Sea of sameness – worn out metaphor or wake-up call?

By John Aves

Sea of sameness was originally used to describe the more or less generic offerings by resorts in the early 2010s. You probably flicked through the ‘palm tree and white sands’ brochures yourself. Fast forward over a decade and it’s still as strong a wake-up call for businesses as it was when it was first coined by Piers Schmidt.

Many CEOs and executives are convinced that they do customer experience differently. “Yes, we stand out.” “Everything we do is for our customers.” But peel back the layers on most differentiation strategies and it becomes clear that many are still stuck with product and pricing models. They don’t yet see customer focus as an operational model. In many cases it’s just a mantra. This begs the question – if your competitors’ products and prices are superficially similar to yours, what do you do that makes you so different? This is the wake-up call.

Meaningful differentiation and strong customer loyalty go hand in hand. The list of businesses that do this well will be familiar to you: HubSpot, Amazon, first direct, Starling Bank (coming up on the flanks). Think about how difficult it is to prize customers away from these brands. Yes it’s true that high-growth businesses like these often have a first mover advantage. But these types of business are relentless in finding ways to focus on perfecting the secret sauce that differentiates them in a way that creates value for customers. They also know customers are prepared to pay more for value they can’t get elsewhere.

Different, but the same …
We often ask businesses we meet about what they do differently to make their customers more loyal. The answers are all similar. We’ve invested in digital. Our products and services compare well. We’ve installed new customer service systems. Our loyalty programme is popular. We’ve got a team that has been with us for years. Everybody is friendly and helpful. The list goes on.

But there is a problem here.

These reasons aren’t differentiators. You can’t rely on doing the basics well to stand out. Offering the same as every other brand that is doing okay means you’re only differentiating from the bad firms. What business isn’t investing in digital or technology? Why choose you?

We’re not saying that being consistent on the basics isn’t important. It is. Let customers down on these and they’ll take their business elsewhere. But it doesn’t drive customers to come back, trade up, spend more or recommend you to their friends and family.

Customers are mired in adequate experiences

Customers are mired in adequate experiences from businesses jostling to differentiate on ‘good’. You need to set your sights on ‘wow’ to grow the customers you’ve already got. And tempt others away from your competitors.

You need to offer an experience that keeps you front of mind and makes customers want to come back time and time again. An experience that makes them want to stick with you – no matter what.

You don’t know what you don’t know

Unfortunately, most companies don’t know how differentiated they are in their customers’ eyes, nor do they have an effective means of finding out. A run-of-the-mill “How are we doing?” survey won’t cut it. The only effective way to measure this is a three-stage process. First, understand what matters most to your customers – by understanding their expectations of an ideal experience. Second, ask customers to rate your performance against those expectations. Third, ask those same customers to rate your competitors against those same expectations. This will show clearly where you are (or are not) differentiated in the customers’ eyes and provide actionable insights.

You need to stand out

Miss the mark and your customer experience becomes ineffective. Efforts to differentiate usually end up in insignificant changes that customers don’t notice or don’t care about. Some businesses just end up imitating their competitors (which is why we are wary of competitor benchmarking). The rhetoric continues. Many businesses think they put customers first but the reality – with a few exceptions – is different. 75% of senior executives believe their organisations are customer centric, but only 30% of customers agree (Capgemini)

Where does all of this leave your business? If you’re a bank, you can’t out first direct first direct. But neither should you want to. You need to do customer experience in a way that becomes a hallmark of your brand to create a Branded Customer Experience. You want to be different (not the same). And distinct (customers should be able to notice why you’re different without you having to tell them).

Are you stuck in a sea of sameness?

Here are a few questions to get you thinking.

• What is our organisation known for?
• What is our niche? What do we do that makes us different?
• Are we creating meaningful, memorable experiences that only our brand can offer?
• How does our ‘difference’ align with what matters most to our high-value customers?
• Are we trying to please too many customers?
• How does our ‘difference’ disrupt the monotony and routine experienced by most customers?

In our experience, businesses that are struggling to stand out almost always find they require a shift in perspective. It’s an inconvenient truth that creating customer loyalty starts with you.