Rules of Engagement

• Train your eye on customers’ unmet needs and quirks. Parsons ignored tradition by starting a business before he had figured out his market, product, and business model. He tested the Internet waters by simply plunging in to see if he could swim. That’s a risky approach—one that I would not normally advise. But Parsons was packing a life preserver—his keen judgment. He knew instinctively that helping customers solve the complexities of the Internet was an enormous opportunity to be grasped. He could see their unmet needs.

  Parsons was right, and, for whatever reason, most of Go Daddy’s competitors seemed to lack the same basic understanding of the human condition. New—and even mature—technologies are often difficult for customers to navigate. What technologists and laypeople see as “simple” is not always the same. This divergence creates a rich field of business opportunity for simplifying technology’s complexity.

  If you choose to take Parsons’ approach to building a business, you will be developing your company’s competencies at the same time you are out in the market assessing the unmet needs and idiosyncratic behaviors of your potential customers. You will be looking for a match between competencies and needs.

  NEW—AND EVEN MATURE—TECHNOLOGIES ARE OFTEN DIFFICULT FOR CUSTOMERS TO NAVIGATE. WHAT TECHNOLOGISTS AND LAYPEOPLE SEE AS “SIMPLE” IS NOT ALWAYS THE SAME. THIS DIVERGENCE CREATES A RICH FIELD OF BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY FOR SIMPLIFYING TECHNOLOGY’S COMPLEXITY.

• High-tech requires high touch. A naïve view believes that technology-based businesses can be programmed to run on their own. Just create a sophisticated Web site that anticipates all possible customer questions and problems, and let the customer do the work. For a complex service or product, I have never seen this strategy work.

  Parsons quickly recognized that customers who have problems need access to real people. “When it comes to communicating and doing research and conducting business, people love to use the Internet,” he told me. “But when it comes to learning to do something and solving problems, people much prefer to deal with people.”

• Go beyond the ordinary with service. If your engagement proposition is based on good service, good just isn’t good enough. Your standard of performance needs to be substantially better than that of your competitors to sustain your market position and to get the attention of potential customers.

  IF YOUR ENGAGEMENT PROPOSITION IS BASED ON GOOD SERVICE, GOOD JUST ISN’T GOOD ENOUGH. YOUR STANDARD OF PERFORMANCE NEEDS TO BE SUBSTANTIALLY BETTER THAN THAT OF YOUR COMPETITORS TO SUSTAIN YOUR MARKET POSITION AND TO GET THE ATTENTION OF POTENTIAL CUSTOMERS.

  Parsons makes it very easy for people to get what they need from his unusually well-staffed Customer Care centers. But he takes his service proposition a giant step further with his Office of the President concept, designating a group of highly trained team members to handle the most complex, high-level questions. And as Assistants to the President, they carry the weight of importance that exceedingly demanding questioners require.

  It is a brilliant strategy for engaging with customers. Real problems get real attention, fast. Customers hang up the phone with an abiding sense that they matter to the company. Relationships are cemented, word-of-mouth spreads, and new business flows.

• Metrics matter. Parsons didn’t invent the idea, but it bears endless repetition. You can’t really gauge the efficiency of your company’s marketing program, and other operations, unless you closely track the metrics. If you do that, you will also enjoy a significant side benefit called the observer effect, which refers to the changes that occur in certain behaviors when someone is keeping tabs on them. In business, the observer effect occurs when people in the company see what you’re tracking. What you measure signals what’s important and the outcome you’re aiming for. People get it, and soon they are coming up with ideas designed to advance your goals—assuming that you have the right people on the job.

  Another side benefit of good metrics is their ability to reveal where performance breakdowns reoccur. If you track breakdowns, you can start to identify the systemic problems in your program that you must fix.

  WHAT YOU MEASURE SIGNALS WHAT’S IMPORTANT AND THE OUTCOME YOU’RE AIMING FOR.