Consider the experience of taking a taxicab in New York. The first thing you notice is the Plexiglas shield between you and the driver. It's there because the driver doesn't trust you. Posted to the shield are notices telling you what you should do, what numbers you should call and how you can tell if the driver is cheating you. These hardly promote a high degree of trust, either. Throughout the trip, both you and the driver sit silently, the better to think sinister thoughts about each other. Even if you were inclined to converse, the shield makes it difficult, so any exchanges wind up being shouted rather than spoken. At the end of the trip, the driver may open the shield just a crack to let you hand the money through. Or, you have to stuff it into the little spring-loaded tray, whereupon the driver will scoop it out without ever having any direct contact with you. There are (alas) reasons why New York cabs have shields and numbers to call when you've been cheated. As a result, the relationship between service providers and customers is an arm's-length one at best. But this relationship also can affect both the driver's and passenger's behaviors. The shouting or silence, the furtive exchange of dollars and receipts all occur because of, and reinforce the tendency toward, the existing relationship. This vicious cycle exists in many customer/supplier situations. Take, for example, a plant manager and a sales rep who sells components frequently used in the plant's production runs. The plant manager is very busy and wants to spend as little time as possible talking to peddlers. "They're only interested in pushing product," says the plant manager, "so I tell 'em, 'You've got five minutes!' " What will the sales rep do with the precious five minutes? Push product, that's what. So, an arm's-length relationship leads to a behavior--the five-minute limit decree--which reinforces the distance of the relationship, which leads to another behavior: pushing product. This dynamic limits what can be accomplished between a customer and a supplier. Although improvements can be made within the cycle--the sales rep could become better at pushing product--the rewrite-the-rules, breakthrough change that is so sought after simply can't happen until the cycle is broken. The cycle defines the effective "value domain" of a given customer/supplier partnership, the borders within which improvement is possible. To create value in new and different ways, you must expand the value domain, which means changing the behavior, the relationship or both. Because relationships can't be changed unilaterally, it's better to focus on what you alone can change, namely, your own behavior. Such a change in behavior will effectively break the cycle, which in turn will move the value domain. So, the sales rep who must deal with the five-minute limit might say to the plant manager, "I'm convinced there are ways we could create even more value together. But we'll never find them if all we ever talk about is product and price." The plant manager might then suggest they engage in a one-hour "value conversation," shifting the focus from the products to the customer's true wants and needs. For example, rather than asking about the plant manager's current satisfaction level, the rep might ask, "What work issues have caused you to lose sleep lately?" The rep could further extend the value domain by asking, "What is the one thing your customers need from you?" This line of questioning will help uncover heretofore hidden opportunities to create customer value. Moreover, your customers invariably will comment that the conversations themselves represent significant added value: "It's great to have peddlers talk about what's important to me and not just what's important to them." Dramatic changes in your ability to create value with customers can result from small changes in your own behavior toward them. Engaging customers in value conversations can be one such small, yet powerful, change. About the author John Guaspari is a senior associate of the Lexington, Massachusetts-based management consulting firm Rath & Strong. The books he has written include I Know It When I See It and The Customer Connection. Copyright 1998 by John Guaspari. |
