Oh what a lovely war!

It is not often that you will find something helpful and useful coming out of our involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan. It is even rarer for there to be lessons for marketing emerging from these conflicts. But as a regular Cicero Speaks devotee it will come as no surprise to you to learn that I can find enlightenment in unusual places and I have found a very important nugget of marketing learning from these brutal wars.

Last week I was telling you about the words of wisdom of my northern agent in the Dales. And this week I want to share with you some words of marketing insight from a real and genuine 5 star American general. I truly do scour the world to bring you learning and enlightenment.

I was reading recently an interview with General David Petraus, the American general who until recently was the main man in Iraq and who has just become head humvee honcho in Afghanistan. In his interview he said,

‘You cannot build awareness or engagement through a bullet proof windscreen’.

Now you may be struggling to see the immediate relevance of this to marketing so let me explain.

As senior marketers we will often build awareness or engagement through a bulletproof windscreen. Only we call it market research. Do we do enough to get out from behind our bullet proof windscreen to find out what is going on, to discover what our customers think about us, to experience what they are experiencing? Could we do more? Or are we content to let the shag pile grow beneath our feet and rely on intelligence from our research reports? And lean on the columns of excel worksheets from our front line staff for understanding and insight?

A few months back I was on one of my regular missions on behalf of us all to improve and upgrade the quality of customer service that some large faceless organisation was offering me and the rest of its customers. Getting nowhere with the customer service team I asked to speak to their Head of Customer Service to be told ‘I am sorry but he does not speak to customers’. Are you as amazed and as dumfounded at that statement as I was? This is an organisation where I was assured that ‘your call is very important to us’ and ‘customer service is our number one priority’. Yeah, right. But it is also an organisation where its senior management do not think it important enough to speak with customers. Guys, listen to General Petraus.

Since this experience I now make a point of asking to speak with the Customer Service Director or the Marketing Director if and when I have an issue that is irresolvable by the front line staff. It is a good game to play and you should try it. It is saddening to see how few organisations will allow you to speak to those supposedly leading the charge to make their organisation customer-centric

Now I don’t want to hold myself up some sort of paragon of marketing virtue, assuming of course that you can juxtaposition ‘marketing’ and ‘virtue’, but I did always try to get out from behind my bullet proof windscreen and would encourage my team to do the same. I was always happy to speak with customers if they phoned. And indeed was always keen to contact a sample of customers whose business we had lost to find out why we were not at least as good as the competition.

I would always ensure that my team and myself had shopped the customer shop and experienced the customer experience. As they say (no idea who ‘they’ is in this instance) ‘if you want to improve airline food, serve it up in the airline’s board room’.

So if you work in marketing or have a responsibility for customers in your organisation, so that means all of you, I want you now to commit to build awareness and engagement without a bullet proof windscreen. I would love you to personally commit and to encourage your team to commit, to the Petraus Marketing Doctrine:
· To speak with customers if they ask to speak with you
· To speak with a sample of new, existing or ex customers every month to find out how they feel about your business and how it could be made better
· To regularly shop the customer shop

By doing this you will be sending out a very powerful signal to your customers and equally importantly to your front line staff, exactly what kind of an organisation you want to be. And you will be amazed at what you will learn and uncover.

So do it now. Not next week. Not tomorrow. Not when you have a space in your diary. Do it now and get on with it. And maybe some good will have come out of our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Is it me? I recently had to visit one of the NHS’s finest establishments. Please don’t worry there is no need for you to rush over with the grapes and flowers. I was there in a professional capacity rather than because of ill health. While there I went for a coffee and cake. I was staggered to see they had 2 price lists and they actually advertised that visitors (in other words taxpayers like you and me) ‘would have a 25% surcharge added to their bills’. Shocked and appalled is not the word, and yes I know that’s two words.

Why? Even if we accept the premise that staff should get a discount, to flaunt that and to brazenly advertise that everyone else should be surcharged, is symptomatic of the public sector’s attitude that if you don’t work there, the rest of us are cash cows. Needless to say I refused on principle to be surcharged for my coffee and left, having made my point and having drawn parallels with the Boston Tea Party and the American Revolution. Extreme I know but relevant. Is it just me who thinks like this? Your thoughts please.

Have a great week.

Sit felix et sit fortunatus.