I love you more than my Dog?!
Posted on August 14th, 2010 by Paul McArdle – 1 CommentFor those who have been frequent readers of this blog, you will understand that I have a number books on the go at any one time.
This makes for eclectic reading, and generally slower progress than would otherwise be the case.
1) Binary Review
… however I pretty much flew through this one, given it was aligned with our primary core value of “Customers First”, and the other ones as well.
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The Book |
What we thought |
 “I love you more than my Dog” by Jeanne Bliss |
Just where we are headed |
| Full Disclosure – yes, that’s a tracked link to Amazon shown above. We buy quite a large number of books on a wide range of topics, all relevant to our business in some way. If you did happen to purchase the book from Amazon, they’d throw a few shekels our way, which would help us to buy (and hence publish reviews of) even more books. Hence, Karma would return the benefits to you… |
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2) Why, for us?
The principles espoused in this book are very much aligned with where we are now, and even moreso with where we are headed for the future….
(a) In Product Development
I have probably already (in other posts) rambled on enough about how we need to embed the customer, and their needs, at the center of our software development process.
In my mind, this is the primary driver of our pragmatic adoption of the Agile principles – which to me means (in simple terms):
real value to the customer, and quick!
(b) In Marketing and Sales
Now that our General Manager for Discerning, Developing and Delivering what the Customer Wants has hit the ground running, my focus has started to shift to the steps I need to take to get our Marketing & Sales team up and running.
For a variety of reasons (call me if you want to know more) it will be a couple of months before we start the recruitment process for the GM.
When I do have time to start the search process for our General Manager for Marketing & Sales, I will be specifically looking for someone who views the role as “Chief Customer Problem Solver”, rather than “Chief Widget Seller”.
(c) About our Positioning
I recently alluded (in this post) to some navel-gazing we’re doing with respect to our positioning in the market:
i. how customers perceive us currently,
ii. how we would like to be perceived, as the company strives for its growth phase,
iii. whether there is a difference, and (if so)
iv. how to make the transition.With reference to the book by Treacy and Wiersema, we will be presented with a choice of whether we should be focused on being a company focused on being “Product Leader”, or instead being “Customer Intimate”.
In my view, both focuses can ensure that “Customers First” is a core value – it’s just manifest in different ways.
3) Why focus on decisions?
The author notes that:
“Your collective decisions tell the story of who you are and what you value. Key decisions reveal your true purpose.
When customers love you, they won’t stop talking about you. But you need to earn the right to their story first.”
I fully believe that this is why the following 5 Decisions are so important…
4) The Five Decisions
The tagline for the book reads “five decisions that drive extreme customer loyalty in good times and bad”.
The book is structured around each of these core decisions, and (as such) it makes sense to list them below, with a small amount of commentary – however keep in mind that you need to read the book for the whole story.
Chapter 2 = Decide to Believe
It’s not the oxymoron that it would appear at first reading.
We really do need to make a choice about our belief system – for anything really (though oftentimes the choice is subconscious).
The book notes (in the contents page about this chapter):
“There is no more powerful testament of trust than belief. Beloved companies decide to believe. They believe in their people. They believe in their customers. And they practice this by suspending cynicism.”
This does not mean that we blindly believe – as trust has to be in place, with customers, employees and all other stakeholders.
What it does mean is that we don’t penalise 99% of our our clients on the low risk that 1% of our clients might do something not in the spirit of how we want to serve.
Chapter 3 = Decide with Clarity of Purpose
The book notes (in the contents page about this chapter):
“Beloved companies are clear about their purpose in supporting customer’s lives. In decision making, they align to this purpose, to this promise. It elevates people in working toward a common goal.”
There’s two points in one here:
(a) it’s about Alignment
Of course I’d read the texts about alignment many years ago, and thought I understood – but I was wrong.
It was only as part of our autopsy 2 process that my understanding has been deepened as to why this is of vital importance:
i. So that we can get the right people on the bus in the first place; and
ii. In the right seats, and all driving in the same direction.Hence there are a number of posts here about such things as:
1) our Core Values;
2) our Mission (or “why we exist”), and
3) our Vision (or “where our bus is headed”).(b) it’s a focus on the Customer (not us)
The book goes further, implying that the alignment goes further – being an externally focused purpose about the role the company plays in the customer’s life.
I agree – that’s why I have posted that customers come before shareholders (and employees).
It’s also why our Mission revolves around the real benefit we provide to all stakeholders of the electricity market by making it that little bit easier for all people to understand.
Chapter 4 = Decide to Be Real
The book notes (in the contents page about this chapter):
“The beloved companies shed fancy packaging. Beloved companies strike a chord with customers. They decide to create a safe place where the personality and the creativity of the people shine through.”
In my mind, this principle has two elements, which both relate to my desire for “Openness” to be one of our core values.
(a) it’s external
To me, it’s a matter of:
i. accepting that we’re a real company, with our own strengths and weaknesses; and
ii. understanding that our key customers understand this anyway -
hence what’s the point of pretending to be something else?I believe that, as a company, we do this already – certainly the responses we received from our positioning survey seem to indicate that clients (and others) understand & value the fact that we’re honest to our failures, realistic about our capabilities, but nevertheless very ambitious for the future – in addition to being just a little bit quirky:
When I find a bit more time, I’ll be posting the results of the positioning survey, and will (if I remember) link them here.
(b) it’s also internal
It works the same way internally.
I realise (more with each passing year) that I’m far from perfect – not that that stops be from striving to improve a little bit, every day. I expect the same of everyone else who works with us.
One can’t operate successfully without the other, which means that everyone we attract to the company, as we continue to grow, will need to have:
i. A true understanding of themselves; and
ii. A commitment to continuing to improve themselves, every day.
Chapter 5 = Decide to Be There
The book notes (p114 in my copy):
“The beloved think and rethink how to conduct themselves, so they earn the right to their customer’s continued business.
Their “experience” is far more than the execution of an operating plan. They leave customers thinking:
“Who else would have done this?”
“Where else could I get this?”
“I want to do this again!”This chapter also touched on our core values:
(a) It speaks to our drive for relentless improvement; and
(b) Grounds this drive by highlighting how it needs to be focused on the needs of our customers, rather than on some other (more arbitrary) objective. It reflects the fact that we provide solutions, not software.
Chapter 6 = Decide to Say Sorry
The book notes (in the contents page about this chapter):
How a company responds to adversity reflects the humanity of an organisation, and shows its true colors more than almost any situation it might encounter.
Repairing the emotional connection well is a hallmark of the companies we love. It makes us love them even more.
The author proposes (p144) a five step action plan “that signal to customers that they are important, and that someone is looking after them”:
Because it’s important, and I will probably end up referring to this in future posts (and internally), I’ve posted this separately here.
Since we first began posting on this blog back in April 2009, we’ve posted about a number of times when we’ve screwed up in the past.
No doubt there will be other “oops” occasions in future (some big, some small) – my aspiration is that we can:
(a) Reduce the number of mistakes we make in areas that are core to what we do (such as serving customers); and
(b) Where we do still make mistakes, learn to make amends more quickly and effectively.
This book is:
1) packed with implementable ideas (drawn from real examples of companies large and small)
2) assembled under the five key decisions we have to make, and
3) aligned with the notion of genuinely loving our customers.
It’s one we’ll refer back to many times in future – or, at least, it’s one we should refer back to if we’re to deliver on our mission and get where we want to go. The challenge is in the doing.
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