CUSTOMER FOCUS
Successful organisations are customer
focused!
They plan to meet customer needs,
wants and expectations.
1
THE CUSTOMER DRIVEN ORGANISATION
De-construction/
decentralisationeffective resource
and information
sharing.
Encouragement
and reward
systems for
creativity and
innovation.
Legislative
compliance
and ethical
practice.
Sustainability.
Escalating environmental change
requiring more
imagination/intellect/ creativity.
Structuring products/service
around customer interests.
PERPETUAL
REVOLUTION
Point of
difference.
Competitive
edge. Current
and future
success.
NEW IDEAS
Market research.
Plans and strategies for
meeting and anticipating
customer interests.
Entrepreneurial
managers and
employees.
Effective internal
supplier customer
chains.
Internal and
external
relationships/
networks.
Feedback.
2
PITFALLS
COMPLACENCY
KILLS BUSINESS!
3
CUSTOMERS
Customers are people, work-teams, businesses or other
organisations which utilise goods and services from
another. This may be in exchange for money (payment)
but does not necessarily involve the exchange of money.
We must know who our customers are, where they come
from, their needs and their buying intentions.
4
CHANGING ATTITUDES
The customer, not the organisation,
should determine product style,
product quality and the service
offered.
5
MARKET IDENTIFICATION
Market research and analysis
– vital activities –
identify your customers, their needs
and their prospective purchasing
intentions
6
ASK THE CUSTOMER
Never assume that you know what the
customer wants or will buy.
7
THE SUPPLIER/CUSTOMER CHAIN
Customer research
Product design
INTERFACES
Supply/sale/delivery
Refining
operations
inputs and constraints
Manufacturing
or processing
operations
Manufacturing
or processing
operations
Supply/sale/delivery Other
Wholesale
operations
Retail
operations
End
user
Internal customers/suppliers
Stakeholder/shareholder customer interests
INTERFACES
8
EMPLOYEES AND SHAREHOLDERS
Organisations have customers, stakeholders and
shareholders.
They all have an interest in your organisation and its
performance.
Employees are internal customers. They are also
stakeholders.
Shareholders (owners) have a direct financial
interest in the organisation’s profits.
9
CUSTOMER TYPES
Customers are either external or internal to
your organisation.
External customers buy or use the goods and
services of your organisation and are not
employed by or directly associated with the
selling organisation.
Internal customers are the people, groups or
teams in an organisation to whom completed
work, resources or information is passed by
fellow employees.
10
GIVING LESS THAN 100%
The repercussions of giving less than 100%
If 99.9% is good enough, then, in America:
•
12 newborns will be given to the wrong parents daily.
•
114,500 mismatched pairs of shoes will be shipped/year.
•
18,322 pieces of mail will be mishandled/hour.
•
2,000,000 documents will be lost by the IRS this year.
•
2.5 million books will be shipped with the wrong covers.
•
Two planes landing at Chicago’s O’Hare airport will be unsafe every day.
•
315 entries in Webster’s dictionary will be misspelled.
•
20,000 incorrect drug prescriptions will be written this year.
•
880,000 credit cards in circulation will have incorrect cardholder information on
their magnetic strips.
•
103,260 income tax returns will be processed incorrectly during the year.
•
5.5 million cases of soft drinks produced will be flat.
•
291 pacemaker operations will be performed incorrectly.
•
3,056 copies of tomorrow’s Wall Street Journal will be missing one of the three
sections.
11
FOR INTERACTIVE DISCUSSION
How can an organisation encourage
customer awareness in employees like
cleaners, maintenance staff,
storekeepers and pay administrators,
whose work never brings them into
contact with external customers?
What benefits should flow on from
making backroom staff more aware of
external customers?
Is it possible for an organisation to
provide excellent customer service
without every employee having a job
they feel makes a real contribution?
12
WORK-PLACE CULTURE
Effective and efficient information sharing
at all levels within the organisation is
essential to fostering a customer focused
work-place culture.
A customer focused culture is one in which
excellent customer service is accepted as
the norm.
13
WHO PAYS YOUR
WAGES?
14
FOR INTERACTIVE DISCUSSION
Who pays for your equipment,
machinery,computers, stationery?
Who pays the maintenance divisions’ wages?
Who pays the wages of the person who cleans
the toilets?
15
TEAMS
Teams:
• Have a shared purpose and goals
• Are able to take advantage of collective and
shared skills of members
Effective teams have:
• Strong leadership
• Support for each other and the organisation
• The ability to work together to achieve greater
results than individuals working toward the
same objectives
16
CUSTOMER NEEDS, WANTS AND
EXPECTATIONS
Need
food
what we must
have
Want
caviar and
truffles
Expectation
chicken and
vegetables
what we would
like
to have
what we can
have
17
PRODUCT SALE PLUS SERVICE
In most instances, when customers make a
purchase they have an expectation that the
purchase will be accompanied by an
associated service of acceptable quality and
standard.
This is called bundling.
18
THE SERVICE FACTOR
Customer service can be defined as:
The range of help and support offered to
customers before, during and after a sale
has been made.
It begins with the first contact and only
ends when the customer ceases interaction
with you.
19
SERVICE COMPONENTS
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
First impressions
Moments of truth
Response skills
Communication / interpersonal skills
Active listening and questioning
Product knowledge
Conflict management
Problem solving
Negotiation
Last impressions
Professionalism.
Customer service ends only when the
customer is satisfied
20
PERCEPTIONS OF VALUE
‘You get what you pay for.’
