Customer Genius

The old ways of attracting, serving and retaining customers no longer work. Google has become the starting point for most customer interactions today. Technology enables customers to have the upper hand in a negotiation. They are far more aware and informed, far more wary of generic, glib marketing message, and their service expectations are conditioned by their experiences across sectors. Companies need to learn to create and capture value in new ways. An "outside in" business is the opposite of our more typical inside out model. It starts with the customer, their needs and wants, expectations and aspirations, then works backwards to deliver what matters to them in a profitable way. It recognizes that customer power is a force to work with, not against - in order to do business where, how, and when customers want. Customer Genius offers you a more intelligent and imaginative approach to customers. It is about starting from how customers see the world, what they seek to achieve and the context in which they see your business as part of that activity or ambition. It reaches deeper into the customer psyche, reaching beyond superficial research averages, beyond articulating needs and wants based on convention, to what motivates and inspires them. And as a result, learns to work on their terms -- inverting the way we do business, pull rather than push, understanding where, when and how they want to do work with us. It recognizes that customers expect companies to do more for people -- to go beyond the product, the transaction, to add more value to their lives, helping them to achieve what they couldn?t otherwise. They will return this commitment -- through trust and loyalty - not through incentives and rewards, but through becoming an essential and enabling part of their lives. Customer Genius gives you the knowledge, capabilities and inspiration to address your relevant customer challenges in practical and profitable ways.

Peter Fisk is an experienced strategist and marketer, and has worked with some of the world's leading companies including Coca-Cola, Microsoft and Vodafone.
He jointly leads a strategic innovation firm, The Foundation, helping companies to grow their businesses from the outside in. Peter is a recognized expert and commentator on marketing around the world. He is an inspirational speaker on customers and brands, strategy and innovation. He is co-author of the FT Handbook of Management, and The Complete CEO. In January 2006, Business Strategy Review identified him as one of the leading new business thinkers.
He combines youthful energy and inspiration with significant, practical experience. He is married with two young daughters and, having grown up in the Northumbrian countryside, now lives just outside London. He is a committed long-distance runner, Newcastle United supporter, and never far from his BlackBerry or iPod.