Key Commandments of Customer-Focused Organizations
Customer-Focused Organizations
- Are “close to the customer”—especially senior executives (i.e., see, touch, feel, meet and dialogue with them face-to-face on a regular basis out in the marketplace).
- Executives—include the customers in their decisions, focus groups, meetings, planning and deliberations.
- Know and anticipate the customers’ needs, wants and desire—continually, as they change.
- Surpassing customer needs is the driving force of the entire organization.
- Survey the customers’ satisfaction with our products and services on a regular basis
- Have a clear “positioning” in the marketplace vs. the competition in the eyes of the customer.
- Focus on Creating Customer Value—i.e., “value-added” benefits to the customer through our Star Results Model (Quality products and services, Customer Choice, Responsiveness, delivery, speed, Service vs. Total Cost of doing business with you).
- Set quality customer-service standards—expectations that are specifi c and measurable to each department.
- Customer Service Standards are based on customer input and focus groups.
- Require everyone in the organization to experience moments of truth by meeting and serving the customer directly…at least one day every year.
- Focus and reengineer the business processes based on the customer needs and perceptions…and do it across all functions.
- Focus the organization structure based on the marketplace—i.e., structure the organization by customer markets (1 customer = 1 representative).
- Reward customer-focused behaviors (especially cross-functional teams that work together to serve the customer).
- Have a clear policy…and the heavy use of recovery strategies to surpass customer expectations.
- Hire and promote “customer friendly” people.
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