An Interview with the Ultimate Customer Experience Creator Scott McKain
Scott McKain is changing how executives, businesses and other organizations treat their customers. Scott has built the Value Added Institute which promotes the development of resources on creating amazing customer experiences that impact its bottom line. He has developed concepts, models and programs that helped build extraordinary organizations that result from an extraordinary LOVE for the customer. In this customer-focused interview, he shares with us insights into how we can build better customer experiences that will engage and deepen our relationships in a truly disruptive age. This is yet HungryPeople's best interview to date mainly due to what he has to say about HungryPeople! Thanks Scott!
What's the work of the Value Added Institute?
Through speeches, seminars, and consulting with terrific organizations -- as well as my books, most recently, "Collapse of Distinction" -- we try to illuminate for organizations, and the professionals that work for them, the importance of the loyalty of the customer.
Take us back to when YOU were starting VAI. What was YOUR original motivation?
We knew in our hearts that creating compelling experiences could be more profitable than just pushing for simple transactions. We wanted to work with companies to prove it was the fact, as well as be thought leaders in how the customer experience can distinguish and differentiate your organizations -- and yourself, as a professional -- from the competition.
How can we create wonderful customer experiences in the online world?
First, understanding that the customer experience is different -- and superior -- to customer service. The experience adds the elements of personalization and emotion to the mix. By centering on how we use the technology to become more intimate with our individual customers, we begin to create wonderful experiences.
How will social media change businesses' interactions with their customers?
It's like anything else -- it will depend upon how businesses use the tool. A professional can use the telephone to follow-up with a good client and ensure satisfaction, or make telemarketing calls at dinner time. The tool is the same...the question becomes: How is it being used? Social media presents us the opportunity to deepen our connection with customers and prospects -- and, at the same time provides a forum for mindless, spamming promotional activities, as well.
Will social media deepen or rather make our interactions more artificial?
I believe social media makes us MORE of what we ALREADY are. In other words, if you truly care about customers, social media provides the opportunity to take it to an even more significant level of engagement. If you are artificial and aloof from your clients and colleagues, social media creates an infinite number of opportunities to reveal yourself and your true motives.
Describe for us what a Visionary Organization look like? How can we become one?
Visionary Organizations follow the four-step process I outline in "Collapse of Distinction" --
First, they seek Clarity. You have to know (and be able to clearly explain) precisely who and what you are -- and are NOT. Too many try to be more things to more people, thereby diluting their Clarity and inadvertently extinguishing customer passion.
Second is Creativity -- almost by definition, Visionary Organizations are creative. However, the surprising part of my research is that they aren't creative in EVERY area...they SELECT just one or two points where they will be revolutionarily different from the rest of their industry.
Third step is Communication -- which is part of what I love about what you are doing at HungryPeople. The Visionary Organization communicates in STORIES, not in a recitation of facts and ratios.
Finally, it's the Customer Experience Focus...and it's vital to make the point that this isn't merely the old "focus on the customer" line. This is an obsession with how it FEELS to do business with you and your organization.
Another surprising part of what I discovered was that organizations have to follow these points in this specific order. Creativity without Clarity is devoid of distinction, for example. So, to become a Visionary Organization, begin with Clarity, and follow through with the rest.
YOU talk a lot about the 'platform,' how can social media enhance this?
Think of a band of musicians. In the old days, the key was to get on radio...because if you could do that, people would come see your concerts. You couldn't be a highly successful band unless you had radio hits.
The Grateful Dead came along and changed all of that -- in great part because they developed such a rabidly enthusiastic fan base. They created an intimate relationship with their fans that was so strong, they didn't need airplay to draw crowds.
Today's artists understand that they need Facebook, MySpace, iTunes, e-zines to fans, websites, online fan clubs, constant Twitter updates, and more...however, it really accomplishes the same thing the Dead was doing all those years ago with fewer platforms. It creates greater audience connectivity and intimacy.
One vital point -- if your band sucks, it really doesn't matter how many platforms you use to connect with an audience. Become great at what you do first...then expand it exponentially with the creative use of the platforms that social media provides.
Who are YOUR personal heroes? Why?
Zig Ziglar is a hero -- but not for the reason you may assume. Certainly he's sold a zillion books and has had an amazing speaking career, but the reason he's a hero to me is that he LIVES what he SAYS. It's amazing to me how many of the so-called "gurus" -- and the guru-wanna-be's -- talk a good game, but do not truly live what they are advising their readers and listeners to do.
There's a famous author/speaker, noted for shouting from the platform that we males should "seek the opinion of women -- and listen." Yet, my wife sat in his conference room for two days with only three other people at a meeting regarding his spouse's company, and not one time did he ask my wife what she thought about anything -- or truly listened to anyone else's opinion but his own. I still admire his thinking -- but he'll never be a "hero."
What are YOU hungry for?
Continued learning and growth...and relationships with people and organizations hungry for the same.
(Interviewer's Note: And here we get to the best part, I couldn't sleep after reading this.)
How can HungryPeople become a better experience for our readers?
Well, first off, you have an awesome start! I absolutely love what you are doing! It seems that you understand that wonderful combination of disconnection and symmetry about the point that you can change the world by providing resources to inspire individuals to improve. It doesn't seem possible -- what one person can do from an idea you've shared can have an impact on the globe -- but, yet, as has often been noted, that's the ONLY way it ever happens.
Keep relating to both the evidence and emotion, and you'll continue to be an "Ultimate Customer Experience" (TM) for those you engage.
About Scott McKain
He is Vice Chairman of Obsidian Enterprises, Durham Capital Corporation, and Co-founder and Principal of the Value Added Institute.
Scott McKain has attained significant success in several sectors:
As a professional speaker, Scott McKain has taken it to the highest level. Member of the Professional Speakers Hall of Fame. Platform appearances in all fifty states and fifteen countries before virtually every type of audience one could imagine. He is a member of Speakers Roundtable—an elite group of twenty business speakers and authors considered to be among the best in the world.
As an author, Scott McKain has sold tens of thousands of books, and has been quoted in the “Wall St. Journal,” “USA Today” and “The New York Times.” His latest, “Collapse of Distinction” has been called the best reviewed business book of 2009.
As a business leader, Scott McKain serves as Vice Chairman of a successful holding company owning nineteen businesses in widely diverse industries with annual sales averaging over $100 million. He is the Co-founder and Principal of the Value Added Institute, a think-tank exploring the role of the customer experience in creating client loyalty.
On social media, he is well-known and widely regarded. His blog, McKainViewpoint.com has thousands of subscribers and receives tens of thousands of hits weekly.
As a media personality, Scott McKain was seen by over two million people on television every week for a decade.
YOU should follow Scott on Twitter & Facebook:
http://twitter.com/scottmckain
http://facebook.com/scottmckain
It’s alarming to talk with someone on the phone and realize they suspect you are a liar. This past week I received, via 
