Customer Experience is a Culture not a Project

February 2, 2012 By 25 Comments

Customer Experience is a Culture not a ProjectOne of the benefits of my role as Chief Relationship Officer at CEO Connection is the opportunity to have fascinating business conversations with a number of mid-market CEOs. Last week I spoke with the head of a rapidly expanding, international company who has garnered remarkable growth statistics in her industry.

The most interesting part of our conversation centered on her belief that driving double-digit growth for more than ten years straight would not be her most challenging accomplishment. Rather, it’s the one ahead of her: creating a holistic approach to customer experience in all parts of the organization and in every store across the globe.

The Project Mindset

This CEO understands that her company is entering a new phase where growth will come from customers’ experience with the brand rather than from rapid, physical expansion. But the challenge she is facing is her executive team is viewing “customer experience” as a “project.” It is anything but.

Customer experience is part of a company’s culture. And culture starts within, with each employee.

Hospitality, for Example

One important aspect of customer experience we discussed was hospitality. This isn’t something you can “turn on” when you open a store in the morning and “turn off” when you close at the end of the day.

For a customer to genuinely feel that they’ve been treated warmly and with sincere friendliness you need employees who are like this by nature; you need a company that is like this by nature. And you need an organization that is hospitable in its approach to each other as work is done in corporate offices and on store floors.

The same holds true for every other aspect of customer experience, including respect, quality, and the higher purpose on which the company was founded, often aspirational in nature.

Essentially, it’s about Culture

And thus the need for a holistic approach to customer experience rather than a “project” mindset. When corporate employees create a company-wide project or strategic initiative there is a tendency (in my experience) to create written guidelines that are approved by the legal department and then communicated in a systematic manner via the corporate communications team, who may know nothing about the realities of day-to-day operations.  Communication efforts are tallied, actions are recorded, surveys are done to measure internal results, and ultimately teams move on to a new project.

A holistic approach is entirely different. It’s about creating a culture built on solid values that says and inherently exudes, for example, “This is who we are. We are a company that believes in hospitality and respect. We believe in quality products and quality of life. We, as individuals, believe in something larger than ourselves.” And it’s about both customers and employees experiencing this as deep-seated beliefs that permeate all aspects and parts of the company.

Customer experience is not a project.

What do you think?

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25 Comments Filed Under: CEO Interviews, Executive, Leadership, Marketing Tagged With: , , , , ,

Facing Content Marketing Challenges? Let the Super Friends Save You

April 21, 2011 By 8 Comments

I’m honored and thrilled to announce that I will be a part of the dynamic consultant lineup that the Content Marketing Institute (CMI) has put together for its just-launched Consulting business (CMIC).

In conversations about the new business with Robert Rose, CMIC’s first “Strategist in Residence” he was referring to this team of seven individual consultants as the “Super Friends.”  What I loved about the analogy was the fact that we truly do come to this new CMIC team with different experiences and unique ‘superpowers’ – making the group a formidable team as a whole.

The Challenge

And for what better reason to assemble such a group than to take on the mighty challenges of content marketing?  Content Marketing is changing the way companies interact with and create relationships with their customers, and is the fuel that gives social media tremendous power.

When done well, content marketing gives consumers, clients, customers, collaborators and partners a much better understanding of a company’s vision and values and enables the customer to be better at what they do and love.  Said differently, when done well content marketing is both enlightening and empowering!  Something the Super Friends know a thing or two about.

As eloquently stated by Joe Pulizzi, Executive Director of CMI, “Our goals are simple.  We want to help marketers establish great content marketing strategies.   After launching CMI last May, inquiries came pouring in asking how an organization could actually create that strategy.  And when we recognized some of the enormously talented people that we had helping to contribute knowledge – it just made complete sense to combine them into a cohesive, unified consulting practice.”

I could not be more honored to be on the team with:

  • Ardath Albee - CEO of Marketing Interactions, Inc. and the author of the book eMarketing Strategies for the Complex Sale.
  • Jason Falls – author of the noted industry blog SocialMediaExplorer.com, and a leading marketing strategist.
  • Jay Baer – Experienced marketer and co-author of the book The NOW Revolution: 7 Shifts to Make Your Business Faster, Smarter, and More Social.
  • Robert Rose - 15 years of content and marketing consulting experience and co-author of the book Enterprise 2.0: How Technology, E-Commerce and Web 2.0 Are Transforming Business Virtually.
  • Mack Collier – an experienced social media consultant, trainer and speaker specializing in helping companies use social media to better connect with their customers.
  • Dianna Huff – president of DH Communications, a B2B Web marketing expert and a frequent speaker on marketing and SEO.

