Never take your customers for granted.
”Some people think football is a matter of life and death. I don't like that attitude. I can assure them it is much more serious than that”.
So said Bill Shankly. The hugely successful and influential manager of Liverpool FC in the sixties and early seventies. His is probably the most famous quote in football (certainly in the UK) and never has it been shown to be more true than the events of the last few days.
The formation and subsequent collapse of the European Super League became the only story in town. Relegating COVID-19, the Royal Family and the aftermath of the death of the Duke of Edinburgh and the ‘lobbying scandal’ involving the ex-Prime Minister, David Cameron, to the inside pages of our media.
It united supporters from clubs whom normally loathe one another. It was condemned by every politician across the political spectrum.
Akin to some mis-firing firework display. It briefly lit up the night skies only to rapidly fizzle out and die like a damp squib.
How did those behind the formation of the European Super League get it so wrong?
As the Lex column in today’s Financial Times puts it:
“Businesses regularly misjudge national moods, their perceptions skewed by profit projections and legal advice. To do so on this scale was pretty special. Club bosses aside, the scheme’s financial backer JP Morgan features as the tin-eared multinational bank trampling on local sensibilities“
It is pretty safe to assume that the Bankers at JP Morgan have never heard of Bill Shankly. Although much has been spoken about the greed of the owners of those football clubs which briefly signed up, their biggest failure was to take their customers (their supporters) for granted.
They completely failed to be ‘inside the heads of their customers’ and to understand that football and its supporters leads with the heart and follows with the head. It is a visceral and emotional experience where people ‘sign up’ to be loyal and a fan early in their life and never stop supporting their club, literally until they die. Through rain and shine. Success and failure.
Yet the arrogance shown by those involved mirrors the arrogance shown by many CEO’s running companies today. They think they know better. They talk corporate responsibility but are really only ever in it for themselves. They listen to their lawyers and to their Management Consultants but fail to listen to the most important group of all. Their customers.
They take them for granted by offering up no more than an ok experience which leads to a transactional relationship. They don’t care what their customers think. They just look at the numbers and ‘fiddle’ them so that their bonuses are still paid. Again to quote from another part of todays FT:
“For all their fine words, bosses are not sharing the pain. CEO’s can talk until the cows come home about corporate responsibility. Until companies and shareholders put a stop to ‘heads I win, tails I still win’ pay plans, we should not believe them”
This sense of unearned success was also at the core of the rebellion in football and its supporters.
When customers go beyond the tipping point and realise that they have had enough, the slow march to oblivion caused by their arrogance suddenly speeds up. It’s what happened at the European Super League... the only difference is that it occurred at warp speed.
Bill Shankly would have turned in his grave a few times over the past 96 hours but will now be content that he was right all along.
For those who are interested, my book #thebusinesscaseforlove is now available both as an e-book a hardback and now an audiobook. In it I write about ’best in class’ company and leadership behaviours which I believe are relevant to the challenges of today.
It can be downloaded via #amazon #PalgraveMacmillan and #SpringerNature
?A sample is available on Amazon and a sample of each chapter is available through Palgrave and Springer.
The hardback, paperback, e-book and a is now available through Amazon, Palgrave Macmillan Springer Nature and now The Bookshop, supporting local bookstores.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Business-Case-Love-Companies-Bragged/dp/3030364259
https://www.palgrave.com/gb/book/9783030364250
https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-36426-7