The Customer Is “Neo,” Not You

You need to deliver value to customers, right? Wrong!

Myth: Your Organization Can “Deliver” Value To Customers

If you believe that, then you believe customers are passive recipients of value. That means you made yourself the hero of the story — like Thomas “Neo” Anderson in his famous quest to free humanity from the Matrix. Trinity is his costar; Morpheus, Agent Smith, and others are supporting actors. There are also “extras” such as the SWAT team that kills Mouse in the hotel. But the focus is solely on Neo’s heroic quest. Whatever people who aren’t Neo think or do only matters if it advances the quest.

In Reality, Your Customer Is The Hero

Your customer:

Is on a heroic quest to achieve a goal.
Has costars, supporting actors, and extras — the various companies, associations, friends, and family the customer interacts with in pursuit of a goal.

Truth: Value Is Cocreated, Not “Delivered”

There are three reasons why you cannot “deliver” value. I’ll explain using the example of recovering from being sick, but this applies to businesses or consumers across industries.

Value Is:

A contextual perception “in use,” not inherent. Any medication you take doesn’t inherently deliver value; you get value when it’s the right medication and when you take it at the right time in the correct dosage. Your company’s products and services also don’t have inherent value; your customers get value when those products and services help them achieve a goal.
Cocreated in value networks, not just between a firm and a customer. A doctor alone can’t make you healthy. It takes insurance companies, pharmacies, other healthcare providers, pharma firms, friends and family, support groups, diagnostic labs, etc. That’s your value network. Your firm’s customers also interact with an array of people and organizations as they pursue their goal. That’s the customer value network. Value creation happens as customers interact in their value network. Your company is only one part of the value creation in that value network.
Shaped by customers, not delivered to passive customers. Your actions and thoughts as a patient matter: If you hide symptoms or forget to take your medication, you won’t get better. And you coordinate across your value network — you may download a test result from your doctor to share it with another healthcare provider. The same is true for your customers.

Truth: Your Company Is Only A Part Of The Customer’s Story

Will you remain an extra? Or become a supporting actor? Or will you even become a costar? That’s up to you.

From “Extra” To “Supporting Actor”: Earn Your Place In Customers’ Value Networks

Earn your way to being more than a replaceable “extra” in your customer’s story by helping customers achieve their goals! To do that:

Redefine journeys. A journey isn’t the sum of a customer’s interactions with you! A customer journey is the customer’s path and perceptions as they pursue a goal. Check out your own journeys and see how many don’t meet that definition.
Map value networks. The value network around customer journeys tells you who’s involved besides you. Like in the healthcare example above, consider all people and organizations that a customer interacts with in pursuit of their goal.
Validate value priorities. Value isn’t only value for money — it has four dimensions: economic, functional, experiential, and symbolic. To identify which value drivers across dimensions matter to customers, do your own research, such as what payment provider Square did. Square found that many of its small-business-owner customers weren’t motivated by growth (economic value); instead, they saw their business as a lifestyle and a way to bond with the community (symbolic value).
Act in context. Context determines whether a product or service helps customers get value. Anticipate and act within customers’ context through manual rules or through technologies, such as real-time interaction management or journey orchestration. For example, TD Bank provides its clients with cash management features, including an AI tool that predicts customers’ balances and sends prompts to avoid overdraft charges.

From “Supporting Actor” To “Costar”: Facilitate Value Creation In Customers’ Value Networks

Being a supporting actor or costar means that you take a more active role and help customers coordinate across their value network. For example, Singapore’s DBS Bank facilitates value creation around the journey of buying or selling a car. The DBS-provided interface gives customers access to two car marketplaces, coordinating test drives, document exchanges, financing, and more.

How Can You Facilitate Value Creation?

Find struggles. Identify journeys where customers are struggling to navigate the value network. In the DBS example, that’s buying a car. Once you’ve earned a place in your customers’ value network and gained their trust, they’re more likely to share insights into their needs, helping you identify where to help them coordinate their value network.
Plan value facilitation. Find opportunities where you can make it easier for customers to navigate their value network. Your focus depends on how much customers permit you to coordinate for them (based on their trust) and your business capabilities.
Shape your role in ecosystems and platforms. Will you build a platform or ecosystem? Or will you participate? If you’re building platforms and ecosystems, do so around customer needs, not around you. DBS didn’t partner with these car marketplaces because they seemed like great adjacent companies to work with; it created this technology, people, and process integration because it would help customers achieve a goal. If you’ll participate in platforms or ecosystems, choose those that are built around shared customer needs.

Always Remember: The Customer Is Neo (“The One”), Not You!

Check out my new report, You Can’t Deliver Value To Customers: Embrace Their Value Networks Instead (Forrester access required), for more details, examples, and implications.