What have Facebook and Marjory Stoneman Douglas got in common?

What have Facebook and Marjory Stoneman Douglas got in common?

Apr 12, 2018 | Change, rant

Beyond the usual menu of war and pestilence in the Middle East, and which celebrity is bonking which, that usually dominate the headlines, two very significant items have emerged over the last short period.

  • The reaction of students at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland Florida after the shooting on February 14 that killed 17 students, and wounded 17 more.
  • Facebooks relationship with the truth and your personal data.

Both have the potential to be tipping points, but the question is can they really generate sufficient traction to  result in lasting change.

The students at the MSD High school seem too have generated a response not seen before. The ‘March for our lives‘ rallies across the US, end even here in Australia are mobilising sentiment against the idiots who claim their unfettered right to own guns is inalienable, as never before. This shooting, terrible as it was, is just one of a very long line of mass shootings in the US, each met with political weasel words and sorrow for the victims, but nothing more.

But something has changed. Somehow.

Enough people seem to be prepared to say ‘enough‘ that some sensible changes may happen that will save a few lives.

Facebook has had its bum spanked by the only people who really count, those cloistered manipulators hiding in Wall Street, and a few high profile advertisers. The current congressional hearings may make for dramatic headlines, but unless regulation with teeth emerges, they will be just window dressing and a forum for congress members to get their names in the media.

The Facebook IPO in  May 2012 was at the time one of the biggest ever, valuing the company at 104 billion, $38 a share, to the surprise of many pundits, myself included. Since the IPO, immediately after which the $38 a share seemed very generous, Facebook has cracked the advertising monetisation code  and the share price was $185 as Cambridge Analytica emerged last week, then dropped like a stone to $162 before recovering a bit, wiping billions off the market value, and prompting Mark Zuckerberg to apologise in what seemed to be a pretty genuine manner.

The question is, will either be sufficiently sustainable to  generate change?

I think ‘Maybe’ on both counts.

US Attorney General Sessions has proposed a formal ban on ‘Bump Stocks’ the device that turns a normal semi-automatic weapon to become a machine gun, used with such effect in the Las Vegas shooting last year. A small but sensible step in the right direction, but perhaps more tellingly, businesses, large and small, are now publicly shunning the NRA, and adding their voice to the calls for change.

Momentum is building.

Facebook, as well as all other platforms for digital advertising,  has been under increasing pressure for some time, so much so that Zuckerberg released his new years resolution to ‘Clean up Facebook‘ on January 5. Early in 2017 P&G CMO Mark Pritchard took a huge swipe at the digital advertising industry in his address to the IAB, and there has been some changes emerging as a result, driven by other big advertisers taking Pritchards advice on board.

My view.

The ball is rolling on both counts, and momentum is building. Change will come slowly, and for some painfully, but common sense and decency will win in the end.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

6 customer service clichés deconstructed.

6 customer service clichés deconstructed.

Apr 11, 2018 | Customers, Marketing

It seems that every time I pony up for another insurance bill, I get one of those customer satisfaction surveys emailed within 24 hours, asking a few inane questions about my ‘experience’ and the level of service I received.

There is no room to say it was at best nondescript, often crap, that insurance is a cost I resent, am  suspicious of, and just hope that I never have to find out (again) if the after the disaster facts are actually as the advertising blurb promises.

Customer satisfaction indeed.

Normally I just ignore them, as responding only seems to encourage. (a bit like voting)

However, a recent emailed questionnaire got me thinking about what customer satisfaction really is, and how we go about creating and retaining such an ephemeral and personal idea.

Is it enough that we ‘satisfy’ our customers, and if so, what does that actually mean?

‘Delight our customers’ is a phrase that seems to have made it onto a few mission statements over the recent past. Is that one better than ‘satisfy’ or just more hyperbole?

Jeff Bezos famously demands that there be an empty chair in every meeting, a reminder that everything Amazon does is aimed at customer satisfaction. Reed Hastings has built Netflix from a minor irritation to Blockbuster into a digital entertainment behemoth by being ‘customer obsessed.’

If we are to be truly customer focussed, what should all  the common clichés really mean?

‘We listen to what our customers tell us’

Really? I listen to what my aging mother tells me, but do I follow the advice? Rarely these days. It should mean that we understand not just the words, but  the intent, and we use the information to test, and retest the delivery of our value proposition.

