Q&
EDITOR’S
F
ew businesses enter into a partnership
expecting it is going to be a bad
experience. In fact, customers do not
consciously think about their experiences
with a channel partner; they anticipate that
they are going to have a good experience
with whomever they engage with.
It is critical to realise that customer
centricity is not a single business unit’s
function, but rather a function of the
business. A simple example is when I
recently gave a presentation to a customer
during a period of load shedding.
We had to use a UPS that one of our IT
staff had. He didn’t hesitate giving it to me
50
JAMES HICKMAN, CHIEF CUSTOMER
OFFICER AT ALTRON KARABINA
even though it meant that he couldn’t work
for those couple of hours and had to stay
late. Because that customer obsession is
bred into the culture of our people, it wasn’t
even a decision for him.
To deliver the right customer experience,
companies must understand what excellent
service means to their customers. Determine
this through a discussion of what excellent
looks like. Having that discussion early on
in the relationship is crucial so that you
have something to aim for and you have a
customer that can measure you against that.
However, it is all well and good having
a mechanism in place to measure excellent
service, but if there is no trust from the
customer to voice any frustrations there
is no point in having a mechanism in the
first place.
Pro-active communication is crucial so
that both parties don’t wait for the review
To deliver the right
customer experience,
companies must
understand what
excellent service means
to their customers.
cycle to discuss any challenges, they can take
care of them straight away.
At Altron Karabina, we hire people that
are truly passionate about their customers
and we build customer success as a key
measurement into all aspects of our business
and its success. We invest in training our
sales staff to equip them with the expertise
to deal with customers. They need to be
able to understand the impact a solution
can make in a customer’s business versus
the size of the implementation or the cool
technology it requires. The innovation we
deliver must matter to our customers.
The first question from sales staff
should always be focused around the value
proposition for customers and whether the
solution makes sense for them. Our sales
people are now embracing this approach in
almost every discussion we have and it is
incredibly rewarding to see. The language
we use around the boardroom table is also
shifting to being more customer-centric. We
often start discussions with what is a good
decision for the customer and our employees
are frequently talking about the customer’s
experience. That is very powerful. It is
easy to say I’m customer-centric, but to
demonstrate just that is very hard.
At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter
what you say, what your people say or what
your slogan is. To have your customers
consistently say you put them first is the
ultimate challenge for any business leader
driving a customer-centric organisation.