Identifying a marketing agency that will be provide the personal touch and world class professional service may not be worth the time. Instead, look at what this marketing agency considers an ideal client and consider whether your company might be a good fit.
Customers Might Not Feel As Positive as You Think
A study by Bain & Company a few years back of almost 400 CEOs indicated that 80% of them “believe they delivered a ‘superior experience’ to their customers”. When they interviewed their customers, apparently only 8% agreed.
This “Delivery gap” is something that exists in almost every company, and there is so much low-hanging fruit that can be found to close it.
At Fennec, we love helping clients take a bottom-up look at their business and then working with them to build a strategic vision and implementation plan that is simple enough to be acted on and durable enough to drive the business forward for years, not months.
How to Fix the Delivery Gap
Ken Blanchard, author of “How to Win Raving Fan Customers” says “deliver your service, plus one percent.”
Our take: Find little ways to provide unexpected extras that will give your customers something to rave about. Surprise your customers by asking meaningful questions that uncover their needs.
However, as the research above indicates, CEOs who recognize this need are rare. The ideal client is one who recognizes the "delivery gap" and ready to take action.
"Ideally my marketing agency team at Fennec Consulting gets to work with them before their business becomes a 'turnaround' project!" - David Dallaire
The Importance of Doing Rather than Saying
Many companies simply say in their company information that they are "customer focused". It's almost a cliche now. If every company is claiming to be customer focused is anyone really customer focused?
This is where habit and culture come into play. Being customer focused is not about talking, it is about doing. Many companies talk about company culture and think that talking will bring about this magical culture. It does not. It appeases the company into thinking they are doing well when they are not.
To truly be customer focused a company needs to have a feedback loop. A way to measure in real numbers if they are doing well, or if they just think they are doing well.
To make progress with your customers, this week try to find a aspect of "customer focus" that needs to be looked at. Maybe it's the fact that your higher ups are out of touch with what customers want.
Maybe you're out of touch with what customers want.
One technique that's used by successful (very customer focused) companies is to have everyone do a rotation in customer service. That means even a VP answering customer service tickets. This really helps to showcase what they customers are feeling and makes higher up employees realize the true pain points of their customers.
Download the report "Closing the Delivery Gap" here:
