Tweet

The Quickie Internal Customer Experience Diagnosis

Written by: Zachary Conen

Article Overview: Have any questions about the customer experience that your company delivers? Conduct a quick internal diagnostic. How does your company treat salespeople? The answer will be revealing.

The Quickie Internal Customer Experience Diagnosis

A great deal of ink has been spilled in this publication about the onset and arrival of the “experience economy.” Tell me if you’ve heard this before.

Your experience is your brand.

A differentiated customer experience is the only way to gain a sustainable competitive advantage.

You’ve heard it all before because someone like me has written it and you’ve read it. Or vice versa. And it all makes sense and is quite logical, and many companies are engaging outside consultants or creating cross-departmental internal teams to gauge their readiness for the experience economy and fill the gaps where they are clearly leaking goodwill.

On the flip side, many aren’t. The financially blessed may be too preoccupied making money hand over fist to take an inward glance at their customer experience. The strategically myopic may not have committed the resources – political or financial – to shine a light on their business from the customer’s point of view. For whatever the reason, if you find yourself and your company in either of these two groups, you are clearly behind in the race to win the hearts and minds of the “experience economy” consumer. SO WHAT SHOULD YOU DO?

Relax. Don’t do anything rash like blowing up departmental silos, empowering your staff, integrating your technology or any other number of clichéd customer experience remedies. Do you want a window into the soul of your customer experience without hiring outside counsel to analyze it for you? Here’s a quick-and-dirty internal diagnostic that you can conduct just by observing your colleagues and asking one simple question.

How does your organization treat the salespeople that call on you, day in and day out?
Are they treated like pariahs or like potential customers. Are they ignored, given the run around and routed into voicemail purgatory or do they receive a prompt, courteous call back because…well, everyone does! If you recognize your company in one category or the other, then you’ve successfully completed the diagnostic. If you identify with the latter scenario, then congratulations are in order. Chances are the respect and responsiveness you show the salesperson is reflective of the values of your organization and how they are put into practice. Typically, this positive manifestation of your corporate DNA can’t help but leach into the external interactions you have with your customers…and the customer relationships that you strengthen at each of these interactions.

If the former sounds more like your organization, then...your customer relationships are suffering and you’ve got some work to do.

But they’re just salespeople, you say. Bottom-feeders in the corporate food-chain, impervious to insult and years of biological evolution. They almost expect to run the gauntlet of disregard and disrespect.

While the last statement may be true (what good salesperson doesn’t relish a good “how-I-slew-the-evil-gatekeeper” fairy tale), it’s no excuse for the way this treatment represents your brand internally and almost certainly compromises it externally. Though you may think organizationally you can “turn-on” a customer-centric approach when faced with an actual customer, chances are your treatment of the salesperson is more reflective of your natural state of being. A leopard doesn’t change its spots, and a company willing to brush one “nuisance” under the rug…doesn’t change its spots either.

Please don’t mistake this for an unequivocal “be nice to salespeople” paean, as you are actually doing a service by ignoring those who call on you without a clue for how their offering may benefit your company. Nor should you confuse it for a comprehensive measure of the customer experience your company is prepared to deliver. Think of it as a home pregnancy test for the customer experience – it’s not foolproof, but it is a pretty good indicator that either a.) you’re going to have a baby in nine months or b.) your company is internally wired to provide a positive customer experience.

Full disclosure time. I am employed by a consultancy that works with clients on their “customer experience,” from initial assessment to the full design and implementation of the “optimal” customer experience, whatever that may be. (People shouldn’t take this whole quickie internal diagnostic thing toooo seriously, or my CEO might have issues with this article!) Take it from me - there is no greater death knell in the sales process than when a company promptly returns a phone call or replies to an email. Chances are…they don’t need our help.

