Integrity 2010
When I was a lad the world was a different place; computers came with bundled applications, Sony mini disc was the future and BMW’s were fashionable. It’s hard to imagine this now of course but they were simpler times. In customer service training the beef was that unhappy customers would tell between 12 and 15 other people which is why customer service mattered. Imagine that now! Imagine what BT thought when the unhappy customer on You Tube passed 10,000 views for his complaint on You Tube or the United Airlines of their customer who clocked over 5 million viewings of his complaint. Imagine their dismay when copy cat complainants mounted their own videos on You Tube to complain about their service. Imagine their fury when they realised that their advertising pound will buy them less impact for their message and over 10% of all marketing spend will be on line by 2011. There is no doubt that times have changed. I suppose they shouldn’t fret too much they are in good company; KFC, Jet Blue, Ikea and more get the same pasting.
As far back as 2005 when Expedia were only wreaking havoc with package holiday firms by fuelling Trip Advisor.com, cultural organisations could stand back and smile; at least we only had the arts critic from the papers to deal with and if you live within 25 miles of London you might get a broadsheet crit’ turn up. Of course that’s changed too art galleries and cultural institutions are turning up on Trip Advisor complete with “customer” rating in the city. This social network has amassed 15 million registered users, almost 36 million visits a month (January 2010) and includes 30 million reviews and opinions covering 23,000 cites. Trip Advisor also boasts more than half a million candid traveller photos. What’s more is they are making more fun to use. To see for yourself click http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/PressCenter-c4-Fact_Sheet.html
If you don’t think this on-line transparency issue is going to affect your organisation you are out of date. You Tube, Flick’r, Face Book, Twitter and My Space are arguably a new tyranny. I know hoteliers who check Trip Advisor every day as a form of customer service survey. Companies that leave a gap between the image they create for themselves and the actual delivered experience are getting caught out.
When you get to my age “Which” magazine is an appealing read, a comfortable grumbling port for the sensible footwear type middle aged, the detailed blow by blow factual analysis of the products being examined provides a North Star in the world of the customer. No hint of emotion is shown in these unblinking reports. “Which” is a rational stance based on object analysis from a panel of experts. Trip Advisor, Twitter even day to day sites like Late Rooms aren’t based on “Servqual” type analysis, these are very often raw emotional comments based on something that hasn’t gone well or by serial commentators.
As our customers increasingly rise to the challenge of being on line reviewers and broadcasters, and after all commerce has been training customers to complete satisfaction surveys for a long time, what does this mean for us as venue operators and service professionals? I think it calls up two distinct issues.
Firstly it means we do have to manage our service delivery, people will forgive a show they don’t like but they won’t forgive a scruffy venue or poor employee attitude. It looks like we don’t care and they can get not caring from utility suppliers, the milkman, the local garage in fact most places in this country.
Secondly it means that when we are under pressure as organisations we could have an audience which is far more vocal and media adept to argue our case.
Taking the first issue, I hope you will agree that bluffing quality is over, love them or hate them Disney are right about customers; they do want to feel special, they do want to be treated as individuals , they do want to be respected and they would like to be more knowledgeable. Funders, boards and management all need to recognise that the physical environment, our employees and volunteers, our delivery system whatever our cultural form is, fellow customers and back office support needs to be effectively aligned around our purpose and the customers’ expectations. If we fail to do this then perception gaps start to appear and it’s only a matter of time before that starts to appear in the on-line environment if not the press.
I am well aware that given the choice between change and getting busy on the evidence that we don’t have to change at all we are all too keen to get the evidence. The fact is that in the first half of this decade and no matter what our funding position is, alignment of the organisation in to one encounter, a clear integrated proposition is essential. The team, by which I mean our people, our service partners and our stakeholders, needs to think and act as one to get this integration straight and whilst flexibility of thinking and delivery must be maintained the whole experience of the institution needs to underpin its values. If it fails this perception gap becomes noticeable and the feeling of being somewhere special starts to dwindle. The master of this field is A.Parasuaman, he has been writing about perception gaps for years but his “I told you so” t-shirt never looked so timeless.
Taking the second issue; assuming we do use induction, training, performance review, professional development, capital investment, technology and communications to reify the values and vision we have for our organisations then we have a new vehicle for support. Customers will be more willing to cheer on the institution, to their friends and of course and to their on-line community and in the end the wider media. If the media and indeed our own marketing departments have been training customers to review, blog, comment and rate then our job needs to be to give them something worth writing about and give them further encouragement.
Web 2.0 is no longer new; social networks, participation and customer created content can be used to the arts advantage but only if arts organisations are prepared to embrace the rigours of transparency. Aligning all our resources in to a simple clear proposition is not easy, the idea of a twenty first century organisation may sound glib but the inherent conservatism that lurks in many creative organisations is going to see some of the community go to the wall.
The struggle to excel in this environment is a helpful challenge, it makes us look at our own organisations and think about them from the outside more. Reading those online reviews can be sobering and encouraging. We have to really grasp what it is that our audience sees in us. Measuring innovation and improvement of our offer remains a problem and even the best in the commercial business world are struggling with effective measurement; footfall, dwell time, revenue growth, satisfaction ratings and loyalty are all handy but commerce is first to accept that measuring experience peaks and experience trends is more voodoo than science. Bring to that the unique challenge of the arts and objective measurement goes out of the window; so all the more important that when we do see progress, when we are seeing customer respond, when we have got organisations that are able to assimilate this new environment we need to make sure they are well rewarded and recognised, we need to make sure knowledge is diffused to others and that the original pathfinders are encouraged.
We should also reflect on the fact that in five years time we will look at this time and think it was all easier then.
ENDS
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