{"id":63447,"date":"2011-07-11T09:01:00","date_gmt":"2011-07-11T16:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/customerthink.com\/why_culture_is_the_achilles_heel_of_your_customer_experience_efforts_part_ii\/"},"modified":"2011-07-11T09:01:00","modified_gmt":"2011-07-11T16:01:00","slug":"why_culture_is_the_achilles_heel_of_your_customer_experience_efforts_part_ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/why_culture_is_the_achilles_heel_of_your_customer_experience_efforts_part_ii\/","title":{"rendered":"Why culture is the ‘Achilles Heel’ of your customer experience efforts (Part II)"},"content":{"rendered":"

This post concludes the train of thought that I shared in an earlier post – Why culture is the Achilles Heel of your customer experience efforts (Part I).<\/a> – I encourage you to read it to get the most out of this post.<\/p>\n

Let’s forget morality and focus on ‘workability’. By ‘workability’ I am addressing the pragmatic dimension. For example if you want to fly a 747 from London to New York you simply need an airworthy aeroplane, the right fuel, experienced pilots, the right staff etc – these are the conditions of workability for the flight. If you do not have these in place then your plane may get off the ground but it is highly likely to make it to New York. So what are the conditions of workability for a customer-centric orientation that builds customer loyalty?<\/p>\n

The foundation of customer loyalty is earning and cultivating trust<\/h3>\n

In a world full of suppliers who offer pretty much the same goods who would you choose to do business with? If you are like most of humanity then you will instinctively do business with the one that you trust the most. Don Peppers & Martha Rogers have taken a good look at the whole trust thing in their book ‘Rules to Break & Laws to Follow’. So allow me to share their wisdom with you. Here are the laws that they recommend that you follow:<\/p>\n

1. Earn and keep the trust of your customers<\/span><\/h4>\n

The key point I want to stress here is the word ‘earn’<\/strong>. Yes, you need to earn it by doing the right thing (honest, fairness, integrity)<\/em><\/strong> as well as doing things right (competence, ease, access, efficiency…). It means paying as much attention to the social and moral aspects as it does the economic aspect<\/strong><\/em>. Are you a fit and proper person\/organisation? Which is another way of asking: can you be trusted to act honorably\/ethically?
<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

2. Really taking your customer’s point of view means treating each customer with the fairness you would want if you were the customer.<\/span><\/h4>\n

At a philosophical level you can look at this either through John Rawls veil of ignorance<\/a> or refer to some of the oldest philosophies used to guide human relations.<\/strong><\/em> Using the lens of the ‘veil of ignorance’ ask yourself how would I design the system (roles, rules, interactions….) if I did not know if I would end up playing the role of the customer or the enterprise? I used to use this with my two children when they would quarrel over cake: one of them got to cut the cake into two pieces and then the other one got to choose (first) which slice he wanted. This system ensured fairness.<\/p>\n

If we turn towards the world’s great religions then with Christianity you have<\/strong> th<\/em>e Golden Rule<\/strong><\/em>. Rabbi Hillel when asked about the Torah replied “Do not do unto others that which is hateful to you, the rest is merely commentary.<\/strong><\/em>” Confucius stated “What you do not wish upon yourself, extend not to others.” Mohammed said “None of your truly believe until he loves for his brother what he loves for himself.<\/strong><\/em>” And in the holy book (Mahabharata) of the oldest religion (Hinduism) you have “This is the sum of duty: do naught unto others what you would not have them do unto you<\/strong><\/em>.”<\/p>\n

At a practical level it means taking off your shoes and walking the shoes of your customers<\/strong><\/em>. It means experiencing how it feels to pick a mobile phone plan when there are so many to choose from, so many conditions, so many variables? It means experiencing what it is like to set-up and use the product with instructions that occurs as being useless? It means experiencing what it is like not to be able to get hold of helpful human being when you have an urgent need and having to navigate a ‘hard to make sense of’ IVR and so forth. Not reading a report about it – actually experiencing it by doing it for real.<\/p>\n

Don and Martha say it best when they write:<\/p>\n