I recently read an article written by a consultant from a leading Customer Experience (CE) consultancy. In it, amongst other things, the author expressed a view that CE isn’t about making customers happy but is about motivating them to behave in a way that is valuable to the business.

I agree that it’s about more than customer happiness – the word is just too vague to be meaningful. But I feel extremely uncomfortable with the rest of the sentence. For me getting customers to do what is valuable to the business implies their manipulation. Of course, it would be naive not to understand that the very essence of business is about profit – achieving a positive return on investment, but maximising profit without creating sustainable customer relationships doesn’t make sense. It can’t be just about the business, it has to be about mutual benefit.

Both parties have to feel that the value they derive from the relationship makes it of benefit to them to continue it. The same is true for others involved in the relationship. Suppliers have to feel it’s worth it, shareholders have to be willing to invest, employees have to feel it’s worth them continuing to turn up for work. The value each gets has to be in balance. If it’s not then trust starts to evaporate and the relationship breaks down. We’re seeing it now with milk farmers in the UK feeling their relationship with retailers is out of balance. It’s also the reason that the banks are held in such low regard right now, customers believe that the benefit banks have derived from their custom has been out of kilter.

It worries me that some customer experience consultancies are contributing to the imbalance if they are focusing only on value to the business. It surely has also to be about the value to customers and should make the connection with value to employees, suppliers and shareholders…..

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