Our re­cent na­tion­al elec­tion event show­cased the fact that even an elec­tion can be sub­ject­ed to mar­ket­ing, sales and cus­tomer ex­pe­ri­ence prin­ci­ples. Typ­i­cal­ly, in the world of busi­ness, mar­ket­ing brings in the cus­tomer, sales clos­es the deal and cus­tomer ex­pe­ri­ence (quite of­ten) de­ter­mines the longevi­ty of the re­la­tion­ship.

Each of the two dom­i­nant par­ties in the elec­tion had the op­por­tu­ni­ty to play to the na­tion­al au­di­ence and to present their in­di­vid­ual prod­ucts for se­lec­tion, the win­ner was cho­sen and now, we are in the re­la­tion­ship-build­ing cy­cle of the process.

There are a few de­vices that busi­ness­es en­gage to dom­i­nate this cy­cle.

Val­ues res­o­nance is a com­pelling fac­tor when busi­ness­es are ce­ment­ing cus­tomer re­la­tion­ships. Cus­tomers ad­mire busi­ness­es with which they share sim­i­lar val­ues. In this day and age, their de­ci­sion-mak­ing is no longer lim­it­ed to on­ly price and prod­uct con­sid­er­a­tions. Busi­ness­es that are en­vi­ron­men­tal­ly con­scious, ser­vice-an­i­mal friend­ly and com­mit­ted to so­ci­etal up­lift­ment caus­es, are among those that are surg­ing in cus­tomer en­dorse­ment rat­ings. We are at a point where cus­tomers are sim­ply press­ing pause, and test­ing for busi­ness-to-cus­tomer val­ues align­ment, be­fore they com­mit to a pur­chase.

Busi­ness­es that take the time to nur­ture deep re­la­tion­ships with the com­mu­ni­ties they serve, carve out strong con­nec­tions with their cus­tomers. Out­reach ef­forts of­ten pay off hand­some­ly in the form of cus­tomer en­gage­ment and the forg­ing of bonds that link com­mu­ni­ty in­ter­ests with so­cial con­tracts. The stronger the so­cial con­tract, the deep­er the com­mit­ment that cus­tomers feel to­wards their pre­ferred busi­ness brands.

Ef­fec­tive de­liv­ery on promis­es made to cus­tomers is one of the most pow­er­ful de­vices in the re­la­tion­ship-build­ing cy­cle. When a busi­ness be­comes pre­dictable in its un­mis­tak­ably mag­i­cal ways of treat­ing its cus­tomers, word spreads. In­di­vid­u­als have an al­most in­sa­tiable ap­petite for be­ing treat­ed well and will com­mit to go­ing wher­ev­er such treat­ment is be­ing trad­ed.

Es­tab­lish­ing a cus­tomer bill of rights, pub­lish­ing this char­ter and de­liv­er­ing on its promis­es, wins a busi­ness the hearts and minds of its ide­al cus­tomers. It takes courage for a busi­ness to plas­ter its list of promis­es to cus­tomers promi­nent­ly, with­in the cus­tomer’s line of sight. When a busi­ness feels so con­fi­dent in its abil­i­ty to hold it­self ac­count­able for de­liv­er­ing the high­est qual­i­ty of care, it be­comes a mag­net for the cus­tomer who craves au­then­tic care.

Many busi­ness­es feel con­strained to take this step be­cause they are un­sure about their abil­i­ty to sus­tain com­pli­ance with the char­ter. So, in­stead of chal­leng­ing them­selves to do bet­ter and rise to meet pub­lished stan­dards, they opt to stay on the side­lines of the game.

Ser­vice lev­el agree­ments en­able the in­ter­nal val­ue chain of a busi­ness to keep its in­ner work­ings ar­tic­u­lat­ed enough to gen­er­ate out­comes that ei­ther meet or ex­ceed cus­tomer ex­pec­ta­tions. These agree­ments rep­re­sent the stan­dards that need to be sus­tained dur­ing cross-func­tion­al in­ter­ac­tions, so ur­gency, re­spon­sive­ness and con­sis­ten­cy in ser­vice de­liv­ery can be achieved. Many busi­ness­es have not tak­en the time to cre­ate these stan­dards. Too much work they say. The re­sult? Dis­con­nect­ed in­ner work­ings that cause fric­tion and cus­tomer un­hap­pi­ness along cus­tomer jour­neys.

In the same way that busi­ness­es pos­sess the po­ten­tial to un­leash ex­tra­or­di­nary lev­els of cus­tomer ex­pe­ri­ence, an elec­tion paves the way for a new gov­ern­ment to un­lock el­e­vat­ed lev­els of cit­i­zen care.

The on­ly ac­tion that is re­quired to en­er­gise this new era of care in both the pri­vate and pub­lic sec­tors, is to press the but­ton la­belled “Start.”