Abstract
In modern-day organizations, be it in a manufacturing or service sector, “putting customers before the strategy” has taken on a whole new meaning. There are many successful companies who have not only completed their last mile of transactions well, but also left behind a memorable and a lasting positive impression with their customers keeping their strategy focusing around them. CEO turned writer TGC Prasad’s book titled The Last Ten Percent: What It Takes to Get It Right is a well-researched and insightful read on defining the art and science of creating a great customer experience while addressing the missing links between customers and satisfaction.
The book in the beginning has inquisitively stressed the inability of companies and its people losing steam and end up not walking the last mile stating, “more often than not, of the many things that organizations and people take up, the last 10 percent never gets completed, resulting in a negative customer experience.” Ironically, it is observed that many companies start off beautifully by defining values, but do not follow through by clearly articulating the resultant actions expected of people, or check if the company processes are in place to support the action. In this connection, author says that whenever a company gets originated, it should ask itself some fundamental questions: “How is my strategy going to influence by customers? Will the customer be happy about my products? How will the frontliners translate them into a positive customer experience?” The central argument of the book is built up to address these queries through re-visiting existing marketing and HR processes. The objective of the work is to align them with current business requirements for nurturing an attitude of service excellence and customer delight. Predominantly, the book shares some of the finest strategies on building customer-centric and people-centric approaches in a business establishment. The simple and clear explanations are apt for novice readers.
A company is an interconnected set of functions, structures, processes, systems and people. Only when the connections work well, it results in a positive customer experience. Today’s organizations are realizing that they have to focus on the customer—catering to their needs, engaging them about what interests them and proving that they care—if they have hopes of remaining competitive (Parasuraman, Leonard & Valerie, 1991). Therefore, Prasad in the first part of his book has stressed the importance of creating a culture of customer centricity, which is about placing the customer at heart of the business model. Fostering the customer centricity culture means keeping the customers at heart of everything the company does. Author has explained the importance of the concept through six case studies of world class companies highlighting the importance of shared values shaping the culture of customer centricity and how the culture helps an organization operationalize its business vision and mission. The customer-centric case studies of Walmart, Enterprise Rent-A-Car, Nestlé, Starbucks, Southwest Airlines and Zappos cited in the book have unanimously stated that a strong customer-centric culture is a harbinger of good execution. The quote drawn from Sam Walton is much apt, “There is only one boss. The customer. And he can fire everybody in the company from the chairman on down, simply by spending his money somewhere else.” In all these successful enterprises, it is found that they are driven with a powerful corporate culture leaving behind an enduring legacy. The specific incidents cited in these cases have found to be changing the rules of the game and at times, they have found creating new strategies and luring the competitors to play their game, knowing that they will succeed and the others will fail. For all these blue chip companies, service excellence is about “being there in the moment with the customer and thinking how best to serve to make the whole experience memorable.”
In many companies, when culture is not driven in the right direction, people develop their own cultures in smaller groups (Floyd & Bill, 1992). It becomes localized, regionalized and gets specific to a unit and function or to a key product or service. Prasad states that, “transforming such a pocketed culture to a consistent and high performing set of norms becomes extremely difficult and time consuming.” Therefore, leadership should come to the fore for promulgating the culture of customer centricity amidst individual or group differences. To substantiate this point, the second part of the book has argued that for a strong people and customer-driven culture, the company’s leadership must focus its energy on the 80 per cent of the workforce, which is the effective segment. The book notes that in customer-driven enterprises, leaders need to play the role of servant by serving people who face the customers. Leaders need to state their frontline executives to set expectations early on with customers and manage perceptions on a continuous basis. If there is an expected delay in service, it is better to tell the customer upfront and make it up with a better experience. The expectations from a CEO are outlined to propose a compelling vision while constantly questioning the fundamentals and charting a clear people agenda on how culture, competencies, goals and development can be aligned. At the same time, leaders are required to strive hard through creating a pride in the company, product or service and making people like their jobs and their roles in the structure.
If companies want to simplify processes that enhance customer experience, they should first simplify the process that can enhance employee experiences (Gupta & Donald, 2005). In this connection, the book narrates the art and science of completing things starting from the CEO and cascading down to the frontliners in its second section. As Prasad states, “each one of us is either leader or leader-in-making. We all have been at the position of the front line workers of our company. So it was a good read as to know what you can do to improve, what you are expected to become when you move up the ladder and where does the disconnect happen and how it affects the customer in turn.”
