Four Keys to the Customer Kingdom

Unlock the communications to unlock the business

Optimize your message for more effective customer communications

When there's a task you don't want to do - either at home or in the office - how do you unload it onto some unsuspecting sap? Do you try to convince that person that he or she wants to do this job? Or do you play on the person's sympathies, convincing him or her to do it for you?

Either way sounds a little needy. But this exchange of ideas is really the crux of any business communication.

You have two paths. Either you convince customers that their business can't survive without your product, or you convince customers that you can shoehorn your product into their existing processes.

Customer communication is a decisive factor in determining which companies succeed in today's marketplace. To enhance your ability to better serve customers, you must capture, consolidate, analyze and distribute information about them at every touch point. Use the following four keys to open up your company to a wealth of new business.

Key 1 - Shift to a customer-focused business model

Most companies evolved over the course of the 20^th century with a business model focused on products. Undoing this focus is hard work.

Many companies are struggling to shift their current business model to a customer-centric one. This multifaceted transformation is a complex undertaking that affects processes daily. It is also difficult to communicate to customers.

Put your consumer hat on for a moment and ask yourself the following: Do you want to purchase products that a company believes will make you more productive? Or do you want the company to understand your situation and work cooperatively with you to solve your business problems?

If you prefer that companies focus on your needs instead of on how their products could work in your infrastructure, you're well on your way to recognizing the need for a customer-centric business model.

Improving customer-centric processes¹

The following examples are just a few of the reasons customer-centric processes can improve your company's messaging and communications.

• Customer-focused internal processes improve productivity. To create differentiation through customer relationships, it is necessary to first change how your business is organized and to develop customer-service processes before embarking on a customer relationship management (CRM) initiative.² Taking these steps smoothes and speeds internal processes in the long run.
• Customer-centric companies win new business. Thirty-seven percent of companies still have a strategic and operational focus on products and services they sell rather than on the people they sell them to.³ This opens up the marketplace to the companies that do make the customer-centric shift.
• CRM software use is not yet widespread. Only 30 percent of companies have actually implemented a commercial CRM software package, and most of these are only a year old. Of these companies, 54 percent have implemented just one part of CRM. Again, there's much room for improvement in meeting customer demands, and CRM can help you meet clients' needs.

We all have to learn to trust our customers to define their needs and to make decisions about what they need. Instead of selling, we need to help them buy what they need.

Acting within this new paradigm

Becoming customer-focused must go beyond lip service. This means we must look at the products we offer, the culture we work in, the processes we use to get things done and the way our business is organized, even our compensation and motivation systems. It all has to change.

Ways you can better handle customer communications include:

• Choice and flexibility - There is no single right way for customers to contact and interact with you. The right way is the way each customer wants to interact at that particular moment. And that method may change only occasionally or as much as daily. Regardless of their preferred method of interaction, your communication with customers must be consistent and clear.
• Ease-of-use - All channels of communication must be user-friendly - even for a novice or first-time user. Difficulty in finding information or getting service from your company is one of the quickest ways to lose customers.
• Quick and knowledgeable responses - Customers should be able to locate information quickly about products and services. When information can't be located, automatically direct customers to a channel that can quickly complete the request. But beware: By sending your customers on a merry-go-round chase through siloed channels, you soon chase customers to a competitor.
• Assurance - Each customer must feel that your word is as good as gold. When a value promise is made, you must keep it.
• Best value - In the end, customers want to feel they are receiving the best value for their money.

Moving to customer-centric marketing^[4

Since the benefits seem obvious, what tools can companies use to help make the shift? The challenge of transforming a product-driven company into a customer-focused enterprise can be hampered by internal processes, such as operating independently functioning business lines rather than basing the firm's organization on the particular customers or groups of customers served. To make the change, consider implementing the following processes:

1. Differentiate customers into segments by value and needs.
2. Discover the precise needs of each customer, by segment.
3. Access customer data and distribute it to authorized users.
4. Evaluate and develop products and services customized around customer segments or individual needs.
5. Redesign compensation and rewards to cause needed behavioral changes.

Key 2 - Deliver customer-focused, contextually relevant messages

What's the difference between a product-centric and customer-centric approach to communication? In a word, relevance.

Product-centric messages promote features and price, while customer-centric messages promote a totally personalized solution based on individual customer needs. Product-centric communication exploits the value of a single transaction, while customer-centric communication addresses the lifetime value of the one-to-one customer relationship.

This process begins with content about customer pains and issues instead of the wonders of products. First, show the customer that you understand their needs and their situation, and when you gain their trust, guide them to see how your products address their unique needs better than the products of your competitors.

It's no surprise that personally relevant communication is of the utmost importance to customers. In fact, one recent survey showed that only 26 percent of respondents would even act upon impersonal, "Dear Customer" correspondence. That leaves three-quarters of your customers unsatisfied. So, now is the time to trade in the "We-We" product-focused communication for the personalized "Me-Me" messages that build repeat business.

If you are doing this already, congratulations! If not, why not? When implemented correctly, customer-centric, contextually relevant communications enable you to:

• Build personal relationships that keep customers loyal.
• Strengthen customer satisfaction.
• Communicate customer specifics that reduce future inquiry (and thereby reduce cost of communications).

What does context mean?

