The answer is – Everyone. Every employee, every supplier, every contractor or business partner.
In a recent blog post Things To Tell People Who Give You Money, Chris Reaburn raised my eyebrow with this line:
“A bill is another customer touch point, but one with a unique opportunity to reinforce the value that the provider brings me on a monthly basis”
As an interaction touch point, I agree with Chris. An invoice is a communication channel of sorts through which value-added information can be delivered to enhance the customer experience. As example, he mentioned how some utilities are now reporting comparative consumption data vis-a-vis similar households in the neighborhood.
So, that got me thinking about all the touch points that impact the customer experience. And, not only value creation at each touch point, but image creation and customer equity enhancement. We traditionally focus on “front office” functions of sales, marketing and customer service as the responsible parties for customer interaction. Then I saw this:
This was on the desk of a lobby receptionist at a Fortune 500 headquarters. The cynic can view this in the same light as those motivational posters that line the contact center break room walls. They are empty words without a corresponding culture and organizational alignment. And, in reality, titles are free. Just do a quick search on LinkedIn for former dot com CEOs. So, I asked the owner of this title to describe what it meant to her.
Turns out she was given rein to create her own title and this is what she came up with. That comment told me all I needed to know about what’s behind the words. This person truly believes and understands she has a tremendous responsibility with respect to the company’s public image. And, the organization has empowered her in this capacity.
Companies have been talking about customer centricity for years. And, we’ve seen too many PowerPoint slides showing the customer as the center of the corporate ecosystem, with all functions focused on the customers’ every need. The reality, in most cases, is far from those pictures.
Ask around your organization: “who is your customer?” Ask Finance, AP/AR, Manufacturing, Engineering, pick a department. See what kind of responses you get.
