We are all encouraged to focus upon the customer. The customer is king we are told. But I remember a great quote which got me thinking: “120% of our income comes from 80% of our customers” The clear implication being that the remainder are loss making! So what should we do about this?
There is so much written about customers and services that I am either brave or foolish to venture any of my own thoughts on the subject, however it does interest me and in management, leadership and change knowing and understanding your customer is as important as it is in product sales or service delivery.
WHO IS OUR CUSTOMER?
Think: internal, external, chooser, user, consumer, funder,?
For many items there are many customers with different names: consumer; user; client and more. It can however be useful to think of them in terms of their function or role in the transaction. They may be providing the money; specifying the criteria; doing the procurement; using the product/service or responsible for the outputs and outcomes which depend on that product/service.
There is no clear rule whom you might best schmooze to secure a sale. It may be the specialist setting the specification, or the finance person in charge of the budget, or the manager in charge of the outputs or outcome or the operative using the product/service.
Bob Hope once said that you cannot satisfy all of the people all of the time, but the surest way to fail is to try. So on the basis every circumstance is different your first challenge must be to determine who is (are) the key people who have real impact or influence to your product/service.
WHAT DO THEY WANT / VALUE?
Think: speed, price, quality, friendly, efficient, accurate, design, credibility, trust?
If you succeed in your the first quest the next will be to establish what is important to them. There is no point in your product/service being cheap, if what they want is quality. There is no point in your product/service being quality, if what they want is speed. Indeed what they truly value may be nothing at all to do with the product/service but based on their relationship with you.
This needs careful thinking because getting what you offer and what they want aligned is the secret to success but misalignment could create problems or risk. Compromise can be a good thing, but if you are perfectly aligned then compromise is unnecessary. Consider your people, processes, and technology as well as your product/service when seeking alignment with what they want.
HOW DO WE CHECK/TEST?
Think: meetings; surveys; poll; intranet; helpdesk; complaints?
If you get this far you are doing well. However never assume that you have got it right. Check.
In LEAN-Start-Up the suggestion is that rather than go the whole hog and do something 100% and then find out you are 100% wrong, better to do small tests along the way to check you are heading in the right direction. The LEAN-Start-Up approach is to have a Minimal Viable Product, and through testing and evolution develop something based on customer feedback. This is far better than spending all your time and money to launch something that is a flop.
Not only will this approach improve product/service alignment with the customer, but the discussion and iteration is also likely to improve your understanding and relationship with the customer, and in so doing build loyalty and commitment.
WHAT/HOW SHOULD WE MEASURE?
Think: Charter; SLA; KPI; logging?
Measuring customer satisfaction is a huge topic and there are so many ways to achieve this. However I hope that it is obvious that understanding who the customer is, and what they value is a necessary pre-cursor to checking their satisfaction.
Satisfaction can be judged by repeat business or sales, by positive feedback or negative criticism. Increasingly businesses recognise the value of social media as a method of measuring satisfaction. It goes beyond the scope of this blog to explore every possibility. The key thing is to consider what is best for your product/service and/or relationship. Formal, informal, quantitative or qualitative.
WHAT/HOW SHOULD WE IMPROVE?
Think: Kaizan, LEAN, Business Process Reengineering, other changes?
The LEAN-Start-Up approach which effectively is based in PLAN > DO > CHECK > ACT cycle should not finish but continue through the life of the product/service and/or relationship. Things change and people, processes, and technology all need to be revisited to make sure that they continue to align with product/service and/or relationship.
IN SUMMARY
1. Who is our customer? Think: internal, external, chooser, user, consumer, funder,?
2. What do they want / value? Think: speed, price, quality, friendly, efficient, accurate, design, credibility, trust?
3. How do we check/test? Think: meetings; surveys; poll; intranet; helpdesk; complaints?
4. What/How should we measure? Think: Charter; SLA; KPI; logging?
5. What/How should we improve? Think: Kaizan, LEAN, Business Process Reengineering, other changes?
THE AUTHOR
Tim Rogers is an experienced Project and Change Leader. He is founder of www.ciChange.org and curator for www.TEDxStHelier.Com . He is Programme Manager for the commercialization of Jersey Harbours and Jersey Airport, and previously Operations Change and Sales Support for RBSI/NatWest, and Project Manager for the Incorporation of Jersey Post. He is also Commonwealth Triathlete and World Championships Rower with a passion for teaching and learning and is a Tutor/Mentor on the Chartered Management Institute courses. He is a Chartered Member of the British Computer Society, has an MBA (Management Consultancy) and is both a PRINCE2 and Change Management Practitioner.
Tim HJ Rogers
PRINCE2 - MBA (Consultancy) - APMG Change Practitioner
www.timhjrogers.com | Twitter @timhjrogers | Skype @timhjrogers | Mobile: 07797762051
Curator TEDxStHelier www.TEDxStHelier.com
Founder ciChange www.ciChange.org
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