Let me confess this now. I cry when watching films – probably a lot more than is “normal” for a bloke, but there’s just something about a big screen, human story (or in some cases cartoon or puppet story) that gets inside me and brings tears to my eyes. I know, I know, “man up” I hear you cry but I fear it’s a losing battle and I will forever get a little misty eyed when gazing at the silver screen or the telly. On the plus side I can get really excited about films – they inspire me to think.
Last weekend I sat down with the family to watch the first of the Xmas films – Miracle on 34th Street (featuring the fabulous Dickie Attenborough) and yes, I did have a moist eye at the end as the State of New York declared its belief in Santa Claus but that’s not the point.
The point is, as I watched the film I was inspired again by Santa Claus/Kris Kringle’s attitude to customer service. For those of you who haven’t seen the film – there is a wonderful scene where a shopper “corners” a manager of Coles’ department store, seemingly to “complain” about the advice she has just been given by the stores Santa (Kris Kringle), who has advised her that the toy she wants to buy for her child is much cheaper at the store down the street. Just as the manager is beginning to apologise the shopper announces that if that is the kind of service Coles is offering to their clients then she will be shopping there for all her household items not just Xmas toys. Stunned but delighted the manager realises that Coles (thanks to Santa) has stumbled upon a truly differentiated customer experience and runs off to pitch the idea to the Board. Of course, as this is Hollywood the idea works brilliantly and Coles’ has people queuing out of the doors delighted by the stores new service mantra.
Now I know that the idea of being “reassuringly honest” has and is being tried in a number of businesses (e.g AVIVA – “Quote me Happy”) to drive loyalty and better quality business. As such, whilst deeply refreshing and good for the soul, it is not a new or novel approach even if it is a rarity. However, what really struck me is that what Santa “gets” so clearly is that his organisation doesn’t “own” the customer. His empathy with the customer is profound and he has a willingness to serve the customer that is above all else. He is a true “partner” - he has set the customer free to make the right decision.
We all know that as customers this is how we’d like to be treated by those institutions who aspire to be our “partners”. Many supermarkets, banks, insurers, telcos, petrol companies, retailers and utilities companies want to be more than a company delivering a transaction. Most really want us to have a loyalty inducing customer experience when we interact with them but too often they struggle to deliver it leaving us with the feeling that somehow we just became a captive, a “share of wallet”, a plus in someone’s sales figures or a sucker. Why? – Surely by now we have understood the societal and economic impacts of being honest and the disastrous effects of miss-selling, miss -appropriating and miss-managing the customer. What is the solution?
To deliver a compelling “partner like” experience to its customers an organisation needs to take a number of lessons out of Santa Claus’s manual. So here are four things that Santa gets right that enables him to be a real partner.
1) He has real confidence in his brand and product – he is not trying to sell a substandard, immoral or environmentally damaging product. Xmas is cool. He does not have to have regulators haranguing him to “treat his customers fairly” – it’s what he wants to do. His reputation is exceedingly important and he will not jeopardise it.
2) He knows his customers really well – he knows what they like and he listens to them – his data sources and analytics capabilities are so good he even knows who’s been naughty and who’s been nice.
3) He knows what’s right for us – like a good parent he is able to analyse and make sense of the welter of mixed messages that his customers emit and find the product that is actually what the customer wants or needs – which may be different from the product that the customer originally thought they might want.
4) When his customers makes their choices he delivers – he has a genius supply chain and is capable of deploying all kinds of ground breaking technology (flying reindeers etc) to ensure that each and every one of his customers feels special and cared for.
5) He only employs people who are prepared to believe in the product – now whilst his recruitment requirements (ability to make toys by hand, ability to live in cold climate, ability to wear garish hats and pointy cloth shoes) may seem odd to some but we all know that in order for his business to work the people who work in it have to believe in what they are doing and particularly who they work for.
So in a digital world my advice to businesses is as follows:
1) Build great products – designed with, for and by your customers
2) Deploy “digital senses” (social, local and mobile capabilities) that allow you to really get to know your customers well
3) Build really smart data and analytics capabilities that are deeply customer sensitive and allow you to personalise your products
4) Redesign your operational processes using digital capabilities fulfil your customers need as if it was magic
5) Employ people who live in the digital world, believe in what you are doing and have the right capabilities
Happy Xmas and thank you Santa Claus
