Customer credos, charters and public commitments: When are they a good idea?

I'm in London this week visiting some clients, working with some Bain teams, and attending the Net Promoter Conference.  During some of my meetings, a colleague pointed out that NatWest had just published a "customer charter" with 14 aspirational statements (link).  Hard to tell whether it's fundamentally a marketing positioning -- their tag line is "Helpful Banking" -- or something more.  It is certainly plastered all over their consumer home page today.

It seems many companies are busy publishing similar public commitments to their customers.  Out of curiosity I did a quick search on Google for "customer charter" and came up with a pretty long list of links.  Here are some of the first that came up.  They are from all over the (English language) world.  A few are almost silly, others seem quite thoughtful.

• NJIT Customer Service Credo
• The Comcast Credo
• National Library of Ireland Customer Charter
• Virgin Atlantic - Our Commitment to You
• ANZ - Corporate Responsibility
• UK Environment Agency Customer Charter (requires PDF download)
• Australian Government Centrelink Customer Charter
• Standard Chartered (India) Customer Charter

As I buzzed through these, I found myself wondering under what conditions a customer charter is a good idea.  Among the more compelling rationale I have heard executives use to explain their intent in adopting a customer charter:

• "Our company's service levels are demonstrably better than the ones offered by competitors, but we aren't getting full credit for it from the marketplace"
• "I couldn't get my colleagues in the call [centers/operations/stores/sales organization/marketing/information technology -- you fill in the blank] to support the improvement initiatives, but this public commitment forces their hand"
• "It was an efficient way to communicate just how serious we really are to our employees.  They had become cynical about our efforts to improve the customer experience based on prior initiatives that faded away"
• "We needed to make rapid improvement on a few of the most critical drivers of customer satisfaction, and laying them out clearly was meant to create positive momentum on our team"

All of these reasons seem, on their face, pretty compelling.  There are other considerations, however, that might be worth thinking through.  For example: 

• What are the risks of committing to service levels or principles you are not certain your organization can deliver consistently?
• Does it make sense to use customers as a weapon to get your colleagues in line?  Are public commitments the best way to create organizational consensus and break decision roadblocks?  Do you want to work in a company where "tricks" like that are the way to get things done?  (I don't)
• Are you better off telling employees what you intend to do for customers?  Or are you better off doing it and then pointing out what you have achieved?  In a world where initiative after initiative seems to roll through most organizations with little impact, it's hard to overcome cynicism without some successes to celebrate.

I'm not certain there's one right answer here.  But before making a big public commitment, I would personally be quite cautious.  I would rather the organization achieve consistent success creating Promoters and delivering against a set of principles before going public.  Too many leadership teams declare, without real conviction, that they will be "the most" "the best" and so on.  Do it, and then point out what you've done.  Or, better yet, create such a compelling experience that your customers point it out for you.

What do you think?  Does your company have a customer charter?  Is it any good?  What impact has it had?

Comments

[Adam Ramshaw]

Rob,

Good post -- and one that I've discussed with clients in the past.

I've put together a longer response here - http://genroe1to1.genroe.com/2010/06/16/customer-charters-good-or-bad-for-customer-satisfaction/

But in summary:
Put simply, inflate customer service expectations and you can drive down customer satisfaction even while delivering the same service level.

Regards,
Adam Ramshaw

[Rob Markey]

I couldn't agree more, Adam. You can't earn loyalty among intelligent customers by claiming that you're good. Everyone does that and it's not credible. Moreover, by claiming how great you are, you raise expectations, making it even harder to exceed them and create a "wow" reaction from the customer. Finally, failing to deliver against the expectations you set creates terrible frustration among your employees, and can send the company deeper into the abyss.

[Eric Jacques]

Great post Rob,

Company management should really look in the mirror when their employees aren't engaged and are cynical about their "initiatives."

Most employees have lost faith in any real change. I've seen too many customer service employees (and other) "give up" after putting in efforts to improve service, only to be shot down in performance reviews or even fired.

Corporate culture needs to be truly aligned with the credo before it's made public. Otherwise, as Adam said, you're simply increasing the expectation on something you can't deliver.

Cheers
Eric

[bryan sander]

Agreed... publishing a customer credo when you don't have the right customer experience in place will be seen as yet another marketing piece. Underpromise, overdeliver... then once you're delivering, explicitly articulate your standards to both customers & employees. Otherwise you are asking for a cynical response.