Customer Mania!: It's Never Too Late to Build a Customer-Focused Company
- Description
- Product Details
- About the Author
- Read an Excerpt
- What People are Saying
- Table of Contents
Customer service is the single most pressing problem for business managers and people in any service or sales operation, especially at the retail level. In fact, many experts believe that you build a business from the customer up. With coauthors Jim Ballard and Fred Finch, Blanchard explains why the customer is the right starting place from which to build a successful business. By drawing on examples from the world's largest restaurant company, Yum!—owner of KFC, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, Long John Silver's, and A&W Restaurants—the authors explain how any company, large or small, can develop a unified, people-first, customer-oriented culture. Packed with practical insights, Customer Mania! emphasizes four critical steps:
• Set Your Sights on the Right Target. The bottom line grows from taking care of customers and creating a motivating environment for your people.
• Treat Customers the Right Way. Determine the kind of experience you want your customers to have as they interact with every part of the company.
• Treat Employees the Right Way. Use strategies ranging from smart hiring to training and development to managing performance and creating a recognition culture.
• Build the Right Kind of Leadership. You can't do it all yourself, so let your people put their own brains to work and then support them all the way.
By relying on these concepts, businesses everywhere can cultivate passionate and engaged team members who contribute to the company's overall success. From CEO to middle manager to the person facing the consumer, Customer Mania! is a vital tool for enhancing their experience — and their customer's.
ISBN-13: 9780743270298
Media Type: Paperback
Publisher: Free Press
Publication Date: 03-22-2016
Pages: 208
Product Dimensions: 5.40(w) x 8.30(h) x 0.70(d)
Kenneth Hartley Blanchard is an author, business consultant and motivational speaker. His writing career includes 60+ published books, most of which are co-authored books. Jim Ballard has written a number of inspirational books, including Mind Like Water and What's the Rush? He has coauthored several popular books along with bestselling business guru Ken Blanchard. Teachings of the worldrenown author and yogi Paramahansa Yogananda inspired Jim to write this wave fable. Jim is a business consultant, hospice volunteer, and Big Brother. He lives in Amherst, Massachusetts. Please visit Jim's website at www.littlewave.org.
Chapter 1: Yum! Meets the One Minute Manager I have the greatest job in the world. I travel hither and yon, observing how organizations behave. I'm always looking for companies that are trying to build themselves the right way -- by focusing on their customers and creating people-first, performance-based cultures. Why is customer focus so important? Because whether you're selling pizzas or professional services, your business is not about you. It's about the people you serve. I say I'm always looking for companies that are trying to do it right because building a company the right way is a continuous journey. There is no final destination. When I find an organization on this journey, I am excited. The Beginning Four years ago I was asked to speak about customer service to an annual meeting of KFC (originally Kentucky Fried Chicken). At that conference I met David Novak, who at the time was president of Tricon -- the parent company of KFC, Taco Bell, and Pizza Hut. During that meeting, David told me about the journey he and his folks were on to revitalize a lackluster balance sheet by becoming a customer-centric organization. David knew that his company, like most companies, had already been giving lip service to focusing on the customer. He believed that building a company the right way meant going beyond merely listening and responding to the customer; it meant putting together a can-do team that was obsessed to go the extra mile for the customer. David intended to create nothing short of a Customer Mania culture throughout all their restaurants worldwide. Talk about an ambitious dream. In 1997 KFC, Taco Bell, and Pizza Hut had been spun off from PepsiCo to form Tricon. At that time, Tricon's balance sheet was in trouble. The new company had inherited a $4.7 billion debt and its return on invested capital hovered at a feeble 8 to 9 percent. As if that weren't a big enough challenge, in 2002 Tricon bought two additional quick service restaurant brands -- Long John Silver's and A&W All American Food Restaurants -- and in the process became by far the largest restaurant company in the world, employing some 840,000 people at nearly 33,000 restaurants in more than 100 countries and territories. It was at this time the company changed its name to Yum! Brands. Given their financial situation and the sheer size of the enterprise, the task of creating massive cultural change was daunting, but that didn't seem to faze David. I loved that attitude. It became clear he was not just interested in creating a Customer Mania culture worldwide, he was going to do it. I would grow to admire his commitment and determination. I got to spend more time with David six months later, when he asked me to speak at an annual meeting of all the top managers from the company. This time we had a chance for some real give and take and it didn't take long for us to realize we were soul mates. In David's wanting to build a customer-focused company the right way, he was trying to implement everything I have been teaching and writing about for years. And he was doing it in one of the most difficult environments possible. A Gigantic Do-Over In golf if you hit a bad shot and say, "I'll take a mulligan," you get to hit again. David Novak uses a similar phrase to depict what his company is up to. He said, "When my daughter, Ashley, was younger and she and her friends made a mistake in their games, they would say, 'I get a do-over.' That's what Yum! is -- a gigantic do-over." The fact that this is a giant do-over makes the task of creating a customer-focused, people-first, performance-driven culture more difficult. It is much easier to implement the concepts I have been teaching over the years when you first start a company than to take an organization that has built a different culture and head it in a new direction. Starting over means winning over skeptics and gaining buy-in for a totally new way of operating. Yum! is attempting to create a new culture from a group of decentralized companies that actually viewed each other as competitors. Disappointed by the lack of synergy and their overall performance, PepsiCo had come to the decision that it was time to shed even great brands. While Novak was excited by the challenge, being spun off from PepsiCo made associates anxious. Although everyone knew their combined results were lower than expected, the folks from KFC, Taco Bell, and Pizza Hut still were proud to be a part of PepsiCo, which clearly had credibility and prestige as one of the world's great companies. People in the new acquisitions -- Long John Silver's and A&W All American Restaurants -- also had uncertain feelings. Everyone was wondering, "Can they really 'do over' an enormous company made up of firmly entrenched brands?" What would the new company be like? Would benefits go away? Would the company be first class -- or coach? "We've got a real opportunity here," David told me. "How many leaders and teams have the chance to take well-known brands -- some that are celebrating their fiftieth anniversary -- and start a new company? If we build it the right way, we can create the company of the century." A Common Sense Strategy As they rebuild their company the right way into a customer-focused enterprise, David Novak and his people are trying to make common sense be common practice. Common sense says that if you consistently treat those who serve customers as if they're the most important people in the company, they will treat customers as if they're the most important people in the world. If a company's people are treated as winners and see themselves as winners, customer satisfaction and profitability come naturally. Making common sense common practice involves understanding people. In the case of Yum! that means understanding customers, suppliers, franchisees, team members, leaders, and yes, investors -- everyone around the globe who is involved or impacted by the organization. With its emphasis on understanding people, one of the things Yum! stands for is: You Understand Me Recognition: A Universal Need The phrase "You Understand Me" means you not only understand my unique needs but also universal needs, such as recognition, that apply across cultures all over the world. David sums it up: Read an Excerpt
Customer Mania!
