Is there a business anywhere that does not
think it is customer-focused? Probably not.
The past 15 years have ensured that most
managers have been imbued with at least some
of the language of customer care and quality.
Asking top managers if their organisations are
customer focused is akin to questioning their
intelligence. We have yet to see a company of
any size or longevity that readily admits “we
really don’t care about our customers”.
Nonetheless, there is something special
about the relationships between high per-
forming companies and their customers. It is
not necessarily that they spend more on cus-
tomer care than other companies, nor that
they have more sophisticated systems of
relationship management than their competi-
tors (although both would be true in many
cases). What makes them special is the fact
that they genuinely do make customer service
a source of competitive advantage.
This is much harder than it seems.
Although many companies aspire to achieving
competitive advantage through service, very
few succeed. There are several reasons for
this. First, it is hard to make customers notice
the difference between service providers,
unless one is consistently better than its rivals
in the same market over a significant period.
One or two experiences of excellent service by
one company may be easily balanced by
occasional bursts of excellent service from
another; and vice versa. To really notice the
difference in service quality – to the extent
that they are conscious of it and act as good-
will ambassadors for the company –
customers need to feel that several of the
criteria (conscious or unconscious) on which
they judge service are routinely dealt with
substantially better by that company. You do
not achieve that kind of differentiation unless
it is either built into the fabric of the organisa-
tion or unless the leadership structure, from
top to bottom, is obsessed with creating a
difference customers will notice.