To better understand the concept of context, let's take a lead from screenplay writer Linda Seger: "Characters don't exist in a vacuum. They're a product of their environment. A character from 17th-century France is different from one from Texas in 1980."

All consumption occurs within a context. That means every customer transaction occurs during interrelated conditions or situations that impact decision-making and the final outcome. The more you understand customer context, the less information customers have to supply to you, and the better you can serve them.

For example, in a consumer-based business, a newly retired father of adult children is quite contextually different from a 35-year-old father of two school-age children. Seger adds, "Understanding a character begins with understanding the context that surrounds the character. What is context? Compare context to an empty coffee cup. It's the space surrounding the character, which is then filled with the specifics of the story and characters. The contexts that most influence the character include the culture, time in history, location and occupation."

Additionally, context includes customer interests, behaviors and experiences, etc. These factors collectively determine the needs of the customer, as well as help marketers offer products and services to best satisfy those needs.

The contextual family

Contextually relevant messages fall within three types:

• Contextual content generally refers to customer-service scripts, articles, photos, illustrations, diagrams, videos, sounds, promotions, animations, navigational links, functionality and online tools that appear in the web browser view. Content is contextual when personalized for each individual visitor's situation - the visitor's fine-grained profile of demographics and informational interests, location, timing, needs and decision-making criteria.
• Contextual marketing includes promotions made relevant to each individual customer's situation while addressing the needs of the sponsoring enterprise (awareness, positioning, qualification, barrier identification, trust and closure). Contextual marketing brings customers and sellers together so that customers can make better decisions, faster and easier.
• Customized customer messages are highly effective ways to connect with customers, and get their attention, particularly when personalized to address the specific needs of the individual customer. Customized messages may include useful research or supplemental information that benefits the recipients and is relevant to their unique situation.

Even though producing such one-to-one communications is more resource-intensive (targeted materials have higher requirements for accuracy and timeliness), you can exploit customization strategies as tangible elements of differentiation. Attention to detail and attention to the customer as an individual are often overlooked, but invaluable, CRM principles for maintaining customer loyalty.

Developing this type of customized communication may expose some weaknesses in your current CRM technology support. Data access, knowledge management, document composition and contact-center software products are poised to fill this gap.^[5]

Key 3 - Communicate a clear, unique value proposition

To deliver an effective value proposition, start by developing an effective value message differentiated by exceptional customer service. By improving customer satisfaction, marketers are discovering they can turn segments previously labeled as underperformers into profitable and loyal customers.

Start by understanding customers on an individual level and aggregating this "true view" into segments. Then serve each segment in an appropriate, relevant manner.

Again, consider that the customer on the home computer has the time and display space for a more complex marketing message, while the customer on the mobile phone needs a quicker and more concise pitch. To emerge from industry obscurity, develop your customer communications strategies around your channel strategies, making sure each customer receives messages via his/her preferred channel.

On the mobile phone or in the mailbox, make it your business to know where and how to best reach customers.

Improve the value proposition

Information-based strategies leverage expert knowledge of the profitability, preferences and transaction histories of individual customers to increase the effectiveness of marketing, sales and service. To transform your ho-hum, run-of-the-mill value message into an eye-popping, head-turning, "must have" proposition that positions you head and shoulders above the competition, implement the following solutions:

• Define what makes your product-service offerings unique and better than those of your competitors.
• Improve customer service and market it as a key differentiator.
• Offer value-added services to your most profitable clients.
• Provide highly customized, one-to-one relationships, through a personalized selling environment.

Key 4 - Provide consistent communications

Failure to deliver a consistent message across all touch points has decreased marketers' ability to meet service requirements. The result has been waning customer satisfaction levels and increased service costs.

Sharing customer data throughout your enterprise is mission-critical for effectively reversing this harmful trend. Today's corporations must have processes in place to address customer difficulties in the most efficient manner possible. The ability to understand customer needs, the ability to anticipate and improve service, and last but not least, the ability to protect customer privacy are imperative.

Communications through channels must be accurate and contextually relevant to truly assist consumers in decision-making. Providing consistent transactions through enterprise-wide information sharing makes it possible for you to deliver exceptional service while protecting your professional image.

Using the keys across the customer universe

Now that you understand how to speak directly to the distracted 21^st-century customer, you're ready for the next step. It's time to take your contextual, personalized and value-laden message on the road.

Most consumers receive communications through multiple channels. They hear a radio ad for your product while stuck in traffic. They read your banner ad while their weather forecast loads. They see snippets of your TV commercial as they fast-forward through the break.

Delivering a consistent and memorable message across multiple channels is the next step. The last article in this series reveals new insights and techniques to create that value, no matter what the media. Watch for it in the next issue of Expert Access.

About the Author
Jay McKeever is Director of Worldwide Marketing for software and services provider, Cincom Systems. He is also a current member of Xavier University's Board of Executive Advisors for the Department of Marketing, Williams College of Business.

1. Building Better Customer Relationships, Fujitsu Consulting
2. Gartner Report, March 2001 as reported in Cincom EMEA Research
3. Fujitsu Consulting: Building Better Customer Relationships, 2002, pp 23
4. One-to-One B2B, Peppers and Rogers
5. Doculabs Report: Functional Assessment of Cincom Document Solutions™