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When the broadest definition of customer is used, everyone has customers. Within the context of this article, a customer is someone who receives the results of someone else’s efforts. The results received by a customer can be tangible or intangible. In manufacturing, results are usually tangible. In home building, in a hospi-tal or other medical facility, the results can be tangible, intangible or both. In an insurance company, a bank or an educa-tional institution, results are usually intangible.

However you classify results, you cannot overlook the responsibility of accurate and timely communication with customers. Early or late deliveries, inaccurate or missing information, as well as defective or faulty units are all good reasons for staying in touch with customers. And don’t think that the only time it’s necessary for you to talk with customers is when something has gone awry. Customers appreciate knowing the status of their orders or just where their supplier is with respect to schedule.

Just ask homebuyers if they’re happy

with the communications they have with their builder. When homebuyers don’t regularly hear from their contacts, they think they’re being ignored or forgotten. The same is true for legal clients. Unless attorneys make a sustained effort to keep their clients up to date about their cases, the clients become upset and begin to believe the worst. This knowledge comes from 15 or so years of working as a consultant and subject matter expert to homebuilders and attorneys.

This article focuses on how to commu-nicate with your customers. What and

Communicating leanwith customersEffectively dealing with cognitive dissonance

can sell process improvement methods

By Jack B. ReVelle

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how it’s done with one customer can be different for another customer. This is true not only because of the specific needs of the customers, but because of the special nature of the communica-tions provider. Information and data providers must tailor their communi-cations carefully to ensure that their customers become and remain “happy campers.”

customersOne important way of classifying your customers is by determining whether they are internal or external.

Internal customers can be direct or indirect. Either way, customers also can be subclassified as subordinates, peers or seniors (all strictly in an organiza-tional sense). How you communicate with these customers relates to how you perceive customers, as well as how customers perceive themselves with respect to you. Your choice of words, media, timing and other communication avenues will vary according to whether a customer is a direct report to you or if you are an indirect report to her.

Production home builders have many people working in a variety of depart-ments such as construction, sales, marketing, customer service, safety, qual-ity, operations, architecture and more. These people have numerous internal customers, all of whom must exchange regular, timely and accurate communica-tions to satisfy their external customers completely. Whenever a new or heretofore misunderstood topic or concept is on the agenda, carefully select phraseology to introduce the importance of potentially controversial topics such as lean enter-prise, lean Six Sigma and continuous improvement (CI). Potentially contro-versial means that some will support it, some will denigrate it and still others will be neutral. Opposition might be based on inadequate, insufficient or erroneous

information gained prior to the meeting or training session.

Law firms, by the nature of this type of organization, have fewer departments that must communicate to meet the immediate and long-term needs of their custom-ers. By the nature of the profession, legal practitioners are better educated than the general population. As a result, it can be more difficult to convince them that new concepts they aren’t familiar with will help them and their law firms function more smoothly, wasting less time, effort and money. Lean enterprise, lean Six Sigma and CI can bring significant improve-ments, but only if the legal profession was more open to opportunities these concepts bring to the table.

The nature of dealing with internal communications depends on the situ-ation, factors such as the size of the organization, the type of information that needs to be communicated, and a multitude of other things that influence internal customer communications.

Unlike internal customers, external customers directly or indirectly pay for your products and/or services. Just as with internal customers, external customers can be classified as either direct or indi-rect. Direct, external customers are people or groups you deal with directly, be it face-to-face, by phone, by e-mail or by some other electronic media. Indirect, exter-nal customers receive the results of your efforts through one or more third parties.

Unlike internal customers, exter-nal customers can’t be subclassified by their organizational level. They can, however, be subclassified as to scope, be it one customer, some customers or many customers. And many could mean anywhere from hundreds to thousands to millions of people. Typically, home builders work with couples, but they can work with hundreds or even thousands of couples each year. Knowledge about how lean enterprise, lean Six Sigma and CI

tools have helped design and construct homes can be useful in marketing and selling homes to the homebuyers. This helps home builder personnel commu-nicate with potential homebuyers about how wasted time, materials and effort have been eliminated. Clearly, lean and CI have a valuable place in marketing and selling homes.

Alternatively, attorneys can and do work on cases for single clients or for tens of thousands of clients involved in class action suits. Law firms are notori-ously inefficient and have a great need for streamlining their processes. Implement-ing the subject tools offers great promise to improve their internal and external communications. External customers’ confidence and trust in their attorneys and law firms grow as they sense the greater efficiencies offered by legal practitioners who have applied the subject tools.

Bottom line: Customers, both internal and external, experience substantially greater satisfaction as they work with product and service providers that have applied the tools to eliminate waste.

communication mode How we communicate with our customers is based on our own and our customers’ preferred modes. Whether we speak to each other or use some nonoral form of communication, our choices are a compromise based on our mutual preferences. Let’s examine the available range of options.

Oral communications are popular when the tone, topic or focus is positive. Virtually everyone enjoys the oppor-tunity to be the bearer of good news. Oral communications can be direct or indirect, through a third party. Nonoral communications offer a greater number of alternate forms. Nonoral commu-nications can be written or physical. Written communication offers the capa-bility to include graphics, charts and

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pictures. Except in certain limited situ-ations, physical communications are limited to line-of-sight actions such as head shaking, hand gesturing, body flexing, foot stomping and other types of body language.

