Customer Genius

The challenge of customer power Power has fundamentally shifted to customers. From markets of surplus demand to those of surplus supply.  Customers are more different and discerning, untrusting and promiscuous. The old ways of attracting, serving and retaining customers no longer work. Communications are still arrogant campaigns rather than conversations between equals. Channels are still push tubes rather than pull networks. Products and service delivery are good in terms of standardising quality, but miss the fact that every customer and application is different.  Google has become the starting point for most customer interactions today. Technology enables customers to have the upper hand in a negotiation. They are far more aware and informed, far more wary of generic, glib marketing message, and their service expectations are conditioned by their experiences across sectors. Companies need to learn to create and capture value in new ways. The rise of the outside in business So how do you really do business on customers terms? An outside in business is the opposite of our more typical inside out model. It starts with the customer, their needs and wants, expectations and aspirations, then works backwards to deliver what matters to them in a profitable way. It recognises that customer power is a force to work with not against - to do business where, how, and when customers want. The genius of a customer business Customer Genius offers you a more intelligent and imaginative approach to customers. It is about starting from how customers see the world, what they seek to achieve and the context in which they see your business as part of that activity or ambition. It reaches deeper into the customer psyche, reaching beyond superficial research averages, beyond articulating needs and wants based on convention, to what motivates and inspires them. And as a result, learns to work on their terms inverting the way we do business, pull rather than push, understanding where, when and how they want to do work with us. It recognises that customers expect companies to do more for people to go beyond the product, the transaction, to add more value to their lives, helping them to achieve what they couldnt otherwise. They will return this commitment through trust and loyalty - not through incentives and rewards, but through becoming an essential and enabling part of their lives. Customer Genius gives you the knowledge, capabilities and inspiration to address your relevant customer challenges in practical and profitable ways. 10 tracks of customer genius 10 tracks exploring the concepts and applications for doing business from the outside in, each track brought to life through a leading practice: 1. Customer Inversion. Doing business on customer rather than business terms, a fundamental reversal of todays typical approaches to customers. Google transforms the way customers engage with brands. 2. Customer Individuality. One company and millions of customers is a complex relationship challenge, but every customer demands and expects to be treated in relevant and personal ways. Tesco powers its business with customer knowledge. 3. Customer Immersion. Market research tells you little about customers have you ever met the average customer? Insight comes through deeper immersion into the customers world. Gap anthropologists hunt the streets for whats really cool. 4. Customer Propositions. Engaging customers by promoting benefits rather than features, issues not solutions, aspirations rather than expectations, propositions rather than products. Microsoft moves from product push to proposition pull. 5. Customer Solutions. Meeting customers needs and wants in more significant ways, by going beyond the norm, working with partners, or customising solutions. Toyota designs business from the customer back. 6. Customer Connections. Communication messages, media and channels are currently all about push. So what is the nature of genuine pull connections that do business on customer terms? Jones Soda designs its business around its niche lifestyles. 7. Customer Experiences. Enhancing your interactions with customers across every real and perceived interaction, by doing more serving, supporting, enabling, educating, entertaining. Tate Modern designs your visit to suit your mood. 8. Customer Gateways. In future customers will trust the gateway brands that know them best, and who they trust most to find what they want on their terms. Amazon creates the intelligent mall to shop on your terms. 9. Customer Communities. Customers are far more likely to become loyal to other people like them, than companies who serve them. Build communities around your brand rather than relationships. MySpace engages a generation in social networking. 10. Customer Performance. Directors spend less than 10% of their time on what creates 90% of profits, yet customers are far more interesting and important, if we articulate results on their terms. In 2001 POutside In business Roadmap and tools to develop a Customer Strategy