insights! episode #49: customer centricity as success factor: why German companies should learn from the GAFAs

Great to have you back for a new episode of insights! My name is Joubin Rahimi, and today we're looking at what we can learn from the GAFAs regarding customer experience. These four companies, the GAFAs, Google, Apple, Facebook aka. Meta and Amazon, share a crucial difference from very, very many other companies. They put the customer at the centre. Jeff Bezos says a cardboard cutout of the customer has to be at the table in every meeting. As a small anecdote. How do they put these customers at the centre, and why is that so important in the first place? We'll answer that for you in today's episode.

The GAFAs have very different business models. Nevertheless, they always focus on the customer experience. Let's take Facebook as an example. Facebook generates 97% of its corresponding revenue primarily through advertising revenue, mainly in Canada and the USA. But how do they generate this advertising revenue? For one thing. We as users have to use Facebook. Or Instagram. If we use it accordingly. We get shown the ads. That's how simple the system is. When do we use the whole thing? Yes, as a customer, when it's exciting. What does Facebook do? What does Insta do? They trigger the best advertising story at the right moment accordingly. That's one thing, where the probability is high that I'll engage with the exchange, interact, click on it. And on the other hand, and this is much more important: they make sure the push notification is relevant. What if, for example, a former crush of mine suddenly has a new partner? Do I look at it or not? Psychologists employed at Facebook say yes, the things that are relevant to someone, we push those to the front. And we have to work that out accordingly on the basis of this data. That's the difference why we as German companies are really at a disadvantage compared to the GAFAs. But why German, well European companies compared to almost all other companies. We ourselves rarely, because we often see the costs, put the customer at the centre. But we have to change that, because the customer now has exactly the power for that. And this isn't just something I'm saying here in front of the running camera. This is also backed up by Google's own study, which in their omnichannel study found that exactly this focus on the customer is one of the key differences compared to other companies. Furthermore, Watermark Consulting also says this in their studies, which repeatedly look at how valuable a

Companies in correlation with customer experience. And there you see quite clearly that companies with good customer experience are worth roughly three times as much as companies without a good track record, among the S&P 500. So now I hope I've got you hooked enough that you're curious what the five core reasons are for what good customer experience can look like and how it all really works, and what the GAFAs do differently from almost everyone else.

1. Usability. Usability is the be-all and end-all when we think about the corresponding interface, or the app, or also a call centre. Let me take Amazon as an example. Amazon doesn't have the nicest interface. It won't win a Red Dot Award. I think we'd all sign off on that here. But for what I want and what I do with it, it's very efficient and very, very practical. But usability isn't just an interface topic, it's also a topic of how the channels work together. How does the subscription model work there? How does Amazon Prime work, for example? How does it work if I call them there? How can I get in touch if not via the website. All of that is a usability topic. And Amazon has just set a milestone for usability with the 30-day return policy and a very generous arrangement around it. So when we talk about usability, we're talking about the website. We're talking about all the other channels, we're talking about the entire customer journey. Very important: we're not talking about design.
    

2. Personalisation. When I go to a website, when I call, it naturally helps me a lot. The faster the other side is on the topic that's currently on my mind. If I call Amazon and I've already stored my details, I expect the other side to handle that too. If they have my mobile number, I'm calling from my mobile, I expect them to know who I am and on which topics, and probably also call because they know what I've just bought and what I'm doing. And anchoring this personalisation within the processes themselves is one thing, but of course I also want it on the website. If I have a broad range, I should look at what I push to the front. What's at the front of the search lists? What's at the front of the first page if I know who the relevant user in front of the screen actually is? So personalisation is also an example and an element of user guidance and usability. But not only that. Because thirdly: it's efficiency. Personalisation also contributes to efficiency. And efficiency itself can also be achieved through lean and standardised processes. If I can efficiently do what I want and use the service I want, I'll keep using it again and again. Then I might tell others about it; if it's inefficient, I'll also tell others about that. But those are exactly the moments no marketer wants, because that's bad brand reputation. What I actually want is to support what I'm doing with the customer.
    

3. Efficiency: I'd also like to put another topic on the table regarding efficiency. If I want to create not just demand but experiences, I need to create experiences efficiently. That doesn't mean everything has to be efficient, a factor on a timeline, but rather it has to be efficient in generating the experience.
    

4. Omnichannel experience: we've already touched on the fourth point roughly. Omnichannel experience, several channels, all channels. The customer doesn't care which channel they use to get in touch with the company. The customer simply wants the right experience, they say: you're the company, you know everything about me, and accordingly you should present a consistent picture to me. But that's not entirely straightforward. That's the first point. The second point. If I'm only online, or I'm a brand and only sell on Amazon, then that's just one area, if I perhaps sell products via Amazon, are there returns then? What about further services alongside that? How can I manage those? They might not just be handled via the Amazon platform. What about the phone call? If someone calls me, do I have a nice message on there or not? All of that feeds into this whole customer experience, and those are the small moments. But really important is: what's the objective of your company? Where do you position yourself? How do you want to bring the customer along, and how does all of that add up consistently across all channels. Is it consistent across all channels.
    

5. Innovation. Nowadays we can do a lot of "me too" and copying well from the best always gets you ahead quickly, no question. But there always comes a point, as a company grows in size, where we really have to differentiate ourselves: what is your innovation? What are you working on? What are you changing with it? User guidance, usability, making the customer experience even better in future? What are you introducing? And these are innovations that don't always have to end up in products. A brand new product, grandly announced. Innovation can also be many small innovations within the company. Good book on this topic – High Touch High Tech, we'll link it below.

I hope you had fun today taking away one or two components, one or two impulses. Sure, as a user it's clear to us what I've just been talking about. But as a company, going back into this page and looking at it again is important. I look forward to your comments, as always, down below or via our respective channels. Great that you watched.