This article emphasizes aspects of Customer Intimacy beyond The Discipline of Market Leaders by Michael Treacy & Fred Wiersema. (Check search engines for book summaries.)
Stephen R. Covey (The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People) advised being effective with people & efficient with things.
Operational excellence specialists seem to push customers to fit processes. Big discount retailers make processes effective & efficient by pushing customer self-service.
Customer intimate retailers should develop processes to produce experiences for customers’ unique conditions.
Some consumers hope for satisfying experiences by trading up to high technology products from product leaders. People might trade up slowly because of limitations. When people are ready, you can help them add new technology to what’s familiar.
Customer Intimacy should start with customers' desired solutions & experiences. Customer Intimacy can continue with suggested improvements customers haven’t considered.
Combine & adapt familiar & new technology, then show customers which tasks will produce long-term solutions & satisfying experiences. Discuss long-term issues like preserving progress by adapting to change & overcoming limitations of products, services & results.
Customer Intimacy Focuses On Important Experiences
Though intimacy seems foreign for businesses, it’s essential for great business relationships.
Customer Intimate retailers are interested in people’s experiences. Intimacy isn’t superficial. Intimacy is dedication to the details of improving customers’ lives.
Retailers might fake intimacy by greeting customers without guiding them in achieving goals. Since some retailers cut service & seem to disregard customers’ experiences, you can easily show your concern for customers is real.
You can support customers with products & guidance to fulfill their responsibilities including finishing projects & maintaining reliable results.
You should specialize in specific experiences & offer all people need, so they don't get incompatible products & advice from multiple stores. Since experiences fail when cheap products fail, emphasize success more than low prices.
Customer Intimacy is based on helping people be effective & efficient. Example: Offer kits of products, information & templates for producing experiences & solutions. Adaptable templates describe options & product lists help people avoid delays & mistakes. After customers choose templates & products, you can help them plan experiences. Plans specify actions for changing conditions & fulfilling desires.
Ask about needs before purchases to show you care & so plans produce satisfying experiences.
You can find opportunities with an outside perspective (thinking outside of the box). You should learn about customers' experiences to gain an inside familiarity.
Familiarity with customers' desires & frustrations suggests which opportunities fit their lives. You can produce new experiences by connecting inside & outside perspectives.
Increase Protection, Reduce Frustrations
Discount stores can frustrate people with cheap products & often temporary results. People might tolerate frustrations because they don’t know about better options. When you advertise, describe better options instead of just prices.
As much as practical in your specialty, help people protect themselves from problems. People need your help because protection requires identifying problems & knowing which products to use.
Customer Intimacy specialists consult with people for long-term resolutions of specific needs. Update your offers by monitoring technology & people’s issues through observation & asking questions. Did customers get their expected results? Do products work as manufacturers promised? If people are dissatisfied, determine if they misunderstood product specifications.
Care Takers Offer More Value
Encourage people to stay with you by explaining how their needs are apt to change along with conditions. Track people's results as conditions change, so you can offer what's needed for maintenance or improvement.
As their primary source, you can ensure products & information will be compatible. To be a trusted source, you should warn about changes, so customers have time to prepare. Describe negative changes, so people can recognize symptoms. Offer step-by-step solutions & preventions by guiding people in choosing products.
Customer Intimacy implies serving customers as they want to be served & should include becoming part of consumers’ lives based on their preferences. Full service Customer Intimate retailers satisfy customers by being shaped by customers’ needs.
I wrote in my previous article (How Will You Improve Customers’ Lives Today?), some people buy commodities from discount stores, so they can afford to trade up to other high quality products. Customer Intimate retailers know which high quality products are important to people.
Combine the concepts of trading up to high quality products & Customer Intimacy to give people reasons to trade up in your store.
Successful Customer Intimacy depends on helping customers use products & information to produce satisfactory results.
Combine deep product knowledge with customer situation knowledge, so you can prescribe solutions & preventions. As you track customers' results, offer customized improvements they won't likely get from competitors. You can master customization with processes & you'll increase quality, effectiveness & efficiency as you increase your mastery.
Asking & answering questions can be processes for guiding customers’ choices & achieving long-term satisfaction. Examples: What would happen as a result of __? Would __ improve your experiences?
Your expertise with processes & inventory can assure customers you have options for long-term results they want.
Based on product specifications & the gap between current conditions & customers’ desires, what can you combine?
Some retailers guide customers only based on product specifications & standardized instructions. People need personalized instructions to fit their plans because differences in conditions affect results. Personalized results are worth the investment of trading up.
Combining Disciplines
You can specialize in customer intimacy & with a secondary emphasis in product leadership & operational excellence.
Combining customer intimacy & with product leadership should include product knowledge in helping people with results in local conditions.
Customer intimate operational excellence includes processes to reduce operating costs & provide excellent service. Reducing operating costs is important for profitability & charging prices customers judge as fair.
Process Example: Provide problem information on paper &/or web pages for identifying symptoms. It can include pictures & checklists. Customers can use these at home & have some answers when you help find solutions by comparing products. This information can be self-service up to the point customers need advanced help or are ready to buy.
Your charts can have basic information with references to deeper knowledge on other pages, so people can focus on what’s important to them. Note: Charts help people serve themselves while you serve others. Written words are easier to understand because accents make words hard to understand.
As people use these resources, ask how to improve the format & which information you should add. Ask for suggestions to determine ways to adopt & adapt new practices.
Take less time to fulfill expectations, process orders & gain knowledge by standardizing your usual practices. Since standardized practices can be faster, you can have more time to focus on unique issues.
Intimacy Includes Empathetic Understanding
Here’s an intimate business example: Patients are more comfortable with diagnoses from empathetic doctors, who listen.
It takes more than professional knowledge because people want their concerns to be understood. Doctors tend to rush through appointments to be efficient. When people are dissatisfied with the service, they might distrust a doctor, diagnosis & prescription.
Stephen R. Covey advised us to seek to understand people before we seek to be understood. When we understand people, it’s easier to communicate in ways they understand.
People are more apt to agree when solutions involve their concerns.
When we understand each other, we can focus effectively because we reduce vagueness & doubt. If we don’t understand each other, we might assume we’re right & each go in the wrong direction.
Part of your expertise should be product knowledge, so you can apply specifications & instructions to consumers’ needs. It’s important to remember established products can be unfamiliar products for some people.
It can be as basic as when people assume they can easily use familiar tools, but they have trouble later. Example: Using a rake seems simple, but people get blisters & aches. You can have printed suggestions about adapting handles & methods, physical warm-up exercises & how to deal with leaves.
Offer More & Better Value
Big retailers serve people in the aggregate & aggravate people who need individual results. You should know how to help individuals overcome local challenges.
You can use external & point-of-purchase promotions to emphasize experiences. Example: ‘You can go any store to find products. It takes more than products to fulfill your needs, so we focus on your satisfaction. We can guide you through details of updating what you enjoy or creating new experiences. Updating experiences can include new techniques or technology. We'll combine information & products to make conditions fit your expectations.’
Thank you for using my blog. Please let me know if I should clarify anything.
Copyright 2019 Dennis S. Vogel All rights reserved.
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