Musings on Efficiency

Wha'doyaknow?

Seriously. I know for a fact that you know a lot more than you give yourself credit for. More exciting, and of far more value to you, are the things you don't know, the things you discover.

Hunkering-down to weather the storm was once a strong temptation in challenging times. In today's markets and conditions this strategy can benefit enterprises with a deep strong storm cellar.

An old saying says, "Don't tip the baby out with the bath water." The common thought is to be sure we keep "the baby". Wait! There's more. It reminds you to eject the soiled, soapy, tired, old bath water – It reminds you to get some fresh water!

supercalafragalisticexpialidocious – Let in fresh ideas!

Keep and improve customer value with "your baby". Build-in customer value from the fresh ideas, insights, and elements that come with new "bath water".

New opportunities, bring relationship and partnering potentials – You can do without that storm cellar now.

The value of things you didn't know you knew is what it brings to your business that your customers love and your competition cannot imitate. The trick is to let go of what you think you know, and grasp what you know, and don’t think you know it.

William.

References ...

1. (wikipedia, 2008) Mary Poppins (1934; 1964)
2. The idea is to respond to 'challenge' by saying, or thinking supercalafragalisticexpialidocious; everything other do now will not resolve the key elements of the solution (1964; wikipedia, 2008; see: [5, 6]).
3. Nicholas, Tom (2008) "Innovation lessons from the 1930s", McKinsey Quarterly, Dec-2008.
4. Foster, Richard (2008) "Creative Destruction and the Financial Crisis", McKinsey Quarterly, Dec-2008.
5. Greiner, Larry E. (1978) "Revolution is Still Inevitable", Harvard Business Review, 76(3), p.60.
6. Foster, Richard M. & Kaplan, Sarah (2001) "Creative Destruction", McKinsey Quarterly, Aug-2001.

   "The first Standard and Poor's index of 90 major US companies was created in the 1920s. The companies on that original list stayed there for an average of 65 years. By 1998, the average anticipated tenure of a company on the expanded S&P 500 was 10 years. If history is a guide, over the next quarter century no more than a third of today's major corporations will survive in an economically important way."

Labels: creative destruction, credit crisis, customer ecology, marketing

# posted by Will : 13:05  0 Comments

Good to see you again!,

A big lesson from the current economic hiccup, climate change, etc. is to keep scanning for opportunities. One organisation's failure is often ripe with potential for opportunity(s).

In just under 10 days, I've discovered many household names that seem to have one or two surplus customers. A few weeks back I pointed out a gap in my customer service expectation with one of the smarter businesses who fixed the problem 'created' by their out-sourced service provider. After a good resolution there were ... 8 dreadful encounters to make-up for one positive one. Can the customer relations barometer be swinging against meeting customer expectations? Was it just me having a poor week?

Your opportunity can be ... What value can you make from (competitor) performance gap?

I'll give a couple of examples. Size matters. A small firm can know its customers well enough to deal with problems at an individual level. Resist as many temptations to add distance between you and customers as you can. If you need to make a service department or outsource; check that your service provider is providing service -- Unfortunately a few service providers have eyes on the 'service contract' not on the customer.

Your customer's ecology consists of over-lapping service experiences with all kinds of organisation and relationships[1]. In my opinion, a non-satisfactory experiences means that the customer's expectations are reinforced, not diminished. It often puts passion behind their preferences.

A recent media campaign from one of my eight non-rich-experiences caused to think: 'they must have one or two, too many customers'. It just reminded me of a non-good experience.

Do you have too many customers in your business?

Things to remember. Any customer calling, or writing, with a problem is your most valuable marketing researcher. Ask for her/his preferred solution. Understand how advertising works; if you do have one too many customers, advertising can reinforce a sub-optimal experience too. Become ecologically mindful to optimise your marketing investment[2].

William.

References ...

1. HOOLEY, G. J., PIERCY, N. F. & NICOULAUD, B. (2008) Marketing Strategy and Competitive Positioning, 4th Edn, Pearson.
2. Everything your customer believes (and perceives) about you is your 'marketing'.

Labels: customer ecology, customer service, customer value

# posted by Will : 18:39  0 Comments

Welcome ...

What do I mean by the title, your customer's ecology? That's a good question, because my comment stems from a customer value or customer service perspective. A customer's ecology is the environment that serves that person or provides that customer with value.

This is a different type of ecology, in a customer's ecology the rewards are the benefits your customer values, and the prices are the things the customer's must exchange for that reward. Your business, or organisation, is inexorably linked to each customer's value perception, as Rummler & Branche and others [2,3] have said since the 1940-s.

"When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe." — John Muir [1]

"Nineteenth-century environmentalist John Muir found that each component of the ecosystem is in some way connected to all other components. The brouhaha over the snail darter, which ultimately halted construction on the Clinch River breeder reactor, was not just about a tiny fish that affects very few of us; it was about tampering with a small tile in the environmental mosaic. Each tile that is removed or changed alters, if only in a minute way, the balance of the picture.

"Similarly, we have found that everything in an organization’s internal and external “ecosystem” (customers, products and services, reward systems, technology, organization structure, and so on) is connected. To improve organization and individual performance, we need to understand these connections. The current mosaic may not present a very pretty picture, but it is a picture. The picture can be changed or enhanced only through a holistic approach ..." [2, ch.3]

Management science draws a boundary at the shop counter or display window. It is the part of your customer's ecology where you have direct influence; and elsewhere ...

You need to make your customer value distinctive and attractive for your service and products. Put another way your offer needs to be one of the features in the customer's ecology. The aim is to become an integral part of this customer's regular life-pattern.

Just as recent events have shown we are more and more connected. The important thing is to stay in-touch with your customer's ecology and the customer her (or him) self. It is worth keeping that in mind, you may think 'it' is about being 'efficient' -- In reality, 'it' is about 'effective customer value'.

William.

References ...

1. Muir, John (1838-1914), http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Muir.
2. RUMMLER, G. A. & BRACHE, A. P. (1995) Improving Performance: How to Manage the White Space on the Organization Chart, 2nd Edn, Jossey-Bass. (Books24x7.com)
3. Value Engineering (Miles and Erlicher, ), http://www.12manage.com/methods_miles_value_engineering.html.
4. See further blog topics on Your Customer's Ecology

Labels: assets, capabilities, chain, customer service, customer value, marketing, value chain, value engineering

# posted by William : 14:24  0 Comments