Interview with Sampson Lee

Sampson Lee President of G-CEM and  CEM-partner of TOTE-M will be visiting Amsterdam in March. On the 22nd and 23rd he will be lecturing his 29th Global CEM Certification Program at Schiphol Crown Plaza. On March 24 Sampson is keynote speaker at the Customer Innovation Event 2011. For this occasion TOTE-M asked Sampson a number of questions for you to get to know him better. You can read the interview below.

Q: March will be your third certification program in Amsterdam. Taking into account the Masterclass organized with TOTE-M in 2009 in fact this is your fourth appearance over here? How do you feel about it?

Sampson Lee (SL): ‘Dutch and I get along very well.’ In 2002, I collaborated with Jay Curry--though he was originally from California--and co-developed a CVM method. Six years later I met Annemiek van Moorst in Amsterdam; TOTE-M became our close partner, now with all consultants being certified to implement our branded CEM methodology for their clients. 

In my view, Dutch are both simple and sophisticated. Sophisticated in the sense that they can absorb uncommon ideas and concepts, and transform them into simple, but not simplistic, expressions and solutions. Dutch are my most favorable audience; they treasure originals, always in sync with my thoughts, and we never fail to inspire each other.                 

Q: You do programs in various places around the world. Are there differences in approach of customer experience between countries or even continents?

SL: Yes, the primary is on objectives. ‘Effectiveness’ in experience is interpreted differently. For example, in the developing east, countries like China, Thailand, and Indonesia, the top-line--i.e. acquisition or revenues--is always the top priority of enterprises: how to achieve more results with same resource. Whilst in the developed west, the focus is more on the bottom-line--i.e. retention and costs: how to achieve same with less.

One thing in common though. No matter they’re located in Shanghai, Johannesburg, or London, more and more executives realize that the true value of CEM isn’t just to make customers satisfied; but to differentiate from rivals and earn more profits. We see more CEM initiatives are being led by business--marketing, strategy, even branding--rather than service functions.   

Q: What do you consider to have been the major development in CEM in 2010?  What will be the focus point in 2011?

SL: It was, is, and will be Customer-centricity. It is a global phenomenon and the sacred belief in business for years and is gaining more support and buy-in. Unfortunate, customer-centricity is wrong. The original purpose, the book definition, of customer-centricity is good and noble: Putting customers at the heart of your business, listen to VOC, understand customers’ needs, and satisfy those needs selectively. But the common belief is: a customer-centric organization has to satisfy most needs and address most pains. It’s against common sense, isn’t it? Which firm could have the resource to satisfy all needs, it's insane! But common belief always wins out book definition. What is in our head is far more important than what is in the book.  

The situation in the west is much worse than in the east, as the west has more ‘advanced’ systems and well-established brands. System drives behavior. The prevailing “I-am-the-customer” Syndrome is driven and accelerated by the political (democracy), the economic (capitalism) and the cultural (individualism) systems, and further fueled by the craziness of social media. The damage customer-centricity can wreak on great brands is profound. A great brand may trade their unique and well-established brand equity for average performance and artificial customer satisfaction scores. A pure customer-centricity would not make customers more satisfied on you than on your competitors, and it creates wastes by allocating resource ineffectively. Customer-centricity is wrong and must fail. But before one could realize the potential impacts, many firms will pay a huge price--reduces customer pleasures, increases wastes and homogenizes brands--to learn this lesson.  

I can’t wait to share my views in Amsterdam.

Here you can register for the 29th Global CEM Certification Program of G-CEM which will be held at Schiphol Amsterdam Airport on 22 and 23 March 2011.