William Perkin Building
Heriot Watt University
Riccarton Campus
Edinburgh, EDH EH14 4AS
United Kingdom
Morning: Direct Selling
You may remember from an earlier session that for the majority, the growth strategy on which we expend most time, effort and money (know it or not) is market penetration. One of the tools we deploy to make that strategy happen is direct selling, aka Sales people. We can probably all agree that they're an expensive resource - so it makes sense that we'd desire every opportunity is hunted down and the sale closed with a positive result.
Afternoon: Customer Experience Innovation
From a real strategic review document comes...
'Strategic Vision: To provide the best customer experience in the market through exceptional quality products and services.'
You've probably seen similar statements many times. Admirable. But largely meaningless. No subsequent mention of what 'best customer experience' means or how it will be measured.
Bain and Company recently surveyed 362 firms. It found that 80% believed they delivered a “superior experience” to their customers. But when those same customers were asked about their own perceptions, they said that only 8% of companies were really delivering. This despite the fact more than 95% of management teams surveyed claim to be customer focused. That's quite a startling gap. Let's stop deluding ourselves and start learning how to plug that gap...
We know where we are. To know the size of the gap - and develop the plug - we need to understand where customers' heads are. Let's map the customer experience and use that to innovate around the products and services we deliver.