The companies that have returned my phone calls immediately – and have never become clients - reads like the Dean’s List from Customer is King University. Disney. Enterprise Rent-A-Car. Southwest Airlines. Need I go on? And this is a call from a no-name representative from a no-name consulting firm in Suburban Philadelphia - not Bill Deloitte or Jimmy McKinsey.

There’s an old joke that gets a workout on the rubber-chicken banquet circuit about the general low esteem in which the sales profession is held. The general premise is that a salesman walks uninvited into an office, only to be confronted with a sign that reads “We shoot every 3rd Salesman…and the 2nd just left.” Amusing, to be sure, and (hopefully) an exaggeration of the literal treatment of salespeople in corporate America.
Unfortunately, however, it probably is reflective of a prevailing attitude in the C-suite, and one which can’t help but undermine all of the time, energy, thought and resources being poured into the “experience economy.” Don’t think you can line up salesman in the cross-hairs…and in the same motion give your customers a hug. Your customers and prospects will sense the presence of unfriendly fire and seek their big, warm customer experience hug elsewhere.

Related Articles
  Three Points of Need or Buyer Pain
  100 Ways to Succeed #85
  Marketing Rx
  Indecent Proposals
  BE DiFFERENT Rules System

Article Tags: colleagues, customer experience, experience economy, flip side, gaps, goodwill, hand over fist, hearts and minds, inward glance, making money, money hand, pariahs, point of view, purgatory, rash, salespeople, silos, sustainable competitive advantage



Related Forum Posts
Re: Two Useful Books To Help You Focus On The CLIENT - Hi David, To add to your thread, I'd like to recommend Jonathan Tisch's "Chocolates On The Pillow Aren't Enough: Reinventing The Customer Experience". Tisch's book includes content on "Welcoming Customers", "The New Art of Customization", "The Challenges of Customer Diversity" and "Offering Something Extra to Your Customers" to name a few.
Re: SEO for your small business: 4 tips - Hi Resumewebsite, Internal links can only work if you target it to appropriate page i.e when user click on that make sure the user get relevant information.
My reading log - Hi OmnivoreInk, Before starting my business, I read the following books as research: -"The Art of the Start" by Guy Kawasaki -"The AdSense Code" by Joel Comm -"Don't Think Pink" and "Mind Your X's and Y's" by Lisa Johnson And since then I've continued my "research" by reading (in this order): -"Technical Tennis" by Rod Cross -"For One More Day" by Mitch Albom -"The Twits" by Roald Dahl -"Little Black Book of Connections" by Jeffrey Gitomer -"The Secret" by Rhonda Byrne -"The Profitable Retailer" by Doug Fleener -"Blink" by Malcolm Gladwell -"Little Gold Book of YES! Attitude" by Jeffrey Gitomer -"The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian" by C.S. Lewis -"Little Green Book of Getting Your Way" by Jeffrey Gitomer -"Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" by J.K. Rowling And I'm currently reading and am in the process of finishing the following: -"There's No Such Thing as Public Speaking" by Jeanette and Roy Henderson -"The Tipping Point" by Malcolm Gladwell -"The Book of Tells" by Peter Collett -"Little Red Book of Sales Answers" by Jeffrey Gitomer -"Chocolates on the Pillow Aren't Enough: Reinventing The Customer Experience" by Jonathan M. Tisch -"The Artist's Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity" by Julia Cameron -"The Inner Game of Tennis" by Timothy Gallwey
Re: Search Engine Optimization - Off page links are crucial, but you still need to focus on the onpage SEO. Internal links and keywords can get you ranked alone for some keywords.
Re: Are you going to use Facebook Timeline? - Hi apu, I Recently used Facebook Timelines, actually it seems like a Facebook blog which makes profile page more attractive but i don't think it will help in internet marketing because it also slow the speed of Facebook Page. Share your Experience!


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Tweet

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Ten Steps to Go from Idea to E-book for Sale

Top 5 Qualities in an Outsourcing Company

How To Improve Your CTA (Call To Action)

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.