Many companies are working hard to create a world-class customer experience and employee experience i.e. ensuring that they offer a compelling, clear value proposition for its customers and employees. At the same time, it is also critical to make sure that these two value propositions themselves are in alignment. For instance, if the customer value proposition is “on the spot resolution of problems”, then the employee value proposition cannot espouse a process-driven culture. After all, a culture of empowerment is more important to support that particular customer value proposition.
It is interesting to think about the fact that Marketing departments don’t really control how employees understand the brand or display the brand values or deliver the customer value proposition. And yet, company brand and reputation are typically drivers of talent attraction. Similarly, the HR departments don’t exercise much control over company brand, customer perceptions etc. And yet, employees are the key factor in delivering the customer value proposition.
More than anywhere else, I think this is particularly relevant in service sector industries like say financial services, hospitality, healthcare, professional services, retail etc. In these industries, every employee is a representative of the company brand. And every employee creates or destroys brand value at each customer interaction point. Companies need to think about how they can get HR and Marketing teams to work together to design and deliver an integrated value proposition to their employees and customers. Have you come across companies who are doing this effectively?
HR and Marketing working hand in hand….that would be a brave new world! Perhaps someone like P&G are close to this by pairing up their core organisational beliefs and principles with their recent advertising…’P&G, looking after mums’
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Yes, a brave new world. I already see the need for it in some of my client organizations, but quite difficult to get both stakeholders at the same table at times.
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Great post, Abhishek. In addition to the limited control of HR departments on the brand perception and customer experience, I would add that HR has also limited control over how employees engage, connect and collaborate (internally and externally).
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Hey Joachim – I absolutely agree with that!
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Great post Abhishek, loved it and you are spot on. I think in the new SD Logic world that we’re heading towards (very fast) marketing will have to start co-owning the customer experience – and that means taking some responsibility for how staff interact with customers.
In 2001, the great David Maister published the results of a research study of 139 offices of 29 firms in 15 countries in 15 different lines of business. His book, “Practice What You Preach: What Managers Must Do to Create a High Achievement Culture” became a huge global bestseller and it it he demonstrates very clearly that it’s employee attitudes that drive financial results, and not the other way around. From this premise, Maister went on to develop his Causal Model and we write about this in our book, “Creating & Delivering your Value Proposition”, which David kindly contributed to. In it, we highlight the importance of employee engagement in bringing your value proposition to the whole organisation – and that includes your customers.
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Cindy – thanks for stopping by my blog…I will try to get my hands on “Creating & Delivering your Value Proposition”.
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