“Massive disruption is coming, and the only question is whether your firm is going to cause it or fall victim to it.”
Fast Company has a great article on ways to disrupt our businesses and make them more customer friendly & create greater loyalty. See #6 about culture and transparency! Below are some bullet points from the article. The whole article is worth reading.
1) Totally eliminate your industry’s persistent customer pain points. Think: can we turn our process or perspective around, to look through the customer’s eyes as though they were the company and we were the customers?
2) Dramatically reduce complexity. Simple, formerly known as BankSimple–is trying to take a machete to the insanely complex and confusing world of consumer banking.
3) Cut prices 90 percent (or more). Incremental change doesn’t disrupt an industry; radical change does. Radical price reductions require radical new processes and business models.
4) Make stupid objects smart. Take every product you sell, and make it smart…or accept the fact that you must forever more compete on price and accept low margins.
5) Teach your company to talk. No one owns the customer, and you either do what’s best for the customer or you will lose him. But the real question we want to put forward is this: what happens if your competitors’ companies talk, but yours doesn’t?
6) Be utterly transparent.
Think: not just no secrets, but also no spin.
The concepts of social influence and pervasive memory will make it increasingly difficult for companies to hide from dissatisfied customers, negative reviews, and faulty products.
What if your company didn’t simply try to stop hiding, but instead radically embraced the truth? How might it impact your culture to decide that your firm would be the most powerful force in your industry making certain that every speck of the truth was obvious to every customer, analyst, and reviewer?
Would it change your reward systems? Would it impact employee motivation? Might it cause changes in the kind of employees you attract and retain?
We’re pretty opinionated in this regard. The truth is coming, and there’s nothing you can do about it. But most firms won’t recognize this until it happens. Better to get far out in front while confusion reigns.
7) Make loyalty dramatically easier than disloyalty. Think about every major purchase decision your customers face in your industry. How can you make it easier for customers to remain with your firm? Now, think even bigger. Can it be five or ten times easier? Subtlety can be lost on today’s customers.
http://www.fastcompany.com/1839009/7-ways-to-disrupt-your-industry
The Hopgood Group, LLC 