Why customers may never become customers again

Where there is so much competition around, you have to earn a customer's loyalty and that means providing "great products at the right price and backing it up with great service". Shouldn't all customers deserve this quality, not just new customers but even customers that have already been loyal. If it really is better to save an existing customer than to find a new one, why do companies not look after their loyal customers better? Is it because they have already given enough of their money that they have already become profitable? Is it because companies have customer aquisition strategies in place but do not have similar strategies in place to keep customers?

In another example of where every customer interaction is a moment of truth, if a company makes it easy for a customer to leave then the customer may come back in time. Make it difficult, and the customer may never return.

See http://bit.ly/7ixuK

How company's waste money

Here is a great blog post from The Process Ninja about Fantastic Furniture. This post highlights the importance of process and what can happen when processes are not in place. This classic example highlights how every customer interaction is a Moment of Truth and every MOT creates work.

See http://bit.ly/TlN1Q

Example of Inside-out (United Airlines) v Outside-In (Southwest)

Here is a great example of how looking outside in, delivering upon successful customer outcomes can provide long term business success. The comparison is made over a decade and makes for an interesting comparison. So does Outside-In really make a difference?

See http://bit.ly/gw5fC

Who are the customers of government?

A very relevant article on the importance of knowing who the customer is and delivering to the customers expectation in the public service. Unfortunately this ideology appears to be lost to both the Australian federal government and NSW state government at the moment. So the question has to be asked, isn't the sole purpose of the government supposed to be to look after the will of the people?

http://bit.ly/IdoQr

British Airways asks staff to work unpaid for up to a month

Last month, British Airways posted a record annual loss of £400 million (US$656 million). Here is what contributed to this record loss:

• demand for the airline's passenger seats and cargo holds fell during the last financial year
• its fuel bill rocketed to almost £3 billion (US$4.7 billion)
• British Airways, like its premium-class competitors, is losing customers to cheaper rivals

So what has the airline decided to do?

The company has made a switch in strategy, trying to tempt passengers with lower fares, sacrificing profit per seat for "bums on seats." This idea is not new and comes from the budget airlines such as EasyJet, who know their customers and what they want. See http://bit.ly/pnQTr.

Interestingly that it should take a crisis such as this to force the company to provide its customers cheaper seats when this has been going on for some time now.

See here for the details of the crisis http://bit.ly/P90Nk

This strategy is unlikely to help significantly because the company is still looking at things from the inside out and it would take a complete re-evaluation of the company's focus, looking at things from outside in, to dig it out of this hole.

Does Outside-In Make A Difference?

The combination of the latest results from the fourth annual BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands from Millward Brown Optimor, with the list of established BPM companies makes interesting reading:

- 7 of the top 15 companies are outside-in, with all producing positive yearly results
- 4 of the top 15 companies are inside out, with all producing negative yearly results

See here for full details: http://bit.ly/3NgBj

American Airlines Follows Southwest's Lead

American Airlines is no longer going to accept cash on board flights, going fully plastic and following the example set by Southwest in 2008. How is this outside-in, follow the link below to see the full article.

http://bit.ly/OUmzU

Zip-top bags, monkeys, BPM and business rules

One of my personal favourites about BPM and monkeys and the moral to the story is "Don't beat up the guy trying to improve your business processes with the clear goal of rationalizing you and your collegues?"

http://bit.ly/o2vNP

Google Wave

Once again Google is redefining the way we do things or will do things in the future. This time, it is called Google Wave, a new tool for communication and collaboration on the web. How do Goolge define it:

It's not a product. It's a user happiness pill

See it here:

http://bit.ly/oEKbk