Suppose you are communicating with one or more groups of internal custom-ers who are watching and listening to you via closed-circuit television. One group may observe you in the studio where you are while others view you via a television monitor or computer screen. You might use graphics, charts and photos to augment your oral delivery. This is a multimodal event, one hope-fully designed to maximize the impact of the information you need to share with your customers and vice versa. During such an event, you may communicate simultaneously with internal and exter-nal customers. For example, seated in a studio or an office may be all three levels of internal customers as well as members of the media (professional communica-tors) who are there to listen, evaluate and comment on your remarks. People exter-

nal to the studio or office could be internal customers, external customers or both. Discussions regarding the introduction and application of the subject tools can become quite complicated in this context.

So make sure you tailor the mode of communication to both the message and the receiver. For instance, you may need multiple forms of communication to deliver complex messages clearly. When analyzing what the receiver of the communication needs, you may find that language barriers impede oral commu-nication. Perhaps physical limitations such as eyesight limit effectiveness of written communication. When dealing globally, cultural and situational norms may require in-person communication vs. distance communication.

Remember, communications always has been and always will be a two-way street. You shouldn’t fail to consider the communication needs of your customers.

why you communicateThe primary purposes of communication are persuasion, direction and inquiry.

One intent of persuasion is to encour-age or consummate sales. Another is to encourage specific choices or moti-vate certain decisions. For example, home builders not only sell homes, they also sell options that customers select to accessorize their homes. This includes appliances, customer-desired appointments, unique features and even additional special-purpose rooms.

Communication also provides direc-tion. This includes offering instruction and training. Additionally, it includes providing information regarding the loca-tion of specific targets, such as addresses, and placement of facts on a page.

The inquiry aspect of communica-tion includes determining the extent of customer knowledge, customer attitudes, customer beliefs and importance to the customer. It also includes questions offered by your customer to you.

cognitive dissonanceCognitive dissonance was developed by Leon Festinger, an American social psychologist, in 1957. The theory is

• Fully understand the underlying needs and desires of your customer. Sometimes customers won’t be able to provide comprehensive details regarding desired deliverables. Understanding their underlying need and purpose can ensure effective communication and delivery of products.

• Tailor the mode of communication to both the mes-sage and the receiver. Communication effectiveness can be influenced by the mode of communication. For example, complex messages may require multiple forms of communication (written and oral) to ensure clear communication. When considering the receiver, there may be language barriers that can impede oral communication, physical limitations such as eyesight that can limit effectiveness of written communication, as well as cultural and situational norms that require

in-person communication vs. distance communication.• Proactively seek feedback from consumers. Not hear-

ing any complaints from customers does not necessar-ily mean they are fully satisfied. Many, possibly most, complaints go unspoken. If given a structured outlet for feedback, customers usually will provide a wealth of valuable information.

• A basic but highly effective way to ensure that cus-tomer communications are being understood is to restate what a customer says in your own words. This shows that you both have the same understanding of the content of the communication without simply repeating what was said to you. Simply repeating word for word what was said reveals listening skills, not necessarily a true understanding of the meaning behind the words.

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concerned with the relationships among cognitions. A cognition can be thought of as a belief or piece of knowledge. The knowledge may be about an attitude, an emotion, a behavior or a value. People hold a multitude of cognitions simulta-neously, and these cognitions can form irrelevant, consonant or dissonant rela-tionships with one another.

Cognitive irrelevance generally describes the bulk of the relationships among a person’s cognitions. Irrelevance means that two cognitions have nothing to do with each other. For example, you believe your home builder is highly regarded, but you also believe you need a new attorney. These cognitions are unrelated and, thus, irrelevant.

Two cognitions are consonant if one cognition follows from, or is in harmony with, the other. Suppose that in addition to your positive belief regarding your home builder, you also believe that everyone you know thinks he’s the best in town. These cognitions are consonant.

People prefer consonance among their cognitions. It’s not yet known whether this preference stems from the nature of the human organism or whether it is learned during socialization, but this observation makes the theory of cogni-tive dissonance relevant to customer communication.

Two cognitions are dissonant if one cognition follows from the opposite of another. What happens to people when they discover dissonant cognitions? The answer forms the basic postulate of Festinger’s theory. A person who has dissonant or discrepant cognitions is said to be in a state of psychological dissonance, which is experienced as unpleasant psychological tension. For instance, how would you feel if everyone you spoke to about the builder told you that his company was the best, but you had nothing but real problems with the

builder? This is cognitive dissonance. When what customers believe turns

out not to be true, they suffer from cogni-tive dissonance.

For example, suppose you believe a car brand is superior to all others. Then you read that a highly regarded consumer magazine ripped the auto-maker, strongly recommending that its readers not buy that brand. This is cognitive dissonance.

A person in a state of cognitive disso-nance always will seek consonance. However, since changing a cognition causes discomfort; you have to reflect and admit that you hold an erroneous cognition. Therefore, rather than accept this cognition, you may decide that the magazine’s derisive recommendation is