“The customer always leaves happy” is the first and the second is “The lifetime value of each customer is the most important thing”. Not only are these neat phrases, the kind of which you might find in many an organisation striving to put service value at the heart of the business, they are priciples  which the management then take and drive it’s performance.

Net promoter score is now there key indicator and this means scoring 9′s or 10′s in a scale from  1- 10 on the likelihood of recommending JL to a friend. They are currently the highest scoring retail group in the UK.

When faced with a difficult customer or a customer wanting money back “The Lifetime value of the customer” mantra is utilised. No referring up the chain, no delays, but a simple trusted delegated decision to be taken based on the likely outcome of acceding to the customer’s request – or not. It didnt’ take long for one of the attendees at Lesley Bannatyne’s presentation to ask the question that this must lead to staff just “giving things away”.  “Not so” was the clear cut answer. But then we get into the nature of the organisation at John Lewis where the partners (employees) are all stakeholders in the business. This model is unique to John Lewis but it is compelling in it’s evidence that ownership produces highly engaged staff and very accountable leadership. Any conversation, at any level within the business, can be interrupted to deal with a customer and any member of staff can ask a manager why any decision was made.    Simple, clear and compelling. Little wonder they excel – and turn in some of the best profits in UK retailing.

I am making light of what is the most unpredicatable set of economic circumstances we have ever faced – not as as nation but as a planet. Previously we weren’t in a global economy to the extent that we have become tied in knots with China’s GDP falling.  National debt and the value of the pound are this week’s focus……what is next?

We open the doors on Monday, say good morning to our trudging staff and hope to hold on. Hold on. Hold on and once more hold on. Hold on to our good customers, hold on to our (good) staff, hold on to your nerve and hold onto your values. Whatever was the value of your offer to the marketplace now is a time to hold onto the essence of that and build on it. Keep on keeping on. When the tide turns those who have held on will be stronger than ever.

For those in banking, property, construction, food and distribution the effects have been felt as direct hits – body blows and some fatal. Many sectors are now feeling the impact of the inevitable slow up due to the banking crisis impacting what we know as the real economy.

We privately owned companies ( chiefly small and medium sized) will find our selves on the receiving end of of tightening up on lending and a very real pressure on cash flow – unless there is structural and policy change in banking supported by government. We wait but continue to breathe………

Products and services continue to be bought, markets haven’t collapsed altogether and remarkably there are still companies growing!

I have survived and prospered in and through two previous recessions offering my services to ambitious, positive and progressive privately owned companies who grew in these times and grew well. 

The changes we are facing in these times will make the differences between companies more marked and customers will be on the hunt for real value. So the old shibboleths will surface and be more appreciated:

Value for money

Customer serving

Trust

Track record

Time for leadership in your marketplace? Certainly time to double your efforts in sales. Shrink back from this and you are doing yourself no favours and possibly be missing out on some of the best opportunities.

Meanwhile the people of your company may well be hyper vigilant for signs of difficulty in your business. The gloom and doom merchants may well be parading with placards in the corridors or stirring up depression over the coffee mugs.  Others may be going into passive mode – the human equivalent of stand by.

A time for leadership……….purposeful leadership about what you stand for in the marketplace and as a company……….strong leadership that creates confidence in the effort………..come with me leadership that says we are in this together and the stronger for that.

Cometh the hour cometh the man (or woman). 8 weeks ago “basket case”  Brown was being counted out. Now he is being counted as a world leader. “The Audacity of Hope” by Barack Obama is now made flesh.

Difficult times for sure. Bunker mentality has no place and fortune will favour the brave and the strong. Keep the faith.

Bob’s injunction to his 8,500 staff, in 20 countries, is that they need to ditch the keyboard, pick up the phone or get face to face. I nearly cheered.

The amount of collateral damage I see happening in companies due to badly communicated email is widespread. The email format just can’t cope with the demand for speed of communication and the unacknowledged need for great subltelty of language.

Better sticking to my own maxim….NEVER send an email if there is the slightest chance of misinterpreting an emotion either by my inadequacy of transmission or the failure of the recipient to get it.

Bob’s views struck me as down to earth and sensible as one might expect from ” a loon fae Abeirdein” or I suppose with deference to Bob’s Border roots, a cheery chappy from Jedburgh. However Bob is evangelistic about communicating with his people – by any and all means.

And, there is more to Bob’s injunction. For those unaware of Bob and his remarkable story go to www.psnworld.com. There you will see some standard looking things including “Our Core Values”, seven of them: Health and Safety, People, Innovation, Relationships, Financial responsibility, Localisation, Integrity. Well they seem like standard things – things we are supposed to write on our corporate statements.

The fact of the matter is that Bob and his team run the business with these values…….that is…..RUN THE BUSINESS.

Bob tells us that he has never communicated his chief exec’s message on anything other than these 7 values (that’s since 2004). Not all done face to face though with video and indeed email from time to time. Bob’s hard bitten FD relates that the most important thing the executive team at PSN did amidst one of the biggest levered buy outs in UK industry was to hammer out the values they would use to drive the business. Hindsight is a wonderful thing as it was only Bob’s unshakable conviction ( with no doubt a heavy dose of “come with me” leadership) that got them off doing the deal to consider waffly stuff as “our values”.

Once they are in place how do you keep them there?My view? Be very visible and accessible to the people of the business….get out there and keep hammering home the messages. This of course is plain good sense but every one of you is strapped for time and frequently getting in front of the people (in one’s, two’s or ten’s) is well nigh impossible.

So it started me thinking about how email might be used not to “get someone to do something” but to engage the heart and mind. Any good examples…….please let me know.

I found one the next week….it is from Allan Ross, MD of First Independent Finance, the fast growing source of asset finance. Allan and his leadership colleagues are using the strap line “From Good to Great” from the the eponymous book. In Good to Great Messages they are helping to focus the company on the core things that matter to FIF. An excerpt of Allan’s recent email follows. It was written on the eve of the descent into whatever district of bedlam we are now in due to bankers and sub prime greed. See what you think….

After the dinner I took a walk up to the old RBS headquarters in St Andrews Square and then up past the HBOS headquarters.

It had been an eventful few days , talking to potential new recruits , funders , our staff , some customers and finally one of Scotland‘s top business guru’s . It was 12 midnight … a new day .. and I was in a reflective mood … then I passed a marble statue which was inscribed with a quote from Einstein.

” Knowledge is great … Imagination is greater” 

Harnessing the imagination of the people in our business will be a major challenge us as we move forward . There are opportunities out there … lets find them! ..

Lets support those opportunities by finding more new customers whom we can give the opportunity of genuine asset finance choice.     

Kind Regards,

Allan