We’ll be providing three core services:

  1. Content Marketing Strategy –assisting an organization to discover the power of their content and how it can help to achieve marketing goals.
  2. CMIC’s Advisory Services; designed for clients that want to engage CMIC consultants for very specific, short-term engagements across the spectrum of content marketing.
  3. Editorial and Content Production services.  For those clients that need to source editorial or writing services, CMI works with its sister company Junta42 to help source the best content marketing agencies for enterprise clients.

If you’re interested in learning more or hiring CMIC for these services please click here and let us know.  Depending on your needs you’ll be paired with one, two or several of us who will help you achieve your goals.

As always, to hire me individually for Visionary Leadership programs and consulting, Marketing Strategy work or for the Social Media Concierge program, you can still email me at Lisa@CLevelStrategies.com.

And please don’t even try to match each of us with a TV Super Friend character.  As the most petite in the group I’m destined to end up the “Wonderdog…!”

~

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Thank you for reading and for being part of this community – it means so much to me.

You can find me on Twitter at @LisaPetrilli and on LinkedIn.

Photo is Super Friends from the SuperFriends Wiki.

8 Comments Filed Under: Marketing, Personal, Social Media Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Three Powerful Ways Michael Port Can Transform Your Small Business

April 13, 2011 By 4 Comments

Like most small business owners and solo-preneurs I have to work hard to find moments for myself within the power-packed schedule of hours, days and weeks dedicated to my clients.

So, when I tell you that I took two full days out of my life – two Sundays to be exact – to participate in Michael Port’s recent “Book Yourself Solid” course, it should help convey how strongly I believed in the value I’d be receiving.  I was right – they were two of the best days I’ve spent on my business – and even on myself – in a very long time.

The Power of Michael’s Program

Michael’s Book Yourself Solid book (which I read) is an excellent guide for small business owners and solo-preneurs who want clear strategies on how to maximize their business success – and I highly recommend it.

But what was unique and truly special about the class was Michael’s presence and his energy.  There are some individuals that you meet that you just know are on a special plane – they are open to receiving powerful energy from the universe and thus, that is what they attract.

Michael shares his powerful energy generously and enables the participants to be open to receiving the same for their businesses.  As someone who is always thinking big (or so I thought), Michael helped me think even bigger in the following ways:

1.  My Value

Michael helped me to see and truly comprehend how I was reflecting my feelings about my value into the world through my pricing.  In many cases I realized I was not pricing my services based on the value I was bringing to the client, but rather on some other, arbitrary or emotionally driven reason (such as feeling badly for the client to the detriment of my business).

When we don’t value ourselves and our talents honestly, then we’re not being true to ourselves or honoring ourselves.  Neither is good for business.

2. My Ideal Client

Michael helped me realize that I really do have an ideal client and that if a potential client is not ideal it’s not my fault.  What do I mean by that?  Well, may I confess to being one of those people who always thought that you should at least try to “please all the people all the time?”  Yup.  I know…

So, I’d try to make every potential client ideal by overlooking how they might not be a great fit and convincing myself that if I gave my best it would “be fine.”  But really, we all know deep inside that it’s difficult to do your best work when you’re not really passionate.  Michael helps you face that reality and figure out who your ideal client really is.

Once you know, it’s so much easier to find them…!

3. My Ability to Embrace & Appreciate My Personal Brand Identity

There is more than enough written about our creating a personal brand but Michael is the only one who had me thinking about it from the perspective of “how I show up in the world.”  I found this to be a transformational thought.

As Michael said, “you can’t fake this.”  You can say that your personal brand is one thing but if you show up in the world as someone completely different then where does that leave you?  Where does that leave your business and your clients?

Understanding how we really show up in the world – what we really exude through our passion, drive, and our commitments – is the key to not just our personal brand but our personal brand identity.

I told you, transformational.

If you get the chance to buy Michael’s “Book Yourself Solid” book or participate in one of his classes – do it.  You’ll be thrilled you did. I don’t get anything for saying that except the hope that someone will take my advice and feel as transformed as I did.

And did I mention how excited I am to know I’ll have the honor of meeting Michael in person at the SOBCon conference in a few weeks?  That’s another event I couldn’t recommend more highly.  But that’s another blog post for another day…

~

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Thank you for reading and for being part of this community – it means so much to me.

You can find me on Twitter at @LisaPetrilli and on LinkedIn.To hire me for Visionary Leadership programs, Marketing Strategy work or for the Social Media Concierge program, email me at Lisa@CLevelStrategies.com.

 

4 Comments Filed Under: Career, Marketing, Personal, Strategy Tagged With: , , , , , ,
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