In 2019, I had the fortunate opportunity of attending a conference held in Melbourne focused on Client Experience. As with other conferences I have attended there were hundreds of people in attendance, vendors promoting their services, many guest speakers and let’s not forget the conference food!
In amongst the fan fair of the conference and guest speakers sharing their stories of how their respective companies had been able to improve their client experience and service delivery models, there were many key messages that resonated with me during the day and one in particular I would like to share, “What problem should be resolved?”
Gus Balbontin Founder – Director of Roshambo, shared a story relating to one of the first industries that was disrupted by the internet, this being the print media. In his example he referred to Lonely Plant (established 1972). Lonely Planet sought to leverage the new found internet to sell more of their travel books, this was their problem they were trying to resolve. Lonely Planet were looking inwardly focused on resolving their problem.
Gus shared another example of an online travel company (TripAdvisor) that emerged and its focus was on selling holiday experiences. It sought to resolve the problem that would make it easy for consumers to book holidays and travel. TripAdvisor were looking externally focused on resolving their client’s problems.
Lonely Planet was sold in 2013 for 75 million dollars, TripAdvisor now with many subsidiaries and affiliates across the globe in October 2019 was valued at $5.4 billion dollars. The key take away from these examples is, if we are focused on resolving our problems or in other words making decisions based on what is good for ourselves internally without considering what is best for meeting our client needs, then we will have lost the battle as our focus is no longer on the client.
There is an abundance of information and research available that says, that focusing on solving client problems makes good sense in terms of improving business efficiencies and economics, improved employee experiences, increased brand awareness and loyalty and enhanced client experience.
Have a think about the processes you work through in your day to day work or a new process you’re developing, whose problem is it trying to resolve? Is it focused on the client?