A study by Bain & Company found that 80 percent of companies surveyed believed that they delivered a "superior experience" to their customers. But, when customers were asked to indicate their perceptions of the experiences they have in dealing with companies, they rated only 8 percent of companies as truly delivering a superior experience (James Allen, Frederick F. Reichheld and Barney Hamilton, The Three "Ds" of Customer Experience, Harvard Business School Working Knowledge,

I've also been reading an article by Philip Kreindler from HBR on what B2B customers expect and I think that it will have some interesting reading for the law firms.

Customers place subject matter and solution provision at the top of the list of important qualities from a vendor of services. However for some strange reason, vendors of services underestimate it's value and rank it at no 3 in the ratings and think that Professionalism is the number 1 item. (It is the no 3 item on the list for customers.)

The interesting one for me is the no 2 issue which is understanding of the clients business and industry and whilst both parties recognise that it is the 2nd most important area, it ranks towards the bottom of what vendors recruit for.

Vendors of services shouldn't assume that they are fully aware of what the customer wants.

It may be worthwhile for legal firms to discuss with their clients what skills and expertise they expect and deliver and recruit people who more closely match those attributes. I've always been amazed how little law firms look towards their customers and really do get close to them.

Law firms want to get to trusted adviser status, but do seem loath to find out why clients leave or most importantly why they stay and doing everything that they can to ensure client retention especially in view of the hard work it takes to get a client.

To help I'm adding the list - the numbers in the brackets are its ranking with vendors.

What customers really expect

1. Subject matter and solution expertise. (3)
2. Understanding of the customers business and industry (2)
3. Professionalism (1)
4. Consultative skills and creativity (5)
5. Organisational & decision making skills (6)
6. Social & Communication skills (4I

You have done well my apprentice

We have all experienced it at one time and another shoddy service in a store and you vow when you go out, never to darken their doors for some period of time or ever and we share that experience with friends and family. And like Anakin Skywalker we seethe and turn into the dark avenger of the enterprise until we feel that we have sated our need for retribution.

I listened to a podcast recently by Stephen Hoch a marketing professor at Wharton, who highlighted that such word-of-mouth communication should be a big cause of concern to retailers.

He and a consulting group in a retail survey highlighted that "only 6% of shoppers who experienced a problem with a retailer contacted the company, but 31% went on to tell friends, family or colleagues what happened. Of those, 8% told one person, another 8% told two people, but 6% told six or more people. "Even though these shoppers don't share their pain with the store, they do share their pain with other people, apparently quite a few other people," says Hoch."

And of course when the story is told to friends, like Chinese whispers it is embellished and nearly half of the people will avoid that outlet based on someone's else dodgy experience. The impact is more on those who hear the story rather than the person who told the story as it becomes more and more embroidered.

Customers and the dance of the 7 veils

We also look at the way that we get service but also don't like it if we feel that we are being ripped off, even if the shop has a policy that says they will refund the difference. i was talking to a colleague over lunch who told me that he was in a shop and rang his wife up to compare a price of a digital camera on Kelkoo and found a saving of £60 on cost. He said why don't retailers realise that we aren't captive clients any more and can check prices more quickly - just be honest and be transparent in their pricing. It will help them more in the long run rather than thinking about the customer as a dummy.

A female friend of mine does a lot of clothes shopping and we were walking together past a shop which does low cost clothing. I noticed a quickening of pace past the shop and I asked her why - assuming that she didn't want to get to Starbucks quicker. She said that she disliked going in to that shop because she had difficulty in finding items there and found shopping a somewhat negative experience in this brand due to overcrowded shelves and a lack of support. She saw shopping as a pleasurable experience to be enjoyed even if it was window shopping whereas she felt that shopping in that store was a bit like her hunting for an elusive prey.


Smack that Virus

The Hoch article highlights that perhaps using a Mintzbergian approach to customer management, look to what are the dissatisfiers in their stores and then work to eradicate them as much as possible. Perhaps when looking at your customer base, you should look to do this to provide you with a competitive edge.

One way would be to have a set of slips on the checkout desk so that if you have a problem, but you are too emotional about it at the time, then leave some details i.e. telephone number or e-mail address and let the company come back to you the following day to see how they can resolve the issue before you have blown off steam to friends and family and lost that store a number of current or potential customers.

Conclusion

One of the contributors to the podcast - Paula Courtney of the Verde Group concludes by saying the following.

"Finally, if a retailer refuses to respond to dissatisfied customers, shoppers should feel free to spread the word. "If all else fails, we do encourage you to tell all your friends and family. Don't tell five people, tell 35 people,". "Retailers need to know that if they don't listen, it will hurt their bottom line."

So this is not an idea virus that any customer facing organisation wants to have out in the wild, so look to reduce those dissatisfiers before they are unleashed and you have a Darth Vader attacking your business.

Before I start this piece for those of you who haven't used blogs much then, if you want to see previous blogs then click on the month link at the sidebar to read these articles.

The historian in me is always rather sceptical about paradigms and I've always been worried when everyone is running in the same direction as occasionally they can miss signals that can necessitate a change of requirements.

The Greeks and Shakespeare all believed in the concept of Hubris and this usually took place when everything seemed the most secure and safe - just look at M& S - once a market leader and lauded to the skies- now much shrunk and humbled

In businesses this can also be seen in the 'irrational exuberance' of the Dutch tulip boom, the South Sea bubble and at the turn of the century the dot.com bubble where a belief in the power of the new replacing the old took hold.

In fact as we have seen the old economy has adapted better and co-opted the new world of the internet- look at companies which have a physical and on-line presence to sell their products and services. I'll be considering in later blogs about what the Internet has meant to organisations over the last 5 years and how managers will need to change just to survive.

All businesses should beware the power of paradigms because situations can change - but if we look at the situation through current blinkers we are in danger of missing the large boulder coming towards us.