It's Never Too Late to Build a Customer-Focused Company
By Ken Blanchard Free Press
Copyright © 2004 Ken Blanchard
All right reserved.
ISBN: 0743270282
What we're talking about here is a universal truth. When you put people first, then surround them with processes and disciplines that recognize their efforts, performance will soar. This is becoming a global world. Putting people first doesn't just work in the United States. It's a basic human truth that exists regardless of what religion you are or where you happen to live. In the U.K., China, Malaysia, the Philippines, the Middle East, you name it -- recognition drives performance everywhere.<
"If you've hoped for wisdom that gives you a clear template for building outstandingly successful customer service, Customer Mania! provides a superb roadmap with clear driving instructions. P&L's only tell you where you've been not where you're going. If you do the right things, and this book tells you what they are, the P&L's will take care of themselves."
"Another Ken Blanchard must-read. This book shows how any company can build an organization that's both friendly and profitable."
"This book gets to the bottom line fast: If you don't take care of your customers, somebody else will. Do what I did, and order a copy of this book for every one of your employees and have them memorize the 4 critical steps to creating Customer Mania! This book shows you how to make your customers so happy that you'll be laughing all the way to the bank."
"Customer Mania! offers a clear outline for creating enthusiastic customers and subsequent profits. To see how the world's largest restaurant company is measuring up against Ken Blanchard's ideal vision makes for fascinating reading."
"Customer Mania! offers an extraordinary example of roll up your sleeves, get in the trenches, know the details, build the team, and take the mountain. Ken Blanchard and his co-authors have found the perfect model in the Yum! organization."
"Anyone in a customer-focused business really MUST read this book! It is somehow simple, powerful, actionable, compelling and immensely readable all at once. I'll never provide - or receive - service the same way again. In fact, I'll carry a copy with me and give it to people whenever I experience underwhelming service."
"In the long history of management writing, no one has so clearly and memorably extracted, exposed, illustrated and explained the essentials of enlightened and profitable management as Ken Blanchard. Now he, with Jim Ballard and Fred Finch, offers us the ultimate customer service book, 'Customer Mania!' The title is a dead give away of the passionate and persuasive argument contained in these pages. Bravo!"
"Customer Mania! is the finest distillation of Ken Blanchard's wisdom, convictions, and possibility thinking to date. What inspired me most was the journey from possibilities to reality and that he validated the fundamental truths--that it can happen and it is never too late to start!"
Would you like specific 'best practices' help, along with wise principles, to inspire your workforce to become really customer focused? Read this splendid book, get others to read it, share with one another what you have learned, and then plan application and accountability. It will work!
"Ken Blanchard has done it again. In Customer Mania! he shows us that powerful insights can be found only through a rigorous study of excellence in action. By describing for us Yum's efforts to become a customer-centric organization, their few struggles, and their many successes, Blanchard and his coauthors reveal a roadmap that all organizations can follow as they strive to inspire their people and ultimately win the hearts of their customers."What People are Saying About This
Jeanette Sarkisian Wagner
—Vice Chairman Emerita, The Estee Lauder Companies Inc. and Founding Board Member Yum!
—President, Anthem Blue Cross East
—author of Nothing Down for the 2000's
—founder, The INJOY Group
—President and Chief Operating Officer, JP Morgan Chase
—bestselling author of The Five Dysfunctions of a Team
—former president of Borders, Inc.
—author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
—coauthor of First, Break All the Rules and Now, Discover Your Strengths
Part I: The Do-Over 1 Yum! Meets the One Minute Manager 2 A Brief History of Yum! Brands Part II: How to Build a Customer-Focused Company the Right Way The Four Steps 3 Step One: Set Your Sights on the Right Target 4 Step Two: Treat Your Customers the Right Way 5 Step Three: Treat Your People the Right Way Get the Right People on the Team: Recruiting and Hiring Give People the Right Start: Training and Development Give People the Right Help: Performance Management Get People Wired In: Developing the Right Systems and Processes Get People Inspired: Creating a Recognition Culture Give People Opportunities To Grow: Career Planning the Right Way 6 Step Four: Have the Right Kind of Leadership Part III: Next Steps 7 The High Hurdle: Cracking the Code on Customer Mania 8 It's Your Choice: The Yum! Door or the Dumb Door? Acknowledgments Table of Contents
Contents