Stat of the week: Struggles with differentiation

We’re nearing the end of my stat of the week series. We’ve had quite a ride learning from the leaders I call Haves – those from our research who said YES, here is a definition of customer experience that is well understood throughout their organizations.

This week we learn from the Have Nots – those who said NO, there is no such understanding of customer experience across their organizations.

I don’t present this view to bash the Have Nots, but to show how not having a defined customer experience makes getting a performance payoff the decisions made across your organization much, much more difficult. And really, who wants difficult?

Photo by: ellie

We asked 644 leaders about their organization’s performance on this statement: ”We effectively differentiate ourselves from our competitors.”

Just 17% of Have Nots said they were clearly differentiating themselves from their competition.

Only 10% said they were using product or service features to demonstrate how they solve the prospect’s needs.

Think about it for a second. Over 80% of the Have Nots do not clearly differentiate themselves from their competition. Mind boggling, isn’t it? If they had done the work to define their customer experience (and along the way the need they are solving best for their target customer), they’d have a clear guide line for daily decisions. They would be able to differentiate themselves by designing products and services, customer touchpoints, pricing, and operations actions to deliver on the target experience.

When I see stats like this, it makes me think, “No wonder organizations with a well-defined customer experience are twice as likely to beat their profit targets.”  What does it make you think?