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I had an opportunity to visit The Shard in London yesterday. I was a speaker at a customer experience event, organised by my friends at the research company B2B International. As anyone who’s been there will know, the views across London from The Shard are just spectacular. Unfortunately, the sun was not shining, but once the morning mist had lifted we had some fantastic panoramic views of the city. The event was held in the Shangri-La Hotel which is within The Shard.

It’s not very often that a toilet seat grabs my attention, but the ones in the Shangri-La did. They have heaters so they are always warm. It’s a strange experience when you first sit on them. I first thought someone else must have been sat there just before me and pre-warmed it, but then I realised it was a feature of the very fancy toilets they have. I guess it’s especially welcome on cold days. But that’s enough about toilets; what about the event?

I thought it was an excellent mix of speakers, a consultant (me), a practitioner (David Speakman) and a researcher (Matt Powell). Most of the delegates were from organisations in B2B markets where I’ve gained a lot of experience over the past few years, so I kicked off with an overview of what the latest research from around the world tells us about how customer experience is becoming a key strategy for many B2B organisations. I then outlined what I believe are the key tools and techniques to use. Finally, I explained what I consider to be the best ways to implement for sustainable success.

I was followed by an interview with David Speakman, the founder of Travel Counsellors, who have a 96% Net Promoter Score, which is one of the World’s highest.  David explained what has been his undoubtable successful approach for achieving this. He also explained how achieving this remarkable level of customer loyalty has made it possible for the business to grow at a steady rate of 10% to 20% every year, with little or no money spent on consumer marketing. All the growth has come from repeat customers and the referrals they have generated. Finally, he outlined how what he has done in the travel market, could easily be used in a B2B market.

Matt Powell is the B2B Research Director. He ended with a very interesting and insightful presentation of the latest research from B2B International. He outlined what it suggests for making a focus on customer experience create a worthwhile difference in a B2B market. It was a very interesting overview of where the B2B customers were focusing for success.

The morning ended with a panel Q & A session.

On the train heading home I reflected on the morning, what I had learnt and how that might help others. My overall conclusions are as follows:

• It appears that European B2B organisations are a long way behind US organisations in making customer experience a core element of strategy. This is clearly indicated by the very few organisations in Europe that have created a main board position for this, compared to the very many that have in the US.
• A combination of Operational Excellence and Experience Excellence is a winning formula in B2B markets. Most B2B organisations are good at the Operational Experience techniques but many are poor at the Experience Excellence ones. This creates a great opportunity for those organisations that are prepared to become good in both.
• There is a general feeling in B2B markets that what works for B2C organisations will not work for them. But this is not right - most of the core principles and techniques are equally effective in all markets.
• A key to success in any market is having the right people in the right roles. In service delivery this means recruiting people with a natural ability for delivering great service. This is best achieved by using a psychometric profiling tool that can indicate which people possess these natural talents.
• Customer experience journey mapping is an essential tool for implementation. But many B2B organisations do not do it with the rigour required to get it right. It needs to be done with the same attention to detail that is applied to the job of value stream mapping an operational process.
• The most useful customer feedback is event-driven (triggered by customer interactions that are known to influence loyalty) and real-time (gathered at the time of the interaction). It then needs to be quickly made available to the departments and people that have the greatest influence over those interactions.
• Momentum is an essential requirement for successful implementation. This means it must be done big (everyone involved) and fast (done with a sense of urgency).
• I like the idea of a bottom warmer on a cold day. Perhaps I therefore need to investigate who makes the toilets used in the Shangri-La hotel?

So all in all a great event and I hope the above ideas are helpful.

© Copyright Chris Daffy