The Brian Clough of customer experience

By Mark Gristock

Over the last few weeks, I finally got round to reading the autobiography of Brian Clough that I was given for Christmas, and I have to say it was well worth the wait. It’s always interesting to read the opinions of people who challenge the accepted wisdom of their time and to understand the reactions of their employers and peers to those new ideas.

What I found particularly insightful was Clough’s description of his professional relationship with Peter Taylor, his assistant and partner throughout their heyday of the 1970s and early 1980s. Reading it, I was struck by the parallels between our clients and their relationship with Foviance consultants.

Clough had a clear vision of what he wanted and how he wanted to go about achieving it. Taylor’s gift was being able to visualise how the components available to them would fit together, where the areas of weakness were, what was needed to improve performance, and which players had the required capabilities.

This struck me as being exactly the way Experience Management works. Our clients have a set of objectives and a vision for how their brands should be presented and perceived. The consultant works with each client to understand and share these visions. We then use our experience and expertise to define the current performance of experiences, evaluate which elements aren’t performing as required and successfully predict the impact of any changes on the existing components.

Of course, like Clough and Taylor, we’re also working with budgets and time constraints, and focusing on getting the maximum return out of available resources. However, what’s clear is that if you can clearly communicate your vision and objectives to the consultants working with you, then you are going to get more focused activity and generate astonishing results.

Who knows? Get things right and I might be getting your book for Christmas in the next few years.