Here’s a sobering little bit of reality:
“A study by Bain & Company found that 80 percent of companies surveyed believed that they delivered a “superior experience” to their customers. But, when customers were asked to indicate their perceptions of the experiences they have in dealing with companies, they rated only 8 percent of companies as truly delivering a superior experience (James Allen, Frederick F. Reichheld and Barney Hamilton, The Three “Ds” of Customer Experience, Harvard Business School Working Knowledge, accessed Nov. 7, 2005). Do you sense just a little bit of disconnect?”
(Thanks to John Winsor for catching this some time ago on Seth Godin’s blog, who himself had wisely nipped it from Jim Barnes.)
8% vs. 80%.
… Which is probably the same percentage of companies thinking their advertising, marketing, PR or Social Media “efforts” are solid vs. what the rest of the world thinks of them. (What some of us like to refer to as “reality.”)
Delusion to the nth degree.
By the way, statistically speaking, if you are reading this, you are 10 times more likely to be in the 80% group than the 8% group. Don’t blame me for the bad news. It’s just basic math.
A few pointers to help you figure out where you stand:
If you haven’t seen continuous double-digit growth for the last three years, you are NOT in the 8% category.
If you don’t know at least 10% of your repeat customers by name when you see them, you are NOT in the 8% category.
If you don’t know exactly how many people mentioned your company’s name on the web since the start of this month, your are probably NOT in the 8% category.
If you find it painstakingly difficult to get trade publications to write positive stories about you, you are probably NOT in the 8% category.
If your customer service people yell or complain more than theysmile or laugh when they get off the phone with customers, you are NOT in the 8% category.
If your executives are not being invited to speak at industry events on a regular basis, you are NOT in the 8% category.
If your customers are increasingly pressuring you to lower your prices to match your competitors’, you are NOT in the 8% category.
Starting to get the picture?
Time to do something about it, perhaps? 😉
Brand Building and Online Marketing Blog 
Harsh, but SO accurate. If companies truly believe they are doing a great job why are they failing? If you believe you have an inferior product and your customers agree…you have bigger problems then your marketing budget. Reassess your product with the help of your customers and listen to them.
Olivier,
And what should you do when you are very much avare that you are definitely NOT in the 8%, but deep in the 80% and you are also very much aware that your management is not at all aware …
Zyxo
Oops : typo ! avare should be “aware”
Problem is, when only 20% of customers leave immediately due to bad customer service that leaves 80% who suffer it and take time to move on and even then its typically only 40%. (http://tinyurl.com/cxlq3u)
Mediocrity with a large acquisition budget keeps the 80% all going for a while – but it catches up with all eventually.
If you are curious who is in the top 8%, these companies probably are:
The Companies With the Top Net Promoter Scores (Mar 30, 2009 Brandweek)
1. USAA
2. Apple
3. Amazon.com
4. Costco.com
5. Google
6. Facebook
7. Wikipedia
8. eBay
9. Craigslist
10. Barnes & Noble (bn.com)
Great blog and wonderful post. Thanks, Ted (an SC boy gone to big agency life in NYC)
Great blog and wonderful post. Thanks, Ted (an SC boy gone to big agency life in NYC)
This is a great justification for not using in-house agency. It’s hard to reality-check yourself.
That’s just so… true!
Unfortunately too many marketing people are so complacent, they don’t even care to find out they’re not in the 8%. Then again, at least their marketing messages work on themselves.
Great. True that most companies are opting for optimistic approach rather than realistic one.
Thanks for sharing.