The Customer Revolution: How to Thrive When Customers Are in Control

Citation

Dietz, J. (2002), "The Customer Revolution: How to Thrive When Customers Are in Control", Journal of Consumer Marketing, Vol. 19 No. 5, pp. 439-441. https://doi.org/10.1108/jcm.2002.19.5.439.1

Having spent the first 25 years of my career dealing with customers and the last seven years teaching students (my customers) about them, this book provides an extremely comprehensive and timely treatise on the road ahead, and how to thrive when customers are in control. Seybold uses a “Customer flight deck”, likened to replacing an engine in mid‐flight, to describe the way companies today need to monitor and manage their businesses. First, they must make sure they are headed in the right direction to reach the target (navigation). Then, they must measure performance indicators (such as sales numbers). Operations, the third element in the flight deck, describes the causes for the changes in the performance panel, such as availability of products. Finally, the environment portrays all the weather out there that the pilot must monitor, the external factors that represent competitors, industry changes, etc.

Using 11 case studies, each of which reviews the customer flight deck, Seybold takes the reader through a review of managing “by and for customer value” (p. 5). Though the book, at 395 pages, is long and takes a while to digest, the points made are so valid that they deserve to be repeated and framed around the various industries included in the case studies. Those industries include banks and investment companies, automobiles, distribution, groceries, semiconductors and hardware distribution. The different examples help to bring home the author’s point that all industries must pay attention to the “customer revolution.”

By reminding us in various ways that customers have wrenched control of their destiny from overzealous marketers, Seybold points out that “customers, equipped with Internet and mobile technologies and seduced by new digital frontiers, are breaking down the status quo” (p. 45). She tells us what today’s customers are demanding, such as convenient access and information portability, but, more importantly, she tells us what they will be demanding in the future, such as control over their information and pricing transparency.

The first three parts of the book expand on Seybold’s “three principles of the customer economy”:

1. 1.

   (1) Customers are in control and they are reshaping businesses and transforming industries.

2. 2.

   (2) Customer relationships count; therefore, the value of your present and future customer relationships – your customer franchise – will determine the value of your company.

3. 3.

   (3) Customer experience matters; therefore the feelings customers have when they interact with your brand determine their loyalty” (pp. 9‐10).

The fourth part of the book offers an operational framework to implement the customer flight deck and take the eight steps (listed below) to a great total customer experience. Seybould uses companies in different industries to describe these eight steps, which makes the book valuable to people in all areas of competition for customers:

1. 1.

   (1) Create a compelling brand personality.

2. 2.

   (2) Deliver a seamless customer experience across channels and touchpoints.

3. 3.

   (3) Care about customers and their outcomes.

4. 4.

   (4) Measure what matters to customers.

5. 5.

   (5) Hone operational excellence.

6. 6.

   (6) Value customers’ time.

7. 7.

   (7) Place customers’ “DNA” at the core.

8. 8.

   (8) Design to morph.

Using examples from Napster, where she titles the chapter “What happened to the music industry will happen to you” (p. 23), Seybold warns us that customers will figure out a way to get what they want and that we, as manufacturers and service providers, had better find a way to provide it for them. In effect, “you no longer have any control over the customer relationship” because “the customer revolution blew it away” (p. 174). From Napster, she moves on to examples from such companies as General Motors, Schwab, Tesco, Timbuk2Designs, Okobank Group and W.W. Grainger, where she uses the principles of managing for customer value to demonstrate why success is dependent on these principles. “The companies with the right stuff” to thrive in the customer economy have one key element in common: a corporate culture and a set of core values centered around caring about customers – not as revenue targets, profit contributors, or advertising magnets, but as people (p. 203). This is all the more important following the demise of those dot.coms which were built on dreams rather than solid business principles. Particularly interesting are case studies of companies such as Tesco (groceries) and Timbuk2 Designs (custom backpacks), who did their homework and talked to customers before they offered their products to the world. I truly think that some recent failures (such as WebVan) could have been avoided if the founders had read this book. I especially liked her point “design to morph,” which documents the need to design your business with flexibility.

The downside? The book is long, and Patricia Seybold uses many lists of points that could confuse you if you wanted a one‐page synopsis, but I feel that the principles here are important to put forth in the thorough manner with which this book is written. Bonuses include the examples of new technologies, such as Medscape, which has revolutionized the managing of patient information, and updates on new legislation that affects the customer experience. As an academic who comes from an extensive corporate sales career, this book helps me immensely in my own customer service consulting business, but it also gives me solid and proven examples to use in my classes. The research is solid. Patricia Seybold really did her homework in writing this book.