I've had an interesting experience yesterday. I was invited for an interview on big companies' customer centricity (or rather the lack of it) by Radio1, the national quali radio station in Belgium. They had created a charter and companies were invited to the studio to sign it. You can imagine that all major companies from the energy and telecom markets were present to show their good will.
As I was at the end of the program, I was waiting outside the studio and was privileged to follow the official on air version as well as the 'backstage' comments.
One of the major energy providers had sent their spokeswoman. A very confident and mediatrained apparition that was sent out on her mission to reassure the world that the company she represented was already customer aware today and will be even more customer centric in the future. As a proud protector of her employer she declared that the average waiting time before their call center picked up the phone was 28 seconds. Which was a great average, but it directly reminded me of the story of the man who drowned in the river with an average water level of 20cm. While she was pronouncing her words in front of the microphone her (I suppose) assistant made a small victory dance outside the studio. Suddenly it became clear to me that for them the whole show wasn't about customers but about free publicity on national radio. It had nothing to do with an intention to change their attitude towards the customer. The host of the program immediately interpellated the spokeswomen on the impossible to understand invoices. The selfconfident spokeswoman had no clear answer. End of the interview.
Coming out of the studio, the assistant was clearly in a victorious flush. "You did great! And on the 28 seconds they had no reply! She (the host) immediately started about the invoices. That was low", she almost shouted.
In front of me were 2 brand bulls. Responsible for the official company declarations that their bosses didn't want to pronounce or didn't want to spend time on. The initiative of Radio1 was just anioher competition for them against the other providers. Their point of view had nothing to do with customers or customer centricity. It was once again an attack on 'the others' like a dumb bull running towards the red rag And at the same time a missed opportunity to get fundamental input and insights on their customers. Another missed opportunity to show interaction with the customer. Another missed opportunity to tell their story or to start conversating with their customer. I'll suggest to Peeters and Pical, the hosts of the show, to hang the red rag outside their studio so next time the brand bulls will stay out of the studio...
As I was at the end of the program, I was waiting outside the studio and was privileged to follow the official on air version as well as the 'backstage' comments.
One of the major energy providers had sent their spokeswoman. A very confident and mediatrained apparition that was sent out on her mission to reassure the world that the company she represented was already customer aware today and will be even more customer centric in the future. As a proud protector of her employer she declared that the average waiting time before their call center picked up the phone was 28 seconds. Which was a great average, but it directly reminded me of the story of the man who drowned in the river with an average water level of 20cm. While she was pronouncing her words in front of the microphone her (I suppose) assistant made a small victory dance outside the studio. Suddenly it became clear to me that for them the whole show wasn't about customers but about free publicity on national radio. It had nothing to do with an intention to change their attitude towards the customer. The host of the program immediately interpellated the spokeswomen on the impossible to understand invoices. The selfconfident spokeswoman had no clear answer. End of the interview.
Coming out of the studio, the assistant was clearly in a victorious flush. "You did great! And on the 28 seconds they had no reply! She (the host) immediately started about the invoices. That was low", she almost shouted.
In front of me were 2 brand bulls. Responsible for the official company declarations that their bosses didn't want to pronounce or didn't want to spend time on. The initiative of Radio1 was just anioher competition for them against the other providers. Their point of view had nothing to do with customers or customer centricity. It was once again an attack on 'the others' like a dumb bull running towards the red rag And at the same time a missed opportunity to get fundamental input and insights on their customers. Another missed opportunity to show interaction with the customer. Another missed opportunity to tell their story or to start conversating with their customer. I'll suggest to Peeters and Pical, the hosts of the show, to hang the red rag outside their studio so next time the brand bulls will stay out of the studio...
Dear customer, we still have a very long way to go...
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