Getting Back to Basics

Interesting comments from ANZs chief economist Cameron Bagrie at a recent NZ Hotel industry conference suggesting that business should return to the basics.

Bargrie said “that the winning plays would come from leadership and amongst others, strategic planning and leveraging unique points of advantage”.

I don’t often refer to comments from economists however I totally agree with Bagries comments on this occasion.

One of the very few unique competitive advantages still available to most businesses is the quality and consistency of their customer experience.

For those that take up this option it’s important they understand that both leadership and strategic planning play a major role if a business is serious about leveraging this competitive advantage.

We are doing business in an increasingly competitive and commoditised economy. Customers increasingly due to the level of competition have all the power and their expectations of the service and the experiences they receive continue to rise.

To move forward, organisations need to get past their endless fascination with cost reduction to embrace customer innovation. Reducing costs remains the easiest way to justify process change, but mature organisations move on to focus on the customer experience and value innovation. While doing so they overcome the resistance from silo structures, which still persist in most organisations.

In 2012 business must realise that in a world of excess, uniformity and repetition, people buy experiences, not products or services. When people feel good about their experiences, they will not only return but will tell their friends.

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Chris Bell is the Managing Director of Customer Experiences, a company committed to building successful businesses through the development of high quality customer experiences and co-founder of cemNZ www.customerexperience.co.nz chris@customerexperiences.co.nz  www.customerexperiences.co.nz 027 2792360