Observar é melhor que perguntar

Fonte 1:
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"Understanding when value for a customer occurs is also an elusive issue, perceived in an individualistic way.
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We know very little about the process of value creation, when it starts, what it includes, when it ends. Although value creation probably is among the most ill-defined and elusively used concepts in service marketing, and in management in general.
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it is debatable whether the process of creating value is best described using the verb ‘create’. Creating value gives the impression of a conscious, explicitly considered process. However, in many situations, where value is experienced in an unconscious way, it seems more accurate to say that value emerges out of the use of goods and service activities
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In our view, when considering value-in-use the best way of understanding value for customers, value creation cannot mean anything else than the customer’s, or any other user’s, experiential perception of the value-in-use that emerges from usage or possession of resources, or even from mental states.
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All resources and processes are distribution mechanisms for service provision, however without including value in themselves.
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The firm cannot deliver value, but only make value propositions
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Fundamentally, the firm is a facilitator of value for the customer
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The firm can only offer value propositions. Conventional marketing is basically about making promises. A value proposition is a promise about future potential value"
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Ao chegar aqui, escrevi nas margens do papel:
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A unidade (aquilo em que as empresas podem trabalhar) não é a criação de valor, as empresas não criam valor. A unidade é a criação de experiências que o cliente experiencia e valoriza.
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Depois, recordo Damásio: emoções geram sentimentos. E só com o advento do sentido de si é que tomamos consciência dos sentimentos que vivemos.
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Ora os clientes não usam os produtos/serviços como experiências controladas, os clientes vivem, e é durante essa vida, integrados nessa vida, que usam as plataformas de serviço, as plataformas de facilitação da emergência de valor, mesmo sem tomarem consciência dos sentimentos que elas geram.
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"Value is an elusive concept. Typically, in the literature value concepts imply some form of an assessment of benefits against sacrifices"
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Mesmo sem tomarem consciência dos sentimentos que elas geram... quer dizer que se lhes perguntarmos à posteriori vão ter de racionalizar e reconstituir algo que não sentiram conscientemente...
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Talvez por isso, comecei a olhar para a antropologia de uma outra forma... sim, eu sei, eu adivinho que as universidades vão achar a coisa um pouco bastarda e indigna...
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Talvez seja o momento de as empresas começarem a contratar os serviços de antropólogos... observadores embebidos na vida dos clientes para perceberem, para racionalizarem as experiências que os clientes vivem... mesmo quando não se apercebem delas.
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Pois... nem de propósito "Want To Sell Product? Sleep With Your Customers":
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"I regularly ask CEOs when they've last spent a day in the homes of their core consumers. The best I can usually hope for is that they've intended to but have never found the time. In reality, most executives operate from large offices where they function with all the information that technology can provide." (Moi ici: Veio-me à memória um empresário que, quando ia ao estrangeiro, fazia questão de entrar em lojas onde se vendiam os seus produtos, e ficava horas a observar quem entrava, que idade e sexo tinha, o que fazia, o que experimentava, o que decidia...)
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Estão a ver big-boss da CP a andar de comboio... estão a ver os decisores da CP a apanhar um suburbano que sai de S. Bento às 19h em direcção a Caíde ou Guimarães?
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Estão a ver os decisores dos STCP a viajarem normalmente de autocarro? Não para uso pessoal, mas para perceberem o que se passa?
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Fonte 2:
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"Let me tell you about an experience I once had on a flight from New York to California. As usual, 1 was flying JetBlue. 1 boarded the plane with the other passengers, and the door closed. As we sat there, buckling our seat belts and checking out the televisions in front of us, a middle-aged man with slightly graying hair stood up in the front of the plane. He had on the long apron that all JetBlue flight attendants wear, with his name stitched onto it. "Hi," he said, "my name is Dave Neeleman, and I'm the CEO of JetBlue. I'm here to serve you this evening, and I'm looking forward to meeting each of you before we land.""
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Fonte 1: "Value Co-creation in Service Logic. A Critical Analysis". Marketing Theory, Vol. 11 (forthcoming 2011) de Christian Gronroos (uma excelente reflexão sobre a "service-dominant logic" ou como ele prefere chamar "service logic")
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Fonte 2: "The Knack - How Street-Smart Entrepreneurs Learn to Handle Whatever Comes Up" de Norm Brodsky e Bo Burlingham.
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BTW, não posso deixar de recordar o empresário do interior do país que tinha uma empresa de betões betuminosos e que na Alemanha mandava parar o táxi, sempre que passava por uma estrada em obras, para ir apalpar o tapete betuminoso que estavam a  ser aplicado. O Eu-Criança a funcionar num adulto é espectacular ... Mongo precisa dele.

