I had the experience recently to observe a set of “customer experience” interviews with a selection of customers of a large consumer services company. I sat in a small dark room behind a mirror which faced into the interview room. The fact that I was supposed to sit there unnoticed felt somewhat strange, but I was soon pleased with my disposition, because I definitely did not want to be drawn into the conversation! It was obvious that this large consumer services company was not doing a good job satisfying some of the customers being interviewed. Promises were made and not kept and it was unclear for the customer who was responsible. To top all of this, because these were anonymous interviews, there was no way for the interviewer to pass the details of the customers’ complaints on to the service provider.
But after all, “the company” did know about the problems, did it not? Yes, it did, if the company was a person, which of course it is not. Or if it was the type of company where all the employees had a single-minded focus on serving the customer, which clearly it did not have. And we all know that many companies and large organisations have that problem. If I allow myself to speculate about how companies get to that point, I would suggest that much of this has to do with leadership: Often, companies start off with a leader who has a clear focus on serving the customer and as a result, the company grows quickly. Then somewhere along the line, a new leader enters the stage and needs to make its mark, usually by changing things. So where “customer focus” was the holy grail, perhaps the new leader realises that there are many ways in which the company can be even more profitable and so “bottom line” becomes the motivator. A third and fourth leader may come, with still more ideas about what should be important, until at the end, most employees do not have in their minds any clear priority anymore, they just do the best they can until it is time to go home. If only someone was able to establish, right at the beginning, a foundational principle that says that the company, in fact any company, is there to provide a service to a certain customer or body of customers. And to the extent that the company fails to serve as it should, it has become a failure, no matter how healthy the profits, how good the shareholder returns, how full of features the product.
With all this in mind, it is extremely important for us to know that Ilze’s Chocolat is providing a worthwhile service to its customers. Today, we took a substantial bank loan, which we will match with an even larger personal investment, in order to buy equipment that will allow us to increase production capacity. The bank wants to know that its loan will be repaid in 4 years. We, the shareholders, will want to recieve a worthwhile return on our investment. And the current and future employees will want security of employment. But neither the bank, nor the shareholders, nor the employees will have their desires fulfilled unless Ilze’s Chocolat continues to provide a service that our customers want. And in order for us to know whether we are on track, we need feedback.
Today, we invite you to start posting your comments about our products or service on this blog, so that we may be able to repay that loan!
To get things going, we will publish here two comments we received in the last week. Because we did not specifically ask whether we could publish their comments, we will mask the authors’ names:
“Hello Ilze
Wow! The parcel arrived and was very carefully packed the gifts looked fantastic!
My sister was thrilled with them and 1 box of macaroons has already vanished! The best her and her husband have ever tasted! The chocolates are yet to be tasted but they look amazing and i’m sure they’ll taste the same.
Im sure I myself will be purchasing from your store again and will certainly reccommend you to everyone I know!
Thankyou again for fantastic customer service and a first class product!
N”
“I’m very very fussy about my chocolate and spend considerable time
and money chasing that “chocolate dream”, I have to thank Ilze for
producing some of the best chocolate I have ever had and at such
good prices. Finding such a good artist in Reading was a great find!
M”
hi
just wanted to say thank you chocolates arrived well packed & absolutely yummy, will be ordering again
I have had to rely on the internet for most of my shopping because of health problems so when I came across your website and saw your Macaroons I just had to add your website to my list of shops.
I ordered for the first time and was really impressed by the products, packaging and delivery.
They were so well packaged it took me while before we could devour the treats inside…(this is not a criticism, it was due to pain and lack of dexterity in my hands due to ill health). The honey comb reminded me of eating honeycomb in my my childhood days.
Exellent products (good quality ingredients) and delivery.
Thankyou for ist class service.
N