Bring the Customer to the Center
About a week ago, while at the office, I made and offhanded - and probably inappropriate - remark. Then, a couple of my coworkers expanded upon my remark - taking it to probably an even more inappropriate level. We have a pretty loose office, so we all just went with it. It was funny (No, I'm not going to tell you the joke), and no one was offended, so it was OK. Or so we thought. What we didn't realize was that we jokesters were surrounding Dylan, who just happened to be on the phone with a customer, and that customer was placing a fairly substantial order. Apparently, the customer heard everything that was said, and was clearly taken aback. DOH!!!
We should have known better. Why? Because we spend our time around books and thought leaders who have made one thing very clear as we move forward: MARKETING IS EVERYONE'S RESPONSIBILITY. No longer is the perception of a company controlled simply by ad folks and marketing gurus. Marketing happens on every level - from the CEO to the Customer Service worker to the product design team. To drive this home, check out the book, The Marketing Mavens, by Noel Capon.
The problem is that far too many companies treat marketing like it was treated in the era when suppliers dominated the message. Why is this a problem? For one, that era is long gone. Our current business landscape is one of "oversupply and underdemand." We as consumers have been flooded with products and services to the point where more stuff is out there than can be absorbed, used, and supported. In this kind of world, if you are relying on controlling the message to sell your stuff, you better have a plan B for when you find yourself 50 lengths back coming into the stretch run.
A lot of people are still a bit skeptical about "new marketing" because they say it lacks support and evidence. Well, those people can shut up now, because Noel Capon bases everything in this book on a four-year-long research program that spanned twenty-five industries. The goal of the study was to determine what the "winners" did differently than the belly-floppers within each industry. The answer? "Winners, or Marketing Mavens, place customers at the center of their business and make marketing everyone's job."
What exactly does "putting the customer at the center" mean? How is "marketing everyone's job?" Let's look at the Mayo Clinic as an example. There are hospitals, doctors' offices, and clinics EVERYWHERE. Mayo decided that being technical experts wasn't enough. They realized that they need to make the clinical visit a customer experience. By putting the patient (customer) at the center, they were able to design settings and systems that make a doctor visit an enjoyable one - an experience that "motivates people to pay the extra travel and lodging expenses not covered by insurance."
Instead of waiting until after the fact to "market" their clinic, marketing was done at the very early stages. If you create a great customer experience, the clinic will market itself; people will talk; word will spread.
When you look at one or two companies as examples, that small sample size can be misleading. But when you spend four years researching twenty-five industries, and the same qualities keep being found among the winners, the evidence speaks for itself. Marketing Mavens has the research to back up what a lot of thought leaders have been espousing for a couple years now. It's time to get on board.
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