Sometimes it is easier and more inspirational to write in a different location, rather than being in my own office.

Whilst in Istanbul, I have noticed how entrepreneurial and sales focused the Turkish are. For example, I cannot walk down the street without somebody trying to sell me a carpet, a guidebook, a hat, a bus tour, a meal in a restaurant, and a whole range of other products and services.

A great demonstration of these Turkish entrepreneurs ability to change and meet customers demands, was when it started raining today.

Yesterday the street vendor’s selling focus was on guidebooks, today they are out in force selling umbrellas.

I’m sure if there was a heatwave tomorrow they would switch to selling sunglasses, sun hats and sun tan lotion.

There is a good lesson to be learnt from these Street centres and their rapid ability to adapt and change to the changing needs and wants of their prospective customers.

When I blog, I normally write about how to thrill, WOW and dazzle customers by employees giving customers an exceptional experience.

In this post, I want to share a video when the ‘product’ WOWs customers. But who created the product? Employees!

For companies however, it’s important to know that social media is your customers (happy and unhappy) talking about you… telling their friends – and the world all about you.

Whether customers say good or bad things about you is largely down to the experience they have dealing with your company, it’s products and your employees.

For me, any social media strategy has to include the ‘people’ element – and make sure ALL employees understand their role in shaping a customer’s experience (see slide 70 of the first presentation).

So, what can do you do to make the most of social media?

To start with, simply make sure you WOW your customers so they only have good things to say (tweet!) about you…

I’ve cut and pasted an interesting section of it. What follows are Drayton’s words…

A while ago, Buick paid Cap Gemini Ernst & Young to ask people what made them buy their last new car. Obviously people were influenced by more than one thing, but here are the answers:

• Car firms always spend a lot – maybe most – of their budget on TV. Only 17% of people said that influenced their decision.
• 26% said it was something they saw on the internet. I’ll lay heavy odds that figure would be higher now.
• But here it gets really interesting. 48% said they were swayed by direct mail from dealers – hardly the most imaginative material you’ll ever see.
• But that wasn’t the most effective motivator. Because 71% said they were most swayed by word of mouth. A friend suggested something to them.

We can never escape the fact that word-of-mouth or word-of-mouse is still the biggest influencer in a customer’s buying decision.

Hence, we always need to be on the ball to make sure ‘all employees’ are delivering a world-class experience for customers.

It’s the same technology they use to talk about you (saying both good and bad things about you, depending on their experience as a customer).

This company clearly sees how important it is to have somebody who owns the customer experience. It seems this role falls within the marketing department too.

Note how the responsibility is for getting more repeat and referral customers.

+++++++++++++++

Date posted : Thursday, December 02, 2010
Salary : £80000 – £100000 per annum + Bonus, pension, healthcare, etc.
Start Date :
Location : London
Sector : Marketing
Type : Permanent
A new role has arisen within an innovative financial services organisation as a Director of Customer Management. This role will report to the Head of UK Cards business and will have a KPI of driving a stimulation in customer card use by 50% through a major change programme in their customer management practices.

Beyond this, you will own of a number of other key business activities including:

- Customer retention
- Cross selling efforts – new cards, additional cards, bolt-ons and added value services and propositions
- Driving an improved customer experience across the business.

You will be leading one of the most influential business areas that drives bottom line results and has a direct impact on the company’s profitability.

This role will hold influence across the business, with customer management projects impacting both IT and Operations departments, so strong project management and influencing skills are going to be paramount.

The ambition for this role is to turn the company’s offering into a ‘first in wallet’ product with their customers and the card of choice across all customer segments.

There will be a team of up to 8 directly reporting, and around a team of 30 across the various business areas when working on cross department projects.

As with any role involving a complex customer base, this position requires someone with a sound analytical background.

Preferred industries include consulting, financial services, telecoms and other complex customer and product environments where insight sets the tone for a truth seeking culture based on data.

Role: Director of Customer Management
Location: London or Nottinghamshire
Salary: up to six figures (experience dependant)
Benefits: Significant bonus, good pension, healthcare, life assurance, etc

EXPERIENCE NECESSARY

- Highly numerate, exceptional problem solver, with a solid background in understanding customer behaviour and insights to drive business decisions
- Seasoned leader and experienced manager
- Experienced in a complex customer and product environment with responsibilities for customer retention, value proposition development, customer strategy and customer experience.
- Experience from a consulting firm, telecoms, financial services or other similarly large and complex customer orientated environment
- Data oriented individual who has a ‘truth seeking’ personality through insight
- Able to be effective in a highly analytical and numerical environment
- Demonstrable track record of driving business success through insight led customer management programmes

The interview process will be designed to test both your numerical, analytical and problem solving abilities through an online numerical test and a series of case study interviews.

Seldom do I feel like a king when I deal with companies as a customer.

Why is that?

I have a suggestion…

It’s because employees don’t know how much it really costs to acquire a new customer.

If employees were spending their own money on marketing, branding, lead generation, advertising, PR, PPC — and they knew the actual cost of getting a customers to choose you over your competitors — they would definitely treat you like royalty.

If they knew for example that the average cost to acquire a new customer was £30 – and the average profit per customer on their first visit to your store was just £1, they may start to think differently. I’m sure they would if they realise that the real profit is in repeat and referral business.

I’m sure if ‘cost of customer acquisition’ was a figure employees thought about and understood, it would lead to customers having a greater experience.

In this new Google TV advert, you’ll see how making Kevin Bacon the messenger gives the advert more meaning.

A great piece of marketing (I’d suspect it is quite expensive too). Having spent all this money on this advert, it’s critical that the product and customer experience  lives up to the customers expectation. That way, Google can get more people talking about the product – and not just the advert.