Category — What Customers Want

Clearing out the kitchen cupboard where I throw all my papers this week, I came across an IBM proposal dated November 1997 outlining how they could help me with the Customer Information Programme I was running at the time - for a mutual organization as it happens.  As I’m a great believer in serendipity, I had to wonder why this particular document had suddenly decided to reveal itself?

Flicking though its pages the names of the wide variety of people I worked with so closely on that ground breaking work brought back memories: the collaborative mix of IT and business skills; the innovative ideas from outside that we shaped to our own business needs; the smiles and tears, success and politics.  Some names, I still know well others I’ve completely lost touch with.  However, I’d like to thank Merlin Stone, Andrew Law, Derek Starling, Pete De’Giovanni, Chris Atkinson, Kate Lennard, Leslie Ross, and Alistair Stevenson for all their support and guidance.  The results of the work we did ten years ago has travelled the world and been the base of good CRM practices in many companies.

And if you’re goggling your names and find this, and we’ve lost touch, do send a hello, I’d like to tell you what happened to all our ideas!!

People talk about customer engagement as a single state instead of a relationship building process.  You start by engaging someone in a conversation; as you learn more you do more together, and eventually you might engage in a partnership.  Along the way are many stages of engagement, all facilitated by the great ‘selling’ art of listening and learning?

Listening and learning in CRM means collecting data and turning it into actionable insight.  A process fraught with difficulty as everyone seeking that ‘single customer view’ knows.  Drowning in data in a desert of insight is a familiar experience; but now crocodiles lurk in the waters - frustrated customers who give false data.

Customers cannot be blamed; they feel hunted by junk mail, intrusive cold calling, and fatuous communications at every turn.  Everyone wants their data - particularly the commoditised list brokers seeking competitive advantage - their renewal dates, family interests, and lifestyles; but it is not used to give them back value.  So they sign up to preference scheme to keep organizations at bay - 14.8m UK numbers are now registered with the telephone preference scheme alone.

The UK Government is now making things worse with even more intrusive surveillance - in October an act was passed to allow over 600 public organizations access to mobile and landline call logs, which telecom companies now have to keep for a year. The situation can only get worse.

Customers know their data is valuable and will soon start to trade in it.  On the horizon, advancing like Omar Sharif’ in Lawrence of Arabia lurk personal data banks and open ID’s where customers keep their own ID and data for online access to those granted permission.

The only recourse is a better engagement process.

Last night I experienced my first slow food event.  Ironically I was dashing about trying to sort the kids out before I went.

The event was the first for the Cheshire region and offered a "Cheshire Ploughman’s Tasting" held in a barn at the Spitting Feathers Brewery in Waverton, Chester.  An impressive range of slow foods was showcased.  We grabbed rich, fresh breads from the Food for Thought Bakery in Crewe, smothered it with Charlie’s farm butter from Weaverham, topped that both fruity, creamy cheeses from Anne Connolly of Malpas and rich, home-made pates from Katie Cooks of Wilmslow.  An organic side salad from Roots of the Earth in Poole complemented our plate which was washed down with either Windsor’s apple juice from Willington or, for me, one of a range of beers from the micro-brewery on the farm.   We were offered the opportunity to buy products direct from the producers after our meal - we indulged in a fab pasta sauce from Eliot Green’s School of Cookery with labels made by the local school as well as all the ingredients for a great ploughman’s.

The Slow Food movement which was started in Italy has gained momentum, campaigning for great tasting food which is sourced locally and is produced in a sustainable way, minimising both impact on the environment and artificial intervention.  And there is no obsession with the perfect shaped veg.

The event last night contributed to growing that momentum and establishing a local heart to the concept.  We met some great enthusiasts as we discussed the ethos of slow food over huge crusts of bread and lively cheese.  However, the fact we attended illustrates that we are already advocates.

One of the critical objectives of the movement must be education, particularly among children whose early eating habits establish long-term behaviours and choices.  There were a couple of children there who seemed to be tucking in with as much enthusiasm and it would be great to see more events designed around kids.  Our local school is currently considering the sourcing of ‘slow’ food for school dinners, discussing how local producers can bring produce to a hub which is then delivered to the school kitchen.  I think that the Slow Food movement is going to be an essential part of our Cheshire community, working with our kids to get them more involved too.  I’ll raise my glass of organic beer to that.

The Slow Food movement is about taking the concept to local areas.  Each local branch establishes a community offering tailored events.  The communities are developing organically, gently finding their feet and building a proposition based on a strong belief in local, organic, great tasting food.   Why not get involved early and join your local group?  Visit http://www.slowfood.org.uk/

 I got an invite to Facebook a few months ago; ever since I’ve been working out what to do with it.  Uploading a planet so people can send me a space creature isn’t really my thing, and I’m not into vampire games either - well not in the full glare of online publicity!!   With social network tools, and indeed other ‘content’ devices like loyalty cards, you have,as a cutomer, to work out what they can do for you - that’s where good customer research comes in.   

So, I uploaded a respectable number of friends; a real game of trial and error to find my generation.  I ended up thinking of friends who were techies, into online communities, or under 35, and then trying to identify them from the photos of everyone else with the same name!!   I couldn’t understand how one Arab friend looked so different, until my husband pointed out it was a picture of Jack Nicholson!!

Then, I came across my nieces, nephews and godchildren: of course most of this generation are members of Facebook.  So when I next saw them I mentioned I’d found them and got the response that they’d be happy to be ‘friends’.  The only person to turn me down was my son, who didn’t think having his Mum as a friend was cool.  However, his girlfriend was quite happy to link up - a good way to soften up a future ‘mother in law’ for babysitting perhaps!!

Anyway, Facebook is now an excellent way to keep up with my ‘generation xers’ and they share their problems and triumphs - Aunties can be a better ear and allowed to be more eccentric than parents!!  But the most unexpected benefit is that after years of birthday and Christmas presents I now get thank you notes on my wall - a little bit more personal than the ‘Dear Aunty Jean, thank you for the lovely etch-a-sketch you sent me for Christmas’, that I was forced to write on squirrel headed notepaper. 

So what has this got to do with business?  Well,  researching your customer segments for a start - but most of all, the thank you letters just show that if you make something accessible and fun then ‘customers’ will take it up.  That’s how Amazon started, and that is what a good customer experience is all about.