1% for 10%: executive strategies for customer care

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/jsc.754
• Date: 01 March 2006
• Published date: 01 March 2006
• Author: Linda Lee‐Davies,Andrew P. Kakabadse,Lawson Savery,Nada K. Kakabadse

1% for 10%: executive strategies for

customer care

Andrew P. Kakabadse,1* Lawson Savery,2Nada K. Kakabadse3and

Linda Lee-Davies3

1Cranfield School of Management, UK

2Southern Cross University, NSW, Australia

3Northampton Business School, UK

This paper avoids the linear route to establishing where the biggest impact on customer

service lies and instead examines the influences on the quality of the customer experi-

ence from all angles in an organization. From the culture and policies of the organiza-

tion itself, to the front-line individuals and their managers, it is evident that customer

satisfaction is influenced at many levels and this directly affects organizational success

and competitive standing.

The Cranfield Top Executive Leadership studies, across 12 countries, examine senior man-

agers’ commitment to customer focus. The sample’s division, into three distinct groups

according to their customer focus commitment levels, highlights a range of arguments

about individual, management and corporate dedication to levels of customer satisfac-

tion with hints at where these may conflict with each other. By taking a rounded look

at the customer focus process from all its pivots within an organization, potential bot-

tlenecks in the process are also highlighted.

Most interestingly,it is conc luded that there is actually little difference between the groups

in pure quantitative terms, but it is that small difference indeed which makes all the dif-

ference to a substantial increase in positive customer experience.

Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Strategic Change, Mar–Apr 2006

effect (Drucker, 1993). In support, Oakland

and Oakland (1998) emphasized that there

was considerable research and anecdotal evi-

dence to indicate that there is a strong rela-

tionship between meeting, and perhaps

exceeding, customer satisfaction and the sub-

sequent bottom-line results. Equally, Knapp

(1999) indicated that it is the customer who

often rules and sits at the top of the organiza-

tional hierarchy. How employees interact with

these customers can then determine the orga-

nization’s ultimate success or failure. Most

researchers and practitioners would agree that

realizing customer satisfaction is an essential

business goal (Ward et al.,2004).

Strat. Change 15:103–111 (2006)

Published online in Wiley InterScience

(www.interscience.wiley.com) DOI: 10.1002/jsc.754 Strategic Change

*Correspondence to: Andrew P. Kakabadse, Cranfield

School of Management, Cranfield, Bedfordshire MK43

OAL, UK.

E-mail: a.p.kakabadse@cranfield.ac.uk

Introduction

The ‘customer is king’ has been a familiar

mantra since 1876, when John Wannamaker

restored an abandoned Philadelphia railway

depot into a department store (The Econo-

mist,2005). Peter Drucker further imprinted

this focus into the managerial mind and

reminded businesses that their primary

purpose was indeed to satisfy customers,

which in turn would have a positive causal