17. The New Competitive Landscape
1. Commodities 2. Goods 3. Services 4. Experiences 5. Transformations
The material is the The product is The operation is The event is the The individual is the
offering the offering the offering offering offering
New substances are New inventions New procedures New themes are New paradigms are
discovered are discovered are created depicted determined
BOOM! Apple! BMW! Starbucks What do these three brands all have in common?
I’m Richard Crawford-Small, I’m Director of RCS Consulting and I am thrilled to be here today. Thrilled, because today, we are going to achieve an amazing thing.
REINVENT your PROCESSES REIMAGINE your CUSTOMER REAWAKEN your PASSION
Why? Because they KNOW that customer, not the clinic, is at the centre of business. It is Culturally Ingrained in every fibre of their being! They develop their business from the inside. Compelling Customer Experience Now, is it a coincidence that they are the market leaders in their industry? No, and here is why
You are successful already, and doing a lot really well, but lets really up the ante, because what we are looking for is EXCELLENCE. We must all define this vision of excellence, and work hard to demonstrate to all what that excellence is. The ones who do this, will blow their competition away!
To achieve this, 3 things need to happen; We need to Culturally Ingrain Compelling Customer Experiences We need to bring simplicity to The Customer Pathways We must embrace technology, not fear it I am going to explore these key factors in more detail and then highlight some activities we can use to help achieve them! So let’s get started.
Apple, Starbucks and BMW – 3 major brands with one commonality, what is it? They place their customer at the heart of their business, and their business strategies revolve around creating compelling customer experiences for their customers. Don’t believe me? Well just look at what they claim they sell;
Apple don’t sell computers, they sell image, individuality and creativity. Think Different
BMW don’t sell cars, they sell status. The Ultimate Driving Machine
Starbucks don’t sell coffee; they sell a relaxing environment between work and home, The 3rd place.
So my 1st challenge to you today; Tell me what you sell. You meet an old friend in the queue in Starbucks, and they ask “ So what are you doing now?” What was your answer? Turn to your next neighbour and share your answers? What was yours Sir? Madam? Do you have a glorious sense of purpose? Was your customer at the heart of your answer?
Your answer determined your value. Let’s think about that again, your answer determines your value. Hands up if your answer actually involved the consumer of your service? Well done those of you who do – but the majority do not!
The CEO of May 2012 that “Customers are no longer buying a phone, they are buying an experience”. This is a Telecoms company, name checking an online bookstore, when announcing that they are striving for a compelling customer experience.
This is a photo of a typical Medical Aesthetics clinic reception. Uninspiring, sterile, boring. This is the enemy A huge desk. A barrier The way things have always been done. Reimagine. No desk, no receptionist, just a someone waiting to welcome you into the clinic. One company is very good at reimagining..
Apple Look at that! It’s beautiful. The Apple Store 5th Avenue New York City. Oh, wait it’s a Consumer Electronics Shop. A Shop that has a customer experience so compelling, so powerful that it generates more revenue per square foot than any other store in New York City!!! I’ve never been, although I’m hoping Wendy Lewis will take me shopping. A telecoms company, a computer manufacturer, a coffee shop, a car manufacturer, ALL striving to provide a far more intimate, efficient and ultimately sexy Customer experience than your average Medical Aesthetics Clinic.
Why? Because they KNOW that customer, not the clinic, is at the centre of business. It is Culturally Ingrained in every fibre of their being! They develop their business from the inside. Compelling Customer Experience Now, is it a coincidence that they are the market leaders in their industry? No, and here is why
All of our benchmark organisations whip us when it comes to creating the customer experience, because we tend to focus on the Commodity, not what the commodity becomes. Toxin treatment, the Commodity is the Toxin, the Goods are the Brand, and the service is you injecting. You need to ADD VALUE to that service to create an experience, and if you want it to be memorable you need to add a memorable event. develop your business from the inside, your customers will evangelise, and word of mouth referrals increase and ultimately so do profits. So create transformations!
