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Successful organisations are customer focused!

They plan to meet customer needs, wants and expectations.

CUSTOMER FOCUS

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THE CUSTOMER DRIVEN ORGANISATION

Encouragement and reward systems for

creativity and innovation.

Market research.Plans and strategies for

meeting and anticipating customer interests.

Entrepreneurial managers and

employees.Effective internal supplier

customer chains.

Escalating environmental change requiring more imagination/intellect/

creativity.Structuring products/service around customer interests.

De-construction/

decentralisation- effective

resource and information

sharing.Point of

difference. Competitive

edge. Current and future success.

Legislative compliance and ethical practice.

Sustainability.

Internal and external

relationships/ networks.Feedback.

NEW IDEAS

PERPETUAL REVOLUTION

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COMPLACENCY

KILLS BUSINESS!

PITFALLS

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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.

CUSTOMERS

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The customer, not the organisation,

should determine product style, product quality and the service

offered.

CHANGING ATTITUDES

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Market research and analysis – vital activities –

identify your customers, their needs and their prospective

purchasing intentions

MARKET IDENTIFICATION

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Never assume that you know what the customer wants or will

buy.

ASK THE CUSTOMER

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THE SUPPLIER/CUSTOMER CHAIN

Refining operations

Manufacturing or processing operations

Manufacturing or processing operations

Wholesale operations

Retail operations

Enduser

Internal customers/suppliersStakeholder/shareholder customer interests

Supply/sale/delivery Supply/sale/delivery Other inputs and constraints

Customer research

Product design

INTERFACES

INTERFACES

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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.

EMPLOYEES AND SHAREHOLDERS

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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.

CUSTOMER TYPES

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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.

GIVING LESS THAN 100%

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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?

FOR INTERACTIVE DISCUSSION

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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.

WORK-PLACE CULTURE

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WHO PAYS YOUR WAGES?

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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?

FOR INTERACTIVE DISCUSSION

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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

TEAMS

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CUSTOMER NEEDS, WANTS AND EXPECTATIONS

Need food what we must have

Want caviar andtruffles

what we would like

to haveExpectation chicken and

vegetableswhat we can

have

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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.

PRODUCT SALE PLUS SERVICE

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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.

THE SERVICE FACTOR

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• 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

SERVICE COMPONENTS

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‘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

PERCEPTIONS OF VALUE

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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?

BENEFITS

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Relationships imply trust and dependability.

Effective internal and external customer relationships are the

key to business success.

CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIPS

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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?

FOR INTERACTIVE DISCUSSION

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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

RETURN BUSINESS

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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?

FOR INTERACTIVE DISCUSSION

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Utilise the innovative and creative

talents of your employees to design

and develop methods by which your

organisation can improve/increase sales and profits.

INNOVATION

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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.

RELATIONSHIPS AND LOYALTY

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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

ATTITUDE

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Long term profit

EQUALS

revenue from continuing satisfied customer relationships

MINUScosts. (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.

CUSTOMER INFORMATION

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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.

CURRENT INFORMATION

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Take care when designing and administering surveys

Target your respondents correctly

Ask the hard questions and act on the answers

SURVEYS AND RESULTS

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You are not the customer!

What the customer perceives as quality is not necessarily what the

supplier considers a quality product or service.

QUALITY PERCEPTIONS

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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.

ENCOURAGE EXCELLENT CUSTOMER SERVICE

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ENCOURAGE YOUR CUSTOMERS TO COMPLAIN

WHEN CUSTOMERS COMPLAIN THANK THEM FOR DOING SO

DISSATISFACTION

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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.

COMPLAINTS – YOUR LIFELINE

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Plan to act on the data you collect.

Collecting data that is not used wastes time and resources.

Follow through on your plan

USING DATA

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ARE ALL YOUR CUSTOMERS AS VALUABLE AS EACH OTHER?

A POINT WORTH CONSIDERING IS WHETHER YOU NEED OR WANT

ALL THE CUSTOMERS YOU HAVE

IMPORTANCE

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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?

FOR INTERACTIVE DISCUSSION

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80 percent of profits are likely to come from 20 percent of

customers.

PARETO’S RULE

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What happens to customer service when the extraordinary

comes to be accepted as ordinary by the customer?

FOR INTERACTIVE DISCUSSION

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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

EXPECTATIONS

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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.

MANAGING CUSTOMER SERVICE

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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.

COMPETENT STAFF

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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

SUMMARY