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Jeff Colvin
Management Consultant & Founder of Link,
a Management Consulting Group
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The
customer is ____________ (you fill in the blank). But whatever you
write… you must not only preach it, but practice it daily.
Independent of your philosophy (see Google, "The customer
is"), one truth holds clearly: Without the customer you have
no business. It is therefore your responsibility to establish some
policies, procedures, and guidelines to manage these customers.
I have recently learned that it costs 7 times more to gain a new
customer than to keep an old one. Additionally, corporations lose
approximately 50% of their customers over a 5 year period. With
these statistics the value to you and your organization of identifying,
sustaining, and enhancing customer relations must be a key part
of your business strategy.
The management of customer relations extends to every employee
in the business. From the receptionist to the senior executive,
every impression given at any time to a customer is a key to keeping
or losing them.
Customer requirements definition surely doesn't start with the
salesperson. It starts with the vision and mission of the company
and translates quickly to a determination of product or service
that is being offered. In between the value proposition is a step
called targeting your market and even the largest of corporations
lose sight of this as they grow and begin to offer new and exciting
offerings to the potential customer base.
In many cases the dreams of breakthrough products supercedes the
basic tenet of defining a market niche and determining the needs
and wants of those targeted customers. There are those who still
believe that "if we build it, they will come." Even if
we get lucky, the longer term strategy of soliciting and managing
customer requirements must be employed.
Customer requirements management applies to everyone in your organization.
Each employee needs to understand their role in managing internal
or external customers. The loss of internal customers due to poor
requirements management is also costly to a business. The path to
business success follows these basic steps…
1. Establish customer requirements.
2. Measure your performance in meeting these requirements and feedback
this data to the customer.
3. Respond to their feedback; and repeat step 1 above.
If you couldn't fill in the blank; direct from Google's top 20…
- The customer is never right!
- The customer is always right.
- The customer is king.
- The customer is your business.
- The customer is flat-out wrong.
- The customer is always served.
- The customer is often wrong.
- The customer is usually wrong.
- The customer is always available.
- The customer is boss.
A Cautious Thawing Process
Who Is Your Customer?
· Target your market
· Determine your niche
· Keep your focus
What Do They Want?
· Solicit clear customer requirements - ask them!
· Establish ways to measure compliance to requirements
· Routinely validate requirements
Give Them What They Want
· Deliver, deliver, deliver
· Request feedback consistently
· Show that requirements are met
· Find out what else they want
Keep Them Happy
· Proactively manage expectations
· Surprise and delight (beyond expectations)
· Help them share their happiness with fellow customers
Jeff Colvin (Jcolvin@linkllc.com)
founded Link, a management
consulting group in 1997 whose mission is dedicated to the Systems,
Structures, and Behaviors that make people and companies successful.
Link's bottom line focus on process improvement is achieved through
the facilitation and training of cross-functional teams to address
key strategic goals. Learn more about Jeff
Colvin & Link...
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