For this newsletter servancy refers to a practice where the business is a servant to the customer. It is the business practice of treating customers so value is delivered to the customer without consideration to the employees delivering that value.
Whilst this might be the flavor of the times with so many people touting ‘customer-centric’ and ‘customer-focus’ and ‘customer-facing’ I believe a pure servancy role is a practice that has a limited seat within the customer experience arena.
How business can pull back from such a role is to ensure that the customer experiences they deliver are also meaningful for employees. They need to find the fit that enables an individual or work team to get value from the customer experience activity.
Likewise business activity that just focuses on itself and not on customers can be indulgent to the point of arrogance. This is the flavour of such commonly used terms as B2C which almost implies that the business is in control … that is, the business (B) will dictate to the customer (C). In reality it is better represented as C2B and C2C, the latter capturing the importance of ‘social’ within customer experiences
There are times when servancy is required and indeed when indulgence is required but to remain in these focus areas is not sustainable. Rather the aspiration is to create rich customer experiences that deliver value for both the customer and employee … as shown in the top right of the following model.
How do you achieve rich experiences? Ask your employees and ask your customers … or just listen to all the perspectives and thoughts already being vocalized by both. Or you might want to pick up the latest bestseller “The Game Changer” by Dr Jason Fox … a great read on motivation.