Business Class
Service Agreement
In the fa“ce
of growing
competition,
customer
skepticism and “In today’s world,” writes Jonathan Tisch, “it is
shrinking brand getting harder and harder for businesses to attract
loyalty, many Iand retain their customers. In fact, the basic connec-
companies tions between organizations and customers—once are taking a relatively powerful, long-lasting and mutually beneficial—are increasingly breaking down.”
renewed look Tisch should know, having led numerous large
at customer businesses and served on or chaired many boards
service—and and organizations. He is the co-chairman of the
the results are $18 billion Loews Corp., which owns Lorillard, CNA Financial and Bulova Corp., and is CEO of Loews
paying off Hotels, a chain Tisch runs on a day-to-day basis.
In his recent management book, Chocolates on
BY LARRY OLMSTED the Pillow Aren’t Enough: Reinventing the Customer
ILLUS TRATION BY JASON FORD Service Experience, Tisch looks at what he consid-
ers to be the demise of customer service in all
industries, and he uses his experience in the hotel
industry, long driven by service, to suggest fixes.
He sees the problems as a result of our times, as
increased price sensitivity, competition, customer
skepticism and access to knowledge have greatly
shrunk brand loyalty.
Many management experts agree that today’s
business environment, especially the presence
of the Internet, has commodified many products
and services, making bottom-line price the main
reason to choose a vendor. These same technological and cultural changes, argues Tisch, also make
it much harder to reach and market to an audience
that once could be reliably accessed through a TV
commercial on a major network. Viewers are now
heavily fragmented and often reside in the blogo-sphere. Bottom line: Today it is much easier to lose
customers than to find or keep them.