Evitar o crescer por crescer

Mais um percurso de jogging, mais um capítulo de "The Knack - How Street-Smart Entrepreneurs Learn to Handle Whatever Comes Up" de Norm Brodsky e Bo Burlingham, desta vez o 11º com o título "The Decision to Grow":
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"My point is that growth is a matter of choice. You don't have to grow at all if you don't want to. (Moi ici: Crescer por crescer pode ser o pior que acontece a uma empresa) You certainly don't have to strive to get as big as possible as fast as possible. If that's what you want, more power to you, but there's no rule of business that says you must. I can think of many situations in which smaller companies actually have a distinct advantage over larger ones. In fact, I've often found that it's easier to compete against a big company than against a well-run small company.
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We beat the giants on service. We beat them on flexibility. We beat them on location and price. I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of customers (other than national accounts) that we've ever lost to the giants ...
I don't mean any disrespect toward our large competitors.
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can't offer what we have: a highly focused, tightly knit, family-oriented small business with owners who are on the scene and actively involved. We play that advantage for all it's worth. All prospective customers visit our main warehouse and meet with me personally. I tell them, "Anytime you have a problem, you can just call me."
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The message is one of accessibility and personal service, and we constantly look for ways to reinforce it."(Moi ici: Uma outra forma de dizer, batota!!)
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So our size has been an advantage, especially in going after the small to medium accounts, which are the bread and butter of our industry. Our primary competition for them used to come not from the giants but from the other regional specialists, whose owners ran their businesses much as I ran mine. And that entrepreneurial edge is precisely what two of them lost when they were acquired by large companies."
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Pessoalmente valorizo esta postura, crescer devagar. Associar qualidade de vida dos empresários, a correr detrás para a frente, a crescimento sustentado. Sobretudo, evitar o crescer por crescer.

Qual a dimensão dos seus clientes? Quem são os clientes-alvo?

Comecei a ouvir, durante o jogging, o livro "The Knack" porque tinha como co-author Bo Burlingham, autor que escreve sobre PMEs americanas que se preocupam em fazer a diferença e não estão numa corrida desenfreada para crescerem..
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E tem sido uma excelente surpresa, capítulo atrás de capítulo, mensagens poderosas em sintonia com a pregação feita neste blogue. Por exemplo, acerca do capítulo VIII, um capítulo particularmente rico:
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"While I completely agree with the old saying that “nothing happens without a sale,” it does not follow that all sales are equal. Some sales are much better than others — a concept that salespeople often have a hard time dealing with. (Moi ici: Esta verdade é tão desconhecida e tão importante... meu Deus!!!) That’s partly because they have a sales mentality. They’ve been conditioned to think that any sale is  a good sale, and the larger the volume, the better. In fact, the size of the sale is a lot less important than the amount of gross profi t you’re going to earn on it. Too many low-margin sales can drive you out of business.
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By the same token, many entrepreneurs think that they should focus on signing up big customers.
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In the long run, he’d be much better off with a lot of small customers than with one or two big ones.
Small customers are the backbone of a solid, stable, profitable business — especially a service business.
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Not that there’s anything wrong with having big customers. Sooner or later, most of us need them to grow. But you should never look down on your small customers or take them for granted. The more you have, the happier you’ll be. Why? I can give you three reasons.
First, you get better gross margins with small customers because they pay more for your services. (Moi ici: E os comerciais conhecem as margens dos artigos que vendem? E as empresas conhecem as margens dos artigos que produzem?) They have no choice. They simply don’t have the negotiating power of large customers. As a result, you can charge small customers the top price.
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Second, small customers bring stability to a business. If you treat small customers right, they’ll stay with you forever. That’s partly because they’re loyal, and partly because— like most of us—they tend to resist change. It’s also true, however, that they’re much less likely than big customers to be lured away by competitors, if only because most companies don’t seek out small customers.
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Third, a broad base of small customers makes your business less vulnerable to the loss of any single customer. That’s why—when you apply for a loan—a bank will ask you to list all of your customers that account for more than 10 percent of your sales, as well as the percentage of sales that each one represents. If you do more than 30 of sales with any single customer, you’re in trouble."
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Continua.