BIZBUZZ: H. Thompson: Who Stole My Customer

This is episode 10 of BIZBUZZ.

I stimulate conversations in order to challenge business owners to Be Different and to Act Boldly.  The following video highlights several observations from Harvey Thompson’s book Who Stole My Customer that I found interesting.

Hi, I’m Gary Brown a FocalPoint business coach.

Welcome to BIZBUZZ.

I’ve chosen to comment on Who Stole My Customer, a book written by Harvey Thompson that deals with the subject of customer touchpoints.

I’d like to highlight three observations from the book that I feel are noteworthy.

Thompson first posits that at every touchpoint intersection, the customer’s processes are interacting with the company’s processes.  His customer touchpoints are:

– they gather information & shop

– they make a purchase

– they receive the purchased item

– they pay for the purchase

– they use the product/service

– they experience post purchase customer service

– they buy again or discontinue the relationship

So, have your internal processes for these touchpoints been designed with your customers in mind?

A logical extension of this first point is that customer touchpoints represent both an opportunity and a risk.  As obvious as this statement is, how well are we seizing the opportunity to make our customers happy, in order to minimize our risk?  [for more on differentiation, read To Be Different or Not (at Your Peril)]

My final observation is Thompson’s definition as to why customers defect.  He claims that first among the major reasons is lack of courtesy.  This is followed by competence.  Does everyone in your organization know what courtesy looks like?

Well, that’s it for Who Stole My Customer.

Thanks for watching.

Your comments are always welcome.

Stay tuned for more BIZBUZZ.