Sustainability is a buzz word at the moment, whether it be due to a realisation that we cannot go on treating the world the way we have, without depleting its natural resources, or because businesses are engaging in a fight for survival for customers who crave cheaper, better and faster services and now also with a personal touch. Sustainability has been defined as “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”. Put simply sustainability is the “ability” to “sustain”, to keep going, to not deplete the resources we rely on. For sustainable organisations this means balancing the needs of the organisation against the environment, the balance sheet and society (or the environmental, economic and social factors as depicted in the graphic below [Source: Wikipedia]):
The triple bottom line of sustainability – balancing social, environmental and economic factors
At the risk of sounding like jumping on a bandwagon, this two part post will examine the reasons why sustainability is becoming an extremely important part of the customer experience and vice-versa why customer experience is vital for the long term business sustainability of many organisations. The first part of this two part post will look at the latter.
Harnessing customer experience for long term business sustainability
If sustainability is all about ensuring the long term availability of an organisation’s vital resources to ensure long term survival, then the number one priority of all organisations is to retain the most vital resource of all: the customer. This means finding a competitive advantage, however, options for finding a competitive advantage may be few and far between.
Customers are fussy. We are inundated with choice and hold more power over brands and services than ever before. Faster, better and cheaper can still be sources of competitive advantage, but the ability to sustain these long term will require big investments in research and development and talent. Those companies that have bright enough talent, ideas and money to invest may still be able to compete on these fronts, but other companies can do far worse than to win the hearts and minds of their customers through delivering a personal and engaging customer experience. A well executed customer experience consistent time after time, visit after visit will win trust and ensure a service stays in the heart of their customers for a long time.
Therefore for most organisations, defining and delivering an excellent customer experience is the most vital aspect to ensuring long term sustainability. Taking care of environmental and economic factors are irrelevant if the economics of a business isn’t taken care of and the organisation isn’t generating enough revenue from its customers. This means that driving repeat custom should be at the forefront of an organisations strategy, and what better way in this word of mouth age than providing a customer experience people want to build a tribe around?
Slowly but surely organisations that don’t meet customer’s expectations consistently will become extinct. Products can be duplicated and the race to the bottom in terms of pricing is being drawn out and is no longer a sensible business strategy. Existing multinationals or businesses that operate at the peak of innovation or who can find drastically new ways to decrease their pricing models may be able to compete on these fronts, but the majority of companies cannot. Mass marketing is also proving to be remarkably ineffective in the modern business age. Connecting and engaging with customers on an emotional level is emerging as the best source of a competitive advantage, because building a customer excellence focussed culture and work force is extremely difficult to replicate. Therefore, those that manage it will, and are, reaping the rewards.
Furthermore, because of the explosion of different media channels, to ensure sustainability this customer centric philosophy must be employed across all touchpoints. There has been a lot of debate recently about whether customer service is the new marketing. This is a wasted conversation in my eyes since customer service and marketing both represent elements of the wider customer experience. They work together, should complement each other and be consistent across all elements of a service or brand over time. Inconsistent messages or levels of customer centricity will be found out by the customer and they will turn elsewhere, as explained in this excellent article by Tim Sanchez which really highlights the importance of consistency in a service delivery. This is also a topic I talked about in this post (Twitter article) a couple of months ago.
What factors do you think influence the long term economic sustainability of an organisation? I would love to hear any thoughts you have.
Remember the Triple Bottom Line graphic at the top of this article? This post examined why customer experience is important for the long term economic sustainability of an organisation. The next part of this two-part post will examine why environmental and social sustainability are becoming increasingly more important elements of the customer experience.
