Customer as Muse and Mentor: ‘Customer CEO’ Challenges Traditional Notions of Consumer Insight

You could say that Chuck Wall is obsessed with what people think. Wall is the founder of Customer CEO, and can happily admit to interviewing over 100,000 customers across multiple business categories.

Chuck Wall’s new book, Customer CEO: How to Profit from the Power of Your Customers, isn’t so much a marketing manual as it is a series of critical thought essays on why the most effective brands – from Ikea, to Trader Joe’s, to Tom’s Shoes – embrace the truth about what customer’s really want and feel and do so using comparatively simple tools.

He shares with us some of his mantras for the modern CMO.

Today’s CMO has really become a juggler of sorts. They must balance the never-ending flood of quantitative data, while attempting to enhance the customer’s experience in order to build high lifetime customer value. It’s a very tough job. Those who get too caught up in the data side are too focused on the “what.”  It’s like staring in the rearview mirror.  Smart CMO’s will spend the majority of their time focused on looking ahead (through the windshield, so to speak) by walking in the shoes of their customers…and non-customers.  This empathic-based insight provides the “why.”  That’s where the future is and this deep customer insight will help get there faster.

Author Chuck Wall cites Jet Blue as just one of several companies that actively listen and interact with their customers. “By responding quickly, authentically, and respectfully, they are earning credibility that helps build brand loyalty and equity.”

The best brands are the ones who are proactively listening.  In this boat I would put brands like JetBlue, Starbucks, Dell, Adobe and Gatorade; they’ve figured out that their 24/7 listening posts allow them instant access to the good, bad and ugly experiences their customers are having.  By responding quickly, authentically and respectfully, they are earning credibility that helps build brand loyalty and equity.  On the other hand, there are too many to mention that are “Lost in Space.”  I think most traditional retailers, auto dealers, insurance, financial services and B2B are lagging, not leading.  It’s a real missed opportunity but they don’t want to put their resources against these efforts.

The Apple store continues to symbolize a brand that seems to get everything right. Many clients want to be everything Apple, from their clean website, to their uncluttered stores’ style and look.  But, that’s just the packaging, isn’t it?  It’s what is under the hood that really drives Apple forward.The key factors are to produce high performing and simple products that solve people’s problems and keep doing it over and over.  Most companies make the mistake of trying to sell stuff more than solve customer problems.  Apple actually uses their stores as real, live solution labs everyday.

Wall says that unlike its competitors, In-N-Out Burger doesn’t chase after novelty or trends. They embody the “power of simple” and its paid off in customer loyalty and profit.

In-N-Out Burger is one of the very best examples I have ever seen of the Power of Simple.After sixty-five years, they still just serve five basic menu items.  They’ve resisted the temptation to “expand their horizons” to other food types.  Customers aren’t confused by a dazzling array of “limited time” offers for specialty sandwiches designed to drive incremental store traffic like a Carl’s Jr., Jack in the Box or Sonic. To some, this lack of innovation is foolhardy; to In-N-Out it’s a formula for unbelievable success. Think about how this simplified approach to running the business eliminates and reduces operating costs in terms of floor space, equipment, inventory and employee training.  By the way, In-N-Out confounds their competitors and critics alike by being number two in same store sales (nearly $2 million per unit), only behind McDonald’s, so simplicity can be very profitable.

Listening is not what we’ve been taught in business school or by our mentors and bosses in corporate America. We are supposed to be smarter than the customers; after all, we’re the geniuses who keep coming up with these incredible products and services, aren’t we?  The truth is, this is thinking from a different century when companies controlled the flow of information.  You could keep the customer in the dark.  But, technology has ripped that mask off forever.  Companies that willingly ignore their customer’s feedback, opinions and ideas are doomed; there are plenty of new brands standing by to take their place.  As I like to say, right now, someone, somewhere is listening to your customers to steal them from you.  When you look at it that way, it makes listening a top priority.

 Customer CEO:How to Profit from the Power of Your Customers, by Chuck Wall is published by Bibliomotion. $24.95.

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