee in the company was packed into the front office.
Entrepreneur Joel Appel was sharing a story about how two of the drivers had
just returned from a long trip delivering product across the country when they
received a call from one of their best customers, Wal-Mart.
Wal-Mart was in process of opening one of their biggest stores in Texas and
realized they were out of stock of OrangeGlo and OxiClean, two products that
Wal-Mart customers expected to find in the store. They asked OrangeGlo if they
could possibly arrange to have the products there the next day, which was not
possible using typical transportation methods. So the two drivers offered to load
up a truck and drive it day and night in order to please the company’s most
valuable customer.
Appel could have rewarded the two men with additional pay or a “thank you”
and left it at that. Instead, he chose to recognize the two men for their dedication
and commitment for doing something so important to both Wal-Mart and
OrangeGlo. If you could have seen the smiling, beaming faces on the two men,
and all the other employees who were smiling, clapping, and patting them on
the back, you would realize there is nothing more important than rewarding
employees for their actions. There could not have been a more powerful training
moment than this to teach other employees the value of customer service. 

Another great lesson about creating a customer-and employee-centric culture can
be learned from The Ritz-Carlton. In Chapter 6, “How The Ritz-Carlon Creates and
Sustains a High-Performance Culture,” I described how all new employees at The Ritz-
Carlton are required to attend training prior to ever setting foot on the job. There is strict
adherence to this rule because the company realizes that they are in the business of
creating unique customer experiences. In order to do this, employees must understand
the company values, principles, and what it means to “anticipate and respond to a
customer’s unexpressed wishes.” This is very hard to do in a service environment where
every customer service moment is unique.
A company can only teach employees what their values mean, provide them with
examples, and clearly state what their boundaries are to meet this goal. To this last point,
The Ritz-Carlton’s employees are allowed to spend up to $2,000 a day to make sure a
customer is satisfied. Employees rarely tap into this fund because they know they have a
high degree of flexibility and creativity to make customers happy—and happiness is not
usually tied to money.
Company culture is the secret weapon of good marketing. A talented marketer can
create brilliant marketing programs, but if the underlying culture can’t support it, even
the best programs will fall short.
The following is a list of a few rules of the road to keep in mind as you design a
company culture linked to customer strategy.