So we know what we need to do, we know why we need to do it, now how can we put YOUR business, up there with the brightest and best? Please don’t worry about writing notes (unless I say write this down). The slides and my notes will be available on the RCS stand over there Immediately after this session, and a transcript is going on Twitter right now. @rcsconsulting As I speak. Right? Yes! That’s what I call the embrace of technology.
Commit to the change, and give it a chance! At this point you could run a Customer Satisfaction Survey, but if you really want to improve and change your business, you must commit to it. Customer Experience needs to be CULTURALLY INGRAINED in your clinic, and EVERYONE must buy into it, don’t waste your time on surveying Customers if you won’t change anything as a result! It won't happen overnight. Set it as a goal, and ruthlessly enforce it. The 80/20 rule dictates that 20% of the industry will control 80% of the revenue. Be in the 20%, and remove the obstacles.
If you don’t know where your going, any route will get you there. I like experience mapping because it connects. It connects your vision, your goal and the present.
This one is reasonably complex, and you won’t need one anywhere near as detailed as this, but by mapping out each customer point and just marking it as positive or negative will help you easily see what is good and what isn’t working.
Remember our good friend the desk? If you were a customer, would you mark that as a positive? Imagine the desk in flames!! BURN THE BARRIERS!! Create interaction!!!
So we have seen that some little changes in focus can have a big impact on the clinic, and the power a pencil and an A4 piece of paper can have on how you look at your business. Next up, we need to have clear routes through your process Lifestyle vs Medical
Anyone know where this is? Australia 1756, or your 2 Year Old Marketing Plan. The world is moving at such a pace it’s difficult to keep up, and your customers are using this;
The modern consumer has high expectations
The customer moves through distinct roles and phases – they are looking for different things at each phase; This model will walk you step by step from commodity to transformation, because it allows you flexibility to focus on what your customer actually is; a Consumer; a Client; a Patient. I was always told to focus on what you can control, not what you can’t – and you can control what happens to a customer while they are in your domain, this pathway works with the map to enable you to focus on the touch points that really count, and make the crucial revenue generating changes. Tip 3 – Review your practice flow against the Practice Transformations Pathway Transitions are a key but often neglected part of the customer journey. You need to move a customer comfortably from one phase to another. For example, She’s just sat in the chair been stabbed 20 times in the face and is now being asked for £350. Or The transition from Patient to Client phase is the injector walking the patient to the desk and explaining the follow up procedure. Or In the case of a mobile practioners, a simple recap of the treatment, and next steps. Or You still need to close, so the consultation becomes a transitional point between the Client and Patient phases. Things don’t need to be complicated – they just need to be acknowledged
So we have taken a lot of information in in a short time - 25 minutes to be exact. I said that I believe that the key challenges are; Culture Pathways Technology Well, we have discussed how to manage the change in order to culturally ingrain the Customer journey I have shown you the new Practice Transformations Pathway, and how that model can walk your internal business development improvements step by step from average to amazing!
I have believed for a long time that we need to exploit the opportunities that technology can provide; one that we can use it to really deliver a spectacular customer experience, and drive cross sell revenues through the roof. Well, I have managed to produce a tool to do just that. I’ve called it the slab………..
Kids love it – they are consciously creating a user experience, and kids are all over it. Where do you think all the old iPads are ending up? Deliberately set expectations and preparing the market and now Apple have created a sub category in a market they have created - very, very clever! Nothing stopping you from doing it! Same thing happened with BOTOX® Allergan created a sub category in a market they created. What can you change to give us you your own paradigm shift?
REINVENT your PROCESSES REIMAGINE your CUSTOMER REAWAKEN your PASSION
To achieve this, 3 things need to happen; We need to Culturally Ingrain Compelling Customer Experiences We need to bring simplicity to The Customer Pathways We must embrace technology, not fear it I am going to explore these key factors in more detail and then highlight some activities we can use to help achieve them! So let’s get started.