The leadership focus should determine the people agenda and the role of managers is to steer the management to get desired results. For achieving the organizational vision, the leaders are expected to build effective teams, manage careers of their people, create dialogue to ensure engagement and be vigilant in noticing the unseen and listening to the unsaid. This kind of strategy percolates down to the frontline executives to develop powerful habits that can create a lasting customer experience. In managing the culture of customer centricity, where frontliners have transactions with the customers almost every waking moment, integrity needs to be closely embedded. Because, when customers see people with high integrity, their trust in the company increases manifold and this stands as an important step for creating an engagement with the company.
Prasad has proposed a set of HR strategies on managing performance, offering promotions and paying for results towards developing customer centricity among executives. He states that employees often deliver the same experience that they feel inside the system. If they feel wanted to be a part of the organization, they will make sure that the customers feel the same way. If they are treated fairly, they will treat the customers the same way. If they have a great experience in the company, the customers too will have a wonderful experience with the company. Prasad further states that, “when leaders have continuous and round tables with managers, they get a perspective of the ground reality, which enables them to plan strategies that can help the organization leapfrog.”
Developing a customer-centric culture backed by values and powerful behaviours needs a well thought out strategy. Specifically, to build companies with enduring customer-centric cultures, the leadership of the company must live by its values, should display positive role model behaviours and should generate trust in people for them to believe that the values and customer centricity are the pillars to accomplish business results. Depending on the business context, different companies are found in this book adopting varied successful strategies. The author has driven this concept through defining a clear set of operating actions, involving people, customers, partners and eco systems because culture transformation becomes meaningless and simply unsustainable without business results. One of the main learnings for managers will be “to deliver to customer what you promised. If you can’t—then apologize, return what you have taken and make amends. Customers are not looking for justifications; they are looking for products and services which you promised. So, just deliver and you will have a happy customer.” Therefore, the cultures that are technically competent and service-wise sensitive to human convenience tend to complete the last mile transactions well.
To create a vibrancy that is expected of a customer-oriented company, some of the recommendations for CEOs are:
When companies consider the customer as an outsider to the business, the game is lost even before it is begun. Change the paradigm. Involve the customer by placing him or her at the heart of the business model.
Worry about the competition; do not get lured by what they do. Most importantly, play your own game. You have a better chance of succeeding at your game than at a game laid out by your competitor.
Post globalization, organizations are interested in mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and in this process they are found to be losing their focus on customers. Hence, post-M&As, the first thing to do is fix structures that are customer-facing and ensure continuity of purpose and engagement. As far as feasible, do not change the status quo on relationships.
Set expectations early on with customers and manage their perceptions. If you expect a delay in service, tell them upfront and make it up with a better experience. In other words, under promise and over deliver—not the other way.
Aligning people process with the business model is an important agenda to realize the customer-centric vision of an organization. For any kind of transformation, the intent and the drive should begin at the top and percolates down. A CEO connects the internal with the external, acts like a bridge to align the organization to the customer, the market and the opportunities that it presents to attain the goal of the company. Here are the expectations from a CEO:
To provide a compelling vision to the organization for reducing business unpredictability.
To constantly question what the company, model and proposition is all about and start the change.
To act as a role model when it comes to living the values.
To create leaders down the line basing on values, alignment, managing performance and succession and execution excellence.
To have a clear people agenda on how culture, competencies, goals and development are aligned.
To create pride in the company, product and make people to like their jobs and their roles in the structure.
To recognize people for what they do and not for what they are. Effective performers are far better than glib talkers.
To nurture integrity as it is the cornerstone for frontliners, managers and leaders to imbibe and practice in spirit and deed.
As a whole, the book deals with the nuances of dealing with customers in a positive way and more importantly, why customer service is really important. Primarily, Prasad in his book has addressed the idea of service excellence and helps any service-driven organizations build customer-centric strategies across domains such as banking, airlines, retail, fast moving consumer goods, life sciences, Internet, e-commerce, telecommunications, pharmaceuticals, healthcare, real estate and hospitality. The learning and experiences that the author shares through this book are truly universal. However, it is written in a much detailed fashion with enough emphasis on each of the factors being talked about. This might seem a little preachy but repetitions often ingrain the lessons in one’s head and heart. Overall, the message of the book conveys with good and bad examples for both good and bad customer experiences and thus teaches by examples.
The book clearly elucidates the role of top management and the link with 10 per cent. Senior management forms the apex, the crux for building operating culture around a core set of values, which is focused on customer. The book would have had better appeal if the author had quoted best practice examples in customer excellence from around the world, including fast growing emerging economies, to make his point; for example, by referring to successful companies in India—Taj for service, Airtel/ICICI for scale, Wipro/Infosys for people practices, ColorPlus/Hidesign for product excellence and so on. That being said, this book is pertinent for any South Asian company that is in the business of serving customers on knowing the strategy for converting every customer engagement into a unique opportunity.