Article 12

Start With the Customer At top-performing service companies, the customer always comes first. By Stephen W. Brown

THIS COLUMN IS THE first in a series of three that will explore the best practices of truly excellent service companies like Disney, Southwest Airlines, Marriott, and HarleyDavidson Motor Co. The second column in the series will focus on “The Employee Experience” and the last will focus on “The Leadership Experience.” These best practices represent the business fundamentals of firms that are masterful at exceeding customer expectations. Deceptively simple yet highly effective for attracting and retaining customers, they can be applied to both service and non-service firms alike. The columns are derived in part from the recent article, “Delivering Excellent Service: Lessons from the Best Firms” by Robert Ford, Cherrill Heaton, and Stephen Brown, which appeared in the Fall 2001 issue of California Management Review. The common ground between all truly excellent service firms is they know it “all starts with the customer” and they look first to the customer to define quality and value. Any company—whether they’re primarily a product, service, or distri-

bution company—can benefit from applying these essential best practices of top-performing service companies. Think and act in terms of the entire customer experience. There’s more to a customer’s experience than the product itself. Leading companies realize that every interaction with the customer can make or break the relationship. Harley-Davidson customers don’t simply buy a motorcycle; they buy into a brand experience and a way of life. Successful firms know how to emulate Harley’s ability to create an experience around a product or service. These organizations look beyond the core product or service to also carefully study the “where” and “how” of the customer experience. For example, benchmark service organizations have learned that if the physical environment is not in keeping with the rest of the experience, customer satisfaction diminishes. The “servicescape” extends from ambient temperature and lighting that affect the physiological responses of customers to the character and feel of the experience. Dis1

ney spends considerable time, thought, and money designing the optimal environment for the experiences it provides customers. One example is the diligence of the Main Street painters. Their only responsibility, all year long, is to start at one end of Main Street and paint all the buildings and structures until they get to the other end and then start all over again. This high level of cleanliness and upkeep supports the guests’ fantasies of the Disney image. A good example of managing the “how” of the customer experience is looking at the ways great companies manage wait time. Disney is the master of this. It knows the exact relationship between wait times at the parks and customer satisfaction and makes sure it has sufficient attractions, food service, and merchandise available to handle the number of guests in the park without unacceptable waits. Disney knows guests want to be kept informed, so it posts the estimated wait times. It also sends mobile entertainment teams to entertain people in long lines. Continuously improve all parts of the customer experience. Al-

Article 12. Start With the Customer though “continuous improvement” is a mantra for many organizations, benchmark service organizations feature two important aspects to this concept. First, they start with the customer and find out what the customer expects to be improved. Second, they consider all parts of the customer experience as potential areas for improvement. These firms not only try to improve the product and service itself, but also the setting in which the product is delivered and the quality of the delivery system. Even small, low-cost changes based on customer feedback can produce higher levels of customer retention. Disney’s customers indicated that the Tower of Terror—a ride designed to simulate the feeling of an elevator dropping—seemed like it was over too quickly. By making some adjustments to the sequencing of the drops, the customers felt the ride time was just long enough without Disney changing the actual length of the ride. Empower customers to help coproduce their own experience. Outstanding organizations know customer involvement leads to a number of positive organizational benefits. First, whatever customers can do for themselves, the organization does not have to do for them. This outcome can have a cost and convenience benefit to customers as well. Second, the organization knows that the more customers are involved in producing their own ser-

vice experience, the greater the likelihood the experience will meet each customer’s expectations. If the experience does not, the customer bears part of the responsibility. It’s hard to find fault with a physician if you fail to follow the treatment plan for an illness or injury. Third, the organization can gain loyalty from participating customers who think of themselves as part of the organization’s family. A great example of creating a “family feeling” is Southwest Airlines. Southwest invites its frequent flyers to help interview new flight attendants. This involvement not only brings customer expertise to the selection process, but also sends a strong message to the customers participating—you’re so important to us that we want you to help us pick the people you think can best serve your needs. Build-a-Bear Workshop, a growing national retailer, engages customers of all ages in creating customized stuffed animals, including naming, dressing, and accessorizing each animal. Research I’ve been involved with in information technology services also demonstrates the effectiveness of customer co-production in B2B settings. Treat all customers like guests. Disney insists on everyone using the term guest instead of customer for their millions of visitors. Looking at a customer as a genuine guest changes everything the organization

and its employees do. Creating a hospitable experience instead of merely selling a product or service is an important way to turn customers into loyal patrons or repeat guests. It’s cheaper to retain loyal customers than it is to recruit new ones, and repeat business is the key to long-term profitability. Although treating customers as guests is a simple sounding lesson, it represents a major challenge that organizations have to master in order to compete successfully in an increasingly customerdriven marketplace. In short, the benchmark service organization has a key lesson to teach companies of all types: The customer experience is the key element to consider when shaping your business practices. The time and energy spent on accurately understanding the totality of your customer’s needs and wants and finding cost-effective ways to address those factors will be rewarded with greater levels of customer retention—the ultimate driver of longterm profitability.

About the Author Stephen W. Brown holds the Edward M. Carson Chair in Services Marketing and is a professor of marketing at Arizona State University and director of ASU’s Center for Services Leadership. He may be reached at [email protected]. For more information on ASU’s Center for Services Leadership visit, www.cob.asu.edu/csl.

From Marketing Management, January/February 2003, pp. 12-13. © 2003 by the American Marketing Association. Reprinted by permission.

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