What is your disciplined approach to listening to customers and translating their wants and needs into products and services? Several companies really have no real disciplined approach to satisfying their customer. And those that do, usually fail to have the correct measurements to keep them on tract...
How do you document what the customer wants and make sure that those desires remain the focus of your customer service efforts? The answer is by developing a Customer-Driven Improvement Model. Several companies have adopted this process with great success and have established not just customers, but "loyal" customers. The focus of this type of model has to ensure the products and services that are delivered by your organization reflect the wishes of the customers.
Many companies and organizations say they are customer-driven, particularly with respect to customer service but do not have a disciplined process to document how the Voice of the Customer is incorporated into their work and internal metrics.
The process begins with a collection of information from the Customer. What is it that they believe we do, deliver, and want? There are several ways to gather this type of data, but one on one interviews and focus groups with customers, either internal or external, is most effective.
A one-on-one interview should be unique, discussing that particular customer's relationship needs and his or her passions.
This research is used to develop corresponding Internal Predictive Measures. These internal metrics are linked to what customers are looking for from the company. They provide a basis for internally managing service according to the customers' wishes.
How would you know if your customers' needs were being met, before surveying them to find out what those needs were? Your internal metrics should tell you.
We translate the Voice of the Customer into survey questions that customers like to answer, because the questions are based upon the customers' thoughts and ideas. This produces external data, which is used merely to check on the accuracy of the internal relationship metrics. You should never be surprised by a survey result.
Finally, all of the internal and external data is combined to direct improvement to the places that can have the maximum impact on the customer relationship—in other words, where you achieve the "biggest bang for the buck." (Note: This process is often called Quality Function Deployment or the House of Quality; see the May-June 1988 edition of the Harvard Business Review, reprint No. 88307).
How many of your internal metrics can be linked directly to customer needs? How many of them result in behaviors by your staff that is counterproductive? For example, if you measure "call volume" at your call center, your customer service agents can wind up making customers feel rushed and dissatisfied while they try to hurry to the next call. The result is dissatisfied customers back in the queue waiting to have their issues dealt with properly.
Check the health of your internal metrics, and make sure they lead to the results you desire with respect to relationship management. It takes a disciplined approach to make sure your customer model is deployed properly in your organization.
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