‘We obsess about customer satisfaction’

Most obsessions I have seen are all about the obsessor, rather than the obsessee. (are they really words?). It makes some feel better to tell ourselves we are obsessed with customer satisfaction, it justifies those long workshop sessions in a nice location. Most times when I go out and ask customers what they think of the level of service they receive, it falls short of satisfactory, let alone obsessional, and is markedly lower than the score businesses give themselves when asked the same question. It is easy to pass this off as delusional, but the reality is that customers rarely think about service until they experience it, and then only when it fails them. By contrast, companies are genuinely thinking about service consistently because it is important to them, but in an abstract way.

‘We understand what the customer expects of us’.

That is great, but also a bit unusual, as different customers almost always are looking for different things. In B2B businesses, it is essential that you understand the detail of a customer, and potential customers business processes so that you can really tailor your offering. A bit harder in B2C, but it is still true that individuals are seeking a range of different things that add up to ‘satisfaction’ in their minds. The real task is to create a situation where the customer sticks with you through thick and thin, simply because they believe you are better than any alternative.

‘We put customers in front of profits’

This gets trotted out regularly, without any understanding of the implications. The reason we have customers is ultimately, to make profits, and without profits, there will be no customer service at all. There has to be a balance, but it is true that satisfied customers lead to higher profits, it is a hard balance to get right.

‘The customer is always right’

The old perennial, and it has always been nonsense. However, treating customers with respect, humility and giving them the opportunity to be right is a great strategy. The most common example used is the retail  chain Nordstroms in the US. As the story goes, take a car tyre into Nordstroms and demand your money back because it was not up to expectations, and they will give it to you, despite not selling tyres. Perhaps it should be ‘The right customer is always right,’ to reflect the reality that there are some customers who are more trouble than they are worth, and you hope they go to your opposition.

‘The quality of our products speaks for itself’

No it does not! You need to speak for it. The base expectation of any customer is that the product you provide will deliver the outcome you promise. That is quality. A Hyundai will get you reliably from point A to Point B, does that mean it is the same quality as a Bentley, which will also get you reliably from A to B?. The answer to that question will most often be ‘No’  but then defining the ‘Value’ delivered by the extra few hundred grand to buy the Bentley becomes a different conversation entirely, with different customers.

Creating great experiences for customers brings them back for more, delivering revenue at much a reduced cost  than if you had to find a new customer. Share of Wallet and Lifetime Customer Value are the most undervalued measures of sales effectiveness, and also the most effective.

Is your mentor asking you these 8 key questions?

Is your mentor asking you these 8 key questions?

Apr 9, 2018 | Governance, Leadership, Uncategorized

Successful people can always point to one, or a few people who over the years have contributed to their success. A great mentor does not tell you what to do, or how to do it, rather they examine motivations, objectives and options to help you determine which path you will follow, then provide feedback and suggested options for consideration.

The tool of an effective mentor is searching, challenging, and enlightening questions.

What does success look like?

This is a question that adapts itself from the little tactical things, to the big strategic challenges that need to be defined and faced. Creating a conversation where the goals are articulated by the mentee  creates ownership in their minds. ‘Owning’ a challenging  goal is the first essential step in achieving it.

What do you want to be different in 3 years?

This question is a follow up and supporting question to  the first one, and it gives a time frame, a powerful motivator to action, as it requires commitment. Together these two questions add up to what I call ‘hindsight planning‘.

What are the major obstacles being faced.

The obstacles we face are a mix of personal, and commercial, identifying the shape of them is the first step to developing strategies to overcome them. Like any problem, and obstacle undefined is never addressed in an optimum manner.

How do we measure progress?

Having defined what success looks like, and identified the major roadblocks, you have to at some point act, and measure progress towards the goal. Fine words without the actions to achieve them are just hot air.

What can you control, and what is outside your control?

Focused effort on leveraging the variables under your control that deliver the outcomes you want,  is essential. However, ignoring the things you cannot control, is a huge mistake. The best you can do is see, and have a deep understanding of how these uncontrollable factors may impact on the performance of your businesses and achievement of key objectives. Then you should  plan to enable the leveraging of potential opportunities that may emerge, while mitigating the potential negatives.

What are the options available?.

Encouraging wide and analytical thinking is necessary in the face of complex problems. This is a question to be asked every day, in relation to every action. Dealing with any uncertainty is always helped by understanding the options available, and only committing when they have been analysed, and then only when you need to progress. The danger of course is that there is an over-consideration, which becomes procrastination.

What would you do next time?

Explicitly learning from experience separates the successful from the rest.  Conducting a formal ‘After Action review’, a term that evolved from  the US army learning processes is common in large businesses after a capital expenditure project is completed. Critical review of actual outcomes compared to the plan is far less common in non-financial areas than it should be. The discipline is a crucial one, from the major strategic decisions to the tactical and team based projects on a shop floor. Those familiar with process improvement often use the term  ‘Plan Do Check Act’ which is a core discipline of process improvement.

