Where is the Puck?

KNOW-WOW: Part 1

In the extremely competitive business environment today meeting your customers’ expectations and needs is required; however it is no longer enough. In order to survive and win you have to go the EXTRA MILE. You have to go beyond people’s expectations: you have to be loved! You have to WOW them!

MARKETING is great business philosophy. It instructs us how to discover and satisfy the needs of our customers. Unfortunately, however, marketing is too often manipulating rather than meeting customer’s wants and needs. At the same time, many new business theories and approaches such as e-CRM, e-business, ERP, web office or “wiki” intranet… are focused on leveraging technology (”hi-tech”) to improve productivity thus often creating more and more pressure and frustrations for everyone. Are we blinded by “hi-tech” and forgetting to focus on the “hi-touch”?

Let’s stop this race for a moment. Let’s go back to basics; back to common sense. Think for a moment: what do great brands such as Starbucks, Apple and Google have in common? What makes them so successful? Here is my simple answer: All of them managed to DELIGHT in all important aspects of their business. They are passionate about what they do; they go the extra mile. Their brands are loved, their companies are admired.

It is time to “pour your heart into the business” as Starbucks’ CEO Howard Schulz advises. No wonder Starbucks’ market value ($28.0 bil.) is 800% of their assets ($3.5 bil.); Apple’s market value ($ 55.5 bil.) is 482% of their assets ($ 11.5 bil.) and Google’s market value (of over $ 100.0 bil.) is 980% of their assets!

Think about General Motors on the other hand. Do you get ever excited about GM’s products? Do you just LOVE them? Do you enthusiastically tell your friend about the brand new Chevrolet or Pontiac? Probably not. No wonder GM’s market value of $ 12 bil. is only 2.5 % of their assets of $ 475 bil.!

Good News, Bad News

The good news is that delighting works. It gives you free PR; it gives you many loyal customers and brand evangelists. It pays big time. But the bad news is: it won’t work unless it is real and sincere. It is either 100% true, or it is easily perceived as just another marketing gimmick.

To be true, delighting can’t be one-dimensional. You need to excel and delight in all important dimensions of your business life: relationships with your customers, with your employees and with your community. You need to be LOVED by all three groups or it just won’t work.

In addition, you have to plan strategies and design systems to make sure you do delight and go over people’s expectations over time.

This is the foundation of the new business philosophy or technology. I call it “KNOW-WOW”. It is providing the management tools to help you integrate the “wow” factor in whatever you do.

This is part 1 of my story on delighting and business success. I will be posting here more thoughts on “The three dimensions of delighting and GOLDEN RULE”, “The ten commandments of WOW!” and on measuring “Your own DeQ (Delight Quotient)” in the coming days. In the meantime, check out this video.

Your thoughts and comments are very welcome.