Where's the passion?

From the Peppers and Rogers web site, comes an exerpt from Lior Arussy's book, Passionate and Profitable, Why Customer Strategies Fail and Ten Steps to Do Them Right. The pdf file is the first chapter of the book which outlines ten fatal mistakes business make in trying to focus on the customer. The numbers in parentheses refer to the Baldrige Criteria which address theses "fatal" mistakes.

The author points out that in spite of many so-called customer initiatives, customers are feeling more neglected than ever and that without loyal customers, a business is doomed to fail.

1. "Culture of the New"

We all like new things. New is good. Old is bad. This "culture of the new" will lead employees to lavish attention on new customers while ignoring the old. (3)

2. "Lipstick on the Pig"

Customer strategies are not cosmetics. They must have substance. A pig with lipstick is still a pig......and customers know it. (1,2,6)

3. "Passion Loss"

Every company begins with a passionate entrepreneur with a good idea. As the company grows, the bean counters take over and the bottom line becomes the most important thing. The passion is lost. Without the passion, the product becomes a commodity and the company becomes vulnerable to the competition. (1,3)

4. "Real Cost of Cost Reduction"

There's no free lunch and there's no free cost reduction. Someone pays, and that someone is the customer. Cost reductions dilute the relationship with the customers. (3,6)

5. "Failure to Operationalize"

A customer-centered initiative must have a company-wide strategy. Without a plan, it's just a nice idea. (1,2,3,6)

6. "You Get What You Pay For"

Traditionally, employees are paid for productivity; quantity, not quality. If you don't back up your customer-focus initiative with a matching compensation program, employees will get the idea that it's really not that important. They believe that you're saying "This is not important to us, but we want you to volunteer to take care of this yourself." (5)

7. "Management of Change"

"Change does not happen by itself." Pepole don't like change. They're afraid of change. Management of change must be a key part of any new strategy. (1,2,5)

8. "Lack of Leadership"

Get out of your comfort zone. Company leadership must look at the business through the eyes of the customer. (1)

9. "Unstructured Relationship"

What is the long-term strategy for each customer? Do you have one, or do you make a sale and hope for the best? The author makes a strong case when he says that "In our research, we could not find a single well-documented customer plan detailing a two to three-year relationship." No company can survive without long-term relationships with their customers. It's amazing that this key fact goes unrecognized by so many companies. (1,2,3)

10. "Technology Shortcut"

Customer strategy does not mean buying a new piece of technology. That may be part of it, but the technology is just a tool. There are no shortcuts when it comes to building a relationship with customers. (1,2,3,4,6)


Read the exerpt here, and if you like it, you can purchase the book here. You can also subscribe to Peppers and Rogers excellent newsletter on their web site.