pflint

One challenge that all businesses face is how they are perceived by their customers.  There are some companies that go out of their way to always place the customer first.  For me the one that comes to mind is Nordstrom.   They have great customer service, great product selection and will do whatever it takes to increase customer loyalty and engagement.  On the other end of the spectrum is US Airways.  Since I live outside of Philadelphia I have to fly them.  On almost every flight there is at least one instance of really bad customer service or inferior service offerings.  The reason I am writing about this now is I had a flight attendant who was so rude today that it made me think about the cultural differences that must exist between Nordstroms and US Airways.   BTW I was on flight 3344 from Atlanta in the event the management from US Airways reads this.

Companies that establish a culture where the customer comes first usually wins.   A customer focused attitude is as important in business to business as it is in consumer centric companies.   There are many ways to build a customer focused culture and one of the best advocates of this is Joe Segel the founder of QVC .  Joe had a saying that was ingrained in all of us who were fortunate to work with him during the early years of the company.     “Always give the customer more than they expect” Especially in the early days Joe would review every element of the company’s interaction with the consumer, vendors and cable operators to make sure that they were given the best shopping and customer service experience.   The name of the company also portrayed Joe’s belief in the customer experience: QVC  Quality Value and Convenience.

I would like to suggest that all companies but especially early stage companies build their culture around similar principles.  In your weekly staff meetings as the team is making decisions ask yourselves, are you giving your customers more than they expect?  This is an easy area to pay “lip service” to.  It takes discipline and leadership to make it happen.

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