Customers purchase:
• Features
• Benefits
They want:
• Value for money
• The product/service bundle must meet
the customer’s value proposition
21
BENEFITS
Products and product descriptions have
attached features and benefits.
Customers do not purchase product features, they
purchase benefits.
They ask:
• What’s in it for me?
• How will I benefit?
22
CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIPS
Relationships imply trust and
dependability.
Effective internal and external
customer relationships are the key to
business success.
23
FOR INTERACTIVE DISCUSSION
What level of customer service
do you think you should receive
from your internal suppliers?
What level do you consistently
give your internal and external
customers?
How do you know that they are
happy with the service you
provide?
24
RETURN BUSINESS
Value adding comprises the actions an
organisation or supplier takes to ensure
that customers perceive their
products/services as value for money because they provide something extra.
Value added products and services
contribute to relationship building
25
FOR INTERACTIVE DISCUSSION
How can a business exploit,
for example, old-fashioned
snobbery?
How can an intangible such
as after-sales service be
made into a value added
sales component?
26
INNOVATION
Utilise the innovative and creative
talents of your employees to design
and develop methods by which your
organisation can improve/increase
sales and profits.
27
RELATIONSHIPS AND LOYALTY
Client/customer loyalty means that a
client/customer retains some sense of
commitment to the seller; some notion of
satisfaction that will cause them to return on the
next occasion when they want similar goods or
services.
28
ATTITUDE
Your attitude and that of every person in the
organisation determines the extent of customer
loyalty.
Treat every customer as an appreciating asset
Provide top quality as perceived by the customer
Build relationships
Create uniqueness
Under promise - over deliver
29
CUSTOMER INFORMATION
Long term profit
EQUALS
revenue from continuing satisfied customer
relationships
MINUS
costs.
(Tom Peters)
Monitoring, measurement and evaluation of processes and outputs
are part of the continuous improvement cycle. If you do not monitor,
measure and evaluate you will never know how well, or how poorly
the organisation is meeting its goals.
30
CURRENT INFORMATION
Measurements
• The results of customer feedback - should be
widely shared so that everyone in the
organisation is aware of customer satisfaction
levels.
• Post key customer satisfaction measures and
the results of current surveys (internal and
external) everywhere in the organisation.
Encourage self-monitoring by employees.
31
SURVEYS AND RESULTS
Take care when designing and
administering surveys
Target your respondents correctly
Ask the hard questions and act on the
answers
32
QUALITY PERCEPTIONS
You are not the customer!
What the customer perceives as quality is
not necessarily what the supplier considers
a quality product or service.
33
ENCOURAGE EXCELLENT CUSTOMER
SERVICE
Every job description should include a qualitative
description of the person-connection to the customer.
Link role and task KPIs to customer service practice.
Use performance evaluations and appraisals to assess
and improve customer orientation.
Recognise and reward high levels of internal and
external customer service.
34
DISSATISFACTION
ENCOURAGE YOUR CUSTOMERS TO
COMPLAIN
WHEN CUSTOMERS COMPLAIN THANK
THEM FOR DOING SO
35
COMPLAINTS – YOUR LIFELINE
Never assume that because no-one is
complaining everything is going well.
"Think of customer complaints as the voice
of God and accept them."
Konosuke Matsushita
Matsushita Electric Industries
(National Panasonic) Japan.
36
USING DATA
Plan to act on the data you collect.
Collecting data that is not used wastes time
and resources.
Follow through on your plan
37
IMPORTANCE
ARE ALL YOUR CUSTOMERS AS
VALUABLE AS EACH OTHER?
A POINT WORTH CONSIDERING IS
WHETHER YOU NEED OR WANT ALL
THE CUSTOMERS YOU HAVE
38
FOR INTERACTIVE DISCUSSION
Can you refuse to service
unprofitable customers?
Can Telstra and Australia Post refuse
to serve non - profitable customers?
Should you pay more attention to
your bigger customers?
Why persevere with insignificant or
unprofitable customers?
39
PARETO’S RULE
80 percent of profits are likely to
come from 20 percent of
customers.
40
FOR INTERACTIVE DISCUSSION
What happens to customer service
when the extraordinary comes to be
accepted as ordinary by the customer?
41
EXPECTATIONS
IS THE CUSTOMER ALWAYS RIGHT?
By virtue of the fact that the customer can choose
not to use your product/service - YES!
However, customer expectations are not always
reasonable, or able to be serviced by your
organisation.
EDUCATE YOUR CUSTOMERS
42
MANAGING CUSTOMER
SERVICE
Customer service doesn’t just happen.
Good customer service is dependent on
your employees - your most valuable
asset
Look after your assets and they will look
after your customers.
43
COMPETENT STAFF
KNOWLEDGE OF GOOD CUSTOMER
PROCEDURES IS NOT INNATE
An effective induction and training
program, matched to appropriate
performance appraisals will benefit you,
your organisation and all the customer
supplier interface members.
44
SUMMARY
Customer driven organisations are successful organisations in which:
Products, services and bundles are designed around customer
interests and purchasing prospects
Internal customer service is recognised as being of equal importance
as external customer service
Organisational plans and strategies for meeting customer needs and
expectations are supported by management, staff, systems,
technology and constant information gathering processes
Customer feedback is constantly sought, recorded and analysed as
part of the continuous improvement cycle and to solve problems
efficiently
Products and services are adjusted to meet customer expectations
Staff are trained and empowered to meet customer expectations and
to provide excellence in customer service
Workplace culture supports quality and excellence at every
interface of the supplier-customer chain
45