Tell me more.

This is always a question to apply in any situation where you are trying to uncover the motivations, cause and effect, and implications inherent in any situation. The simple act of asking the question  ensures that the one being questioned has another look at their preconceptions, and barriers.

When you think you might benefit from this kind of collaborative performance management, give me a call. After 40 years of doing it, I have learned a bit that may be of value yo you.

What do Mark Zuckerberg and Steve Smith have in common?

What do Mark Zuckerberg and Steve Smith have in common?

Apr 5, 2018 | Governance, Leadership

It seems on the surface little, but when you look at it more closely, a lot.

Both are (or were) leaders, who found themselves in that place through performance, and the promise of more to come.

Both are young, and you cannot put an old head on young shoulders, no matter how much you would like to, and how smart they might be.

Both are in the public spotlight, and have been for some time, without any real preparation.

Both are leading organisations in  which many of us have a lot of emotion invested.

Both are paid outrageous amounts of money. OK, Zuck is a multi billionaire, and Smith just has a lazy 10 mill or so in his accounts, but how much does one person really need?

Both have made unbelievably stupid decisions that have destroyed the trust most had in them and their institutions.

This led me to think about the questions a leader should ask themselves in their quiet moments, those  they have available for a bit of introspection.

How should we make smarter decisions?

What is the best way to get the job done?

What do we have to change?

What does success look like?

How will we prosper?

What disciplines need to be in place?

How do we attract customers?

How do we innovate and differentiate?

What really gets the job done?

What sacrifices do we need to make?

What does leadership mean to me?

How do we become the best we can be?

How do I want others to see me?

Pity they both did not subject themselves to these questions, and perhaps many others, before they forever dumped on themselves.

They did however ask themselves one of the key questions left, but came up with the wrong answer.

How will we win?

Mark of course can afford to retire, and do anything he likes, any time. I assume Steve can as well, should he choose to, although early retirement may not be what he planned, and the comfort of it may be compromised. I personally hope he does not, but waits out the ban, then regains his place in the test team on performance. I question however his right to ever again be captain, but the wisdom gained from current experience will be valuable to whoever may be so honoured.

 

 

 

Am I (as accused) just a cranky old curmudgeon?

Am I (as accused) just a cranky old curmudgeon?

Apr 3, 2018 | Governance, Leadership

SME network meetings can be very useful, and sometimes amusing, as well as being a considerable consumer of time and patience. They often seem to be infested with ‘life coaches’ and various brands of ‘personal coach’.

Coaching plays a crucial role in all our lives, our parents give it to us, those around us at work give it to us, our boss gives it to us, and if we are very lucky, we find at some point, or points in our lives, a mentor who is able to lift our performance significantly. Even Roger Federer, the greatest tennis player I have ever seen, has a coach.

However, at a network meeting I attended, I found myself chatting to someone who had a business in ‘corporate wellness’ who doubled as a ‘personal coach’ in everything from physical training, to it seemed, marriage counselling.

When asked, he was not able to define what a ‘Wellness coach’ did, and did not even have an elevator pitch that made any sense. It seemed he was there to make peoples life easy, help  them deal with stress, to anticipate stress and encourage practises that would help when stress came around again. It seems that he is doing OK, nicely dressed, a  nice car, but who knows, perhaps his mum gave them to him.

Maybe it is just me, but I failed to understand what he did, and why someone would pay him to do it.

When he finally asked me what I did, after blanketing me with fluffy bullshit for 10 minutes, I told him it was the same thing he did, but I had only two tools:

Communication and Transparency.

Communication.

Encourage and coach the leadership of businesses to ensure they have a coherent, well thought out strategy, along with the plans to implement and adjust as they manage their business across all the functional areas in as close to real time as possible. In addition, they have to accommodate the pressures from outside over which they have no control, but which will influence performance.  Then they need to communicate all that to everyone in the business, from top to bottom, so all know it, and understand it, relate,  and live to it.

Transparency

Transparency leads to accountability, due diligence and honesty, all of which adds up to trust.  It leads to understanding of what good performance of the business, their work groups and themselves specifically means, and what the impact of their performance has on others.

Easy.

Do all that and the need  for corporate wellness coaching goes away, as stress is managed and shared.

Recently I labelled myself a cranky old curmudgeon to a long term mate in a conversation after a ‘sherbet’ or two. He clarified by pointing out I had also been a cranky young curmudgeon. A bit harsh, although perhaps true, but I would prefer to call it ‘leadership’.