Ties That Bind: Three Concepts of Customer Relationships That Inspire Word of Mouth

Book Learning Ties That Bind is Installment #3 in our series that looks deep inside an important chapter from a small business marketing book. This is not a book review. See our previous installments: The Marketing Spot – Book Learning

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Why don’t you get word of mouth?

Most businesses view their mission as good service. “From eye-popping service come industry legends, rave reviews in the media, and fabulous word of mouth, which is the most effective marketing tool a company can have.” In Small Giants: Companies That Choose to Be Great Instead of Big, author Bo Burlingham offers us Ties that Bind: three examples of just how to achieve those remarkable service customer relationships that inspire loyalty and launch word of mouth.

Flickr photo by kwamie

The Three Concepts:

I. Enlightened Hospitality
Burlingham shares the story of New York restaurateur Danny Meyer, who wows customers with his concept of enlightened hospitality.

Enlightened hospitality is more than impeccable service. It is what Meyer calls “the intense, nearly neurotic interest in seeing people have a good time.”
Traditional customer service is important, but it is a set of technical skills. Enlightened hospitality is “an emotional skill involving the ability to make customers feel that you are on their side.”

Three Core Values (In descending order of importance)
1. Caring for each other – The first priority is the family of your staff. That means not only creating an atmosphere in which employees feel valued and respected, but also making it possible for them to have fun at work. Make the job intensely personal.

2. Caring for guests – Show customers that you care for them personally.

3. Caring for the community – Devote a significant portion of your marketing budget to values, causes, and activities important to your customers.

While the concept is simple, implementation is not because it is done by staff. You can give examples, tell stories, and provide tools but you cannot instill the capacity for empathy in people. The solution is to hire for human skills and train for technical skills.

II. Customer Intimacy
Burlingham shares the story of Idaho electronics safety manufacturer ECCO: and their transformation from customer friendliness to customer intimacy.

Customer intimacy is “developing products flexible enough to serve a wide variety of customer needs and working closely and collaboratively with customers to give them what they want.”

Three Key Components
1. Developing Flexible Products – One size does not fit all. Help each customer meet their unique needs in a cost-effective manner. There are no “take-it-or-leave-it” products. Only starting points.

2. Work Collaboratively With Customers – You and the customer are teammates working to serve a multiplicity of their needs. This may mean re-configuring products, services and systems.

3. Structure the Company Around the Customer Intimacy Discipline – A big, long-term challenge, which may mean reinventing a successful business. It often requires changes in management, re-organization of staff and departments, and re-training current employees.

III. Sense of Community
Burlingham shares the story of songwriter/singer/musician Ani DiFranco and Righteous Babe Records and how she built a sense of community with loyal fans.

Sense of Community is “a sense of common cause between the company, its employees, its customers, and suppliers.” Impossible? With selfishness, yes. But sense of community is about not about self, it’s about real, personal relationships.

Three Pillars
1. Integrity – The knowledge that a company is what it appears, and claims, to be. It’s not about hype, but about presentation. You don’t try to trick someone into buying from you. You make something worth buying and put it out there. People will be attracted and buy, or not.

2. Professionalism – The company does what it says it’s going to do. You can be counted on to keep commitments.

3. Direct, Human Connection – The effect of creating an emotional bond, based on mutual caring. The relationships are personal and real, not contrived. Your community wants to know that it is dealing with someone who cares.

It’s not the people at the top of companies that create intimate bonds with customers. It’s the managers and employees who do the work of the business. “They are the ones who convey the spirit of the company to the outside world. Accordingly, they are the company’s first priority.”

What Now?
So, if we took Seth Godin’s advice on how to read a business book, what three things would you change to create ties that bind?

Related information customer relationships and word of mouth:
Lowe’s vs. Keith’s Hardware
A Remarkable Customer Experience: Special Podcast
Video Tutorial: How to Create a Remarkable Customer Experience

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