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2005 Copernican Awards Recap
Apr 19, 2006
"Who's doing it better?" I get asked this a lot, given my frequent columns about bad customer experience and how to fix it (and, of course, the hundreds of examples at This Is Broken).
But some companies and organizations are really focused on the customer experience, and I have begun spotlighting them more.
One year ago, my business partner Phil Terry and I launched a new customer experience award to recognize customer-centric companies and organizations. It's called the Copernican Award.
Just as Copernicus pointed out that the planets revolve around the Sun, not the earth, the Copernican Awards go to companies that put customers at the center of their strategy.
For decades, most companies have operated with the company itself as the singular focus of business, ignoring customers' needs, reaching out to them only through advertising that was often boastful, deceptive, or both. But a few companies today are putting customers at the center of their operations, often decreasing or even eliminating their advertising budgets in the process, and are experiencing such dramatic success that several are now the unopposed leaders of their industries.
This is a dramatic transformation - we'd say it's the transformation of 21st century business - and it's just beginning with a few innovative companies. By giving them some credit I hope we can motivate other companies to follow in their footsteps, to help us continue to improve the customer experience in every industry and sector.
Here's a recap of our Copernican Awards from a year ago - April 2005 - when we identified twelve companies in three size categories as finalists. (Two weeks from today we'll announce the winners of this year's 2006 Copernican Awards.)
Each finalist was nominated by a member of our Customer Experience Councils, a forum of over 160 senior executives dealing with customer experience - in marketing, product development, product management, and other roles across a range of industries. (E-mail me if you'd like more info: mark at goodexperience dot com)
Winners were determined by a vote of all Council members; the company with the most Council member votes in each of the three categories won the award.
2005 Copernican Award Finalists
Finalists were organized into three categories, based on the size of the company or organization.
--- Large ($1 billion or more in annual revenue or budget) ---
• Amazon: To create its consistently good customer experience, Amazon reports that its internal product development philosophy dictates that every project must "start with the customer and work backwards."
• JetBlue: This customer-centered airline is rocking. New planes, leather seats, free DirecTV, all flights sold one-way, Saturday night stays never required, and a change fee of only $25.
• Staples: It put customers at the center of recent strategic changes, resulting in the "Easy Rebates" program and many operational improvements.
• Westin Hotels: Beginning in August 1999, Westin installed over 50,000 "Heavenly Beds" at a cost of $30 million. The investment generated industry-leading metrics, including daily rates and guest satisfaction, and forced competitors to change.
--- Medium ($100 million or more in annual revenue or budget) ---
• ING Direct: Breaking many "rules" of the banking industry, ING Direct has no fees, minimums, or customer-hostile policies hidden in the "fine print"... and it offers some of the highest interest rates in the country.
• License Express (New York State DMV): Designed for "quick and easy transactions," this customer-centered branch of the New York DMV can get you in and out in under ten minutes. (In Manhattan, find it on 34th Street just west of 8th Avenue.)
• Netflix: pioneered the "no late fees, no due dates" model, which broke the "rule" that late fees were an unavoidable part of renting movies - and forced Blockbuster to change.
• Uline: distributor of packaging, warehouse, and shipping supplies; it surpasses the competition by serving customers on the basics, not by following fads in management or technology.
--- Small (Less than $100 million in annual revenue or budget) ---
• Blacksocks: One customer insight - no one likes shopping for socks or finding the pair that match after laundry - spurred them to launch "sockscriptions" which periodically send high-quality socks in envelopes, Netflix-style, to your mailbox. Swiss company.
• Chambers Street Wines: The Tribeca, Manhattan wine store knows customers by name, cares about quality, pays staff well, and gains very loyal customers as a result.
• Flickr (nominated before its sale to Yahoo, and before the Newsweek cover story about the company): A pioneer in storing and categorizing digital photos and other images on the Web.
• Sigalert.com: Offers free traffic reports and real-time speed and accident information in the L.A. area. Well loved by Angelinos.
- - -
Before I tell you the winners, consider - which company would you have voted for, in each of the three categories? Can you guess who won? See the winners here: http://creativegood.com/press/copernican-winners.html
Stay tuned in a few weeks for news of the 2006 Copernican Awards.
Interesting reading about the 2006 Copernican Awards. But what about those who appallingly fail to see that the "planets really do NOT revolve around the sun"? My vote for the week has to be for the AUT for ruling that their members take "action short of a strike". In short, this means lecturers in Uni's won't be marking assignments or covering for other colleagues absences etc. But who are the only people who this affects? Not the managers of the Unis or Departments or even the government - but the students! the 'customers' themsleves! How stupid is that? Can't they see what a waste of time their action is? Students have no say in what a lecturer earns (mmmm now there's a thought)!
Though i like what Netflix has done for changing the way dvds can be rented with no late fees and the ease-of-use of their website (I guess it can be debated that these were done with the customer and not a bottom line in mind)... after hearing and reading about their "throttling" practices (a method of slowing down dvd mailings to their most diehard subscribers), I cannot agree with your award winning assessment. This practice seems completely counter to good customer service... penalizing the ones who use you most? That's not a user centric practice in my world.
Have to disagree with the JetBlue wunderkind...good friends of ours were contact last week and told that their flight was cancelled and they could choose their departure airport from two other very inconvenient locations.
And if they wanted their money back from the cancelled flight, they could get a credit to their account at JetBlue for future flights.
Duh!!! This is "good experience"??? Gimme a break. I was once enthuisastic about Jet Blue - but for future travel, give me Airtan every day.
I like your Copernican Awards, and would suggest that you consider adding the folowing to your criteria in the future. No company is eligible for the award if they use a telephone menu system for incoming calls, only companies whose lines are answered by human beings. Businesses today seem to do everything possible to prevent customers from communicating with them.