When the subject of “being good at your job” is approached, people always hold up the CEOs as example. I wanted to tell a different example.

When I was student in METU Business Administration Department, Bilge Doruk (we started calling her Madame Bilge in time) was the secretary of the department. Most of our lecturers (Kamil Kozan, Halil Çopur, Osman A. Ataç) got master’s degree in USA and got back to METU. Madame Bilge was on the same duty when they were students. She was the most important element that ensured the periods of Chiefs of Department changing to go smoothly.
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I am trying to follow some blogs. Today, I have seen these words:

“how do you generate this loyalty? A small part of that may be your customer service. A greater part is whether your product or service actually delivers” on the Influential Marketing Blog.

I definitly don’t agree.

According to the surveys, customer service level is the main item that causes CHURN.For telecom operators, it is 68% (Purdue Univ. Center for Customer Driven Quality) And the price is only 10%. (Product is 17%)

After a single (one is enough) bad experience of Rohit Bhargava (the author of the blog), he will turn back to ex-provider, and will be more loyal then anyone else.

Afterwords, he will add a new metric into his calculation of loyalty. This is convenience.

We should not forget the importance of convenience when chatting about loyalty.

I listen to the history from him in person. We were in a CRM conference. One of the American CRM gurus told it.

He was pleasured when he was invited as a speaker. 30 years ago when they got married, they have come to a place closer to the country where the conference is hold for their honeymoon. He has wished to come together with his wife one week before the conference and to stay at the same hotel. He has found it from internet and made a reservation.
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I am a MARKETING DIRECTOR who;

• Does not behave like an Advertisement Agency Creative Director, or say “I am the marketer, I don’t have an understanding of money”, who knows how to prepare feasibility, and can report at the end of the project (even wants to be asked to),
• Pays attention to the last line (Net Profit After Tax) of the income table rather than the first one (Total Sales Volume),
• Goes to the exhibitions of not only the sector he’s working in, but also marketing and sub-sectors’ fairs and exhibitions; and attends to the sessions and watches the presentations,
• Can discuss with the competitor companies about the general condition of the sector, its common problems and future, yet does not reduce this to practices that will hurt the free market conduct, Read the rest of this entry »
  

Reflection of professionalism on the creativity. Not being able to say “I create, and can’t be bothered by the rest”. To want to see the reflection of what you created on the balance or the future of the company, as well as on the people. If  it’s a dress design, to want it to be sold and used, not left in a page of a fashion magazine. Seeing its comfort and usefulness if it’s an architectural design. Aiming, for people to get inside and shop rather than watch with admiration if it’s a shop window, or even achieving it”

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It is important whose customer you are, both in CRM and CEM (customer experience management).

My wife decided to buy a carpet washing machine. She looked for it on an internet store, and made up her mind on one. She explained how happy she was when she got it sooner than she expected. (She is a lecturer with the title “Prof. Dr.” in University, and an e-commerce expert. She is often called for conferences as a spokesperson.)

Someone in the audience asked what brand it was. My wife couldn’t remember it. She was using it, but she was not a customer of that brand;  she was a customer of the virtual market .

Why? Not because my wife has a weak memory :-P  It was because she experienced the customer experience with the internet store rather than the machine. If the machine was broken or couldn’t respond to the needs of my wife, she would definitely remember its brand.

We were having a conversation with a company operating in durable household appliances sector. A member of the Board of Directors said; “Every family in Turkey is our customer!“.  While everyone nodded, I objected it. The conversation continued;

- Mr. Ugur, don’t you have products of our brand in your house?

- Yes! About 4 or 5 of them!

- Aren’t you one of our customers?

- No, I’m not.

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I have been working since 1978. I graduated from Business Administration Department in 1981. And I started working in the marketing department of a company. The computers were usually in the accounting departments when I got in.

Throughout my business life of 30 years, I have seen the screens spread on the tables (and lastly come to marketing).

I have created projects in retail banking. I have launched the installment cards. I removed point catalogues from existence and direct them to shopping online, etc… I have been the “commercial” leader of hundreds of projects. I have met hundreds of IT specialists.

I was pointed out as “the commercial person that works the best with IT”  in almost all the companies I have worked for. IT teams said “ask Ugur about how we prefer to work” to the other commercial departments. In some meetings, people who just started working even thought I was from the IT team.

I have met hundreds of IT specialists, but…

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