Mike Hohnen

Coaching for personal growth, change and development

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In a Sea of Sameness, We need to Manage the Experience

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We have been talking about the experience economy for years, but what does it mean to create an experience?

And, have you ever wondered who is responsible for the total experience in your company?

Most companies I work with have subdivided the responsibility for the experience into various sections – the kitchen is responsible for the food experience, the restaurant  for the table service, the reception desk for the welcome.

When doing it that way, we hope that if each of them do it well, then the total experience is going to be the best possible experience.

But if we were to apply that principle to manufacturing, we would be calling it sub-optimization. Ensuring that the parts are fantastic doesn’t guarantee that the total becomes fantastic. Purchasing the 11 best soccer players in the world does not guarantee a championship.

If you take your family to a theme park for the day – does it end up being a fantastic day because of one or two rides, or is it the integration of all the different experiences that blend into what you all feel was an exceptional day?

So, how do we ensure that the overall experience is fantastic?

I became curious about all this because I came across an article that stated that 69%of major UK companies have a customer experience manager.

The financial sector and the telecom sectors seem to lead the way. In retail, we don’t see many; and I struggled to find any in the hospitality sector at all.

Interesting.

Why have people in finance and telecoms seen the need before everyone else to appoint someone senior to take responsibility for the total experience of our customers?

I think this has to do with the fact that in the financial sector and the telecoms sector, they have a huge challenge in differentiating their product.

Once you have obtained your overdraft facility or your loan or whatever it is you want from a financial company, the difference in the actual product is not clear. A loan is a loan. The same applies to the telecom sector. If I send you an SMS, it’s difficult to know if it has been sent through Telia or Orange or whoever it is. The quality of the SMS doesn’t vary from one telecom provider to the other – although the content may vary… but that is another story.

What does vary from company to company is the actual experience you have when applying for your loan or creating your mobile phone account. Paying your bill etc.

This is something that Virgin understood years ago.

They took boring industries and tried to see if they could improve the experience. Not a cheaper experience but a more interesting or fun experience. They did it to the airline industry, they did it to trains, they’ve done it in the banking sector, telecoms, and fitness centers.

So why is the retail sector or the hospitality sector not concerned about the total customer experience – they stand out as the two sectors who don’t seem to employ customer experience managers?

They don’t see the need because when you have a shop or a hotel and you stand inside your own business and look out into the world, you are convinced that what you have is very different from any of the other products out there. Furthermore, you are convinced that, of course, the customers can tell the difference between your beautiful shop and all the other mediocre shops that are out there. It is obvious. But if you switch perspective and look at the marketplace through the eyes of the customers, what they see is a sea of sameness.

From the customer’s point of view, in each category they are all similar products that do the same things at the same prices, etc.

Which is why we have now come to a point where customer service is probably the last frontier of a sustainable competitive advantage. Products are very similar; process – the way we do things – is the differentiator.

So, if you want to out-perform your competition, you need to focus on your processes. How do all the things we do blend into that great total and unforgettable experience?

In the following blog posts, we will take a closer look at what that means.

Potential ÷ Interference = Performance

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Challenges

I am a great believer in this simple formula:

Potential ÷ Interference = Performance

Fundamentally, all individuals, teams, and organizations have huge potential. They don’t always realize it – but they do. If they are not reaching that potential, it is because something is getting in the way. We call that interference.

If you don’t feel that you or your team are achieving your full potential, it is probably due to some form of interference.
Maybe you know the cause, but often it is a question of a blind spot.

In either case, you are stuck until we can get whatever it is out of the way.

And that is what I, as a coach, can help you with.

Why Culture Beats Process

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Culture2
I am researching for a workshop that I will be conducting next week on culture and performance. One of my favorite subjects.

The evidence is very clear: Everywhere we find exceptional customer service, we invariably also find an amazing culture. Culture and performance are inseparable.

It’s not surprising though, if you think about it, your complete customer experience is a direct reflection of your culture. Makes perfect sense.

During my research, I came across this beautiful quote from Brian Chesky, Co-founder, CEO of Airbnb. This is part of a longer letter that he had written to his team, which was later published in Medium:

So how do we build culture?
By upholding our core values in everything we do. Culture is a thousand things, a thousand times. It’s living the core values when you hire; when you write an email; when you are working on a project; when you are walking in the hall. We have the power, by living the values, to build the culture. We also have the power, by breaking the values, to fuck up the culture. Each one of us has this opportunity, this burden.

Why is culture so important to a business?

Here is a simple way to frame it. The stronger the culture, the less corporate process a company needs. When the culture is strong, you can trust everyone to do the right thing. People can be independent and autonomous. They can be entrepreneurial. And if we have a company that is entrepreneurial in spirit, we will be able to take our next “(wo)man on the moon” leap.

Ever notice how families or tribes don’t require much process? That is because there is such a strong trust and culture that it supersedes any process. In organizations (or even in a society) where culture is weak, you need an abundance of heavy, precise rules and processes.

Read the full article here

Great service is all about engagement in the front line.

But engagement is inseparable from empowerment.

Empowerment is culture.

Customer Centric : they get it – Virgin Hotels

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In my previous post, I tried to illustrate how some hotels (and other service businesses) truly understand what it means to be customer centric and then all the others who really just don’t get it.

Two days after posting that I came across the following video from Virgin – who is now entering the hotel industry.

This is interesting because Virgin has always had a strategy of moving into industries where most of the players just don’t get it… Airlines, trains, banks, phone providers, and now hotels. What it means is that Virgin sees an opportunity to do it much better…there is room for improvement… Check out their website

Virgin Hotels – ‘Brilliant’ Not To Scale New York. from Not To Scale on Vimeo.

We make love and steal hearts. We’re passionate about creating brilliant experiences that make peoples’ lives better. And there’s nothing more honorable than that.

Customer centric – do you get it?

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Walt on legs

In my view there are basically 3 kinds of hotels.

Hotels that just don’t get it. The law of supply and demand eventually takes care of them.

Then there are hotels, who get it, or should I say they think they get it. They are the hotels who continually ask themselves: how could we get more money out of each guest by providing more options, loops and hops they must jump through?

– so they have complex internet packages, like lousy internet for free, decent internet at a price – cheaper if you take the full 5 day pass etc.
– or when you walk into the room the television screen is blaring at you suggesting all the films that are on offer – at a price – and it takes you 10 minutes to workout how to turn the dam thing off or find the news.

Then there is the third category .

These are the hotels that ask themselves: What is it like to be on the road, away from home? What does one need, what is annoying, troublesome, irritating? How can we create a service that would make life better, easier, smoother or more fun for our guests and what would we need to charge to make that possible.

From a guest point of view this kind of hotel has a very different feel from the former. The final guest experience is totally different because that basic intent ‘to serve’ comes out in everything they do.

And when you experience that it is such a pleasure because you feel like a welcome guest and not like a ‘wallet on legs’.

What makes a leader better?

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Silo organisation

In a recent article in Straegy+Business I came across the following paragraph:

The fact is that giving people bigger jobs with fancier titles and larger salaries won’t make them better. More complex assignments will. Just look at the leaders of ANZ, the global banking group headquartered in Melbourne. Each time an employee identified as having high potential is promoted, the company makes sure it’s not to the same job on a larger scale (in terms of budget and resources) but to an entirely new set of challenges—maybe it’s relocating to a new country, shifting from a staff to a line role, or moving from a turnaround situation to launching a new business unit.

 

It made me think: so how good are we at  doing exactly that in the hospitality industry?

In my experience we don’t do it very much. A really good waiter gets promoted to head waiter and then on to restaurant manager. A good chef becomes sous-chef  and eventually maybe head-chef.  

And then we wonder why we have silo-thinking.

10 leadership traits that people adore

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Great Boss?

Many books have been written about what leadership is – but what is it from a followers perspective?
This is what respondents reply when asked to list the characteristics of leaders they admire:

  1. Has a clear vision of how people’s work meets the leader’s expectations.
  2. Provides timely, clear, constructive feedback.
  3. Expresses appreciation and gives credit where credit is due.
  4. Actively listens and answers questions.
  5. Treats others with respect and kindness.
  6. Consistently fair in their treatment of others.
  7. Trains, develops, and grows their people.
  8. Willing to jump in and help out when things become difficult.
  9. Has an open door policy and is available.
  10. Supportive and protective of their people when things go wrong.

 
Source: SmartBlog on Leadership

So, all you need to do now, is rate yourself on a scale of 1 to 10 according to how well you doing on each of those points – and if you are honest with yourself you will have a very practical and workable t-do list on what needs working on.

If you are courageous you could even ask one or two close collaborators that are not afraid to give you honest replies to review the evaluation you made of yourself and give you some honest feedback.

Welcome back from summer…

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It time to roll up our sleves and get cracking again…

As Joyce Hostyn writes on her blog :

“Beauty is an outcome of a focus on the human side of business. Of a deep understanding of people’s dreams, desires and search for meaning. Of a pursuit of a higher purpose.”

Watch her inspiring presentation here:

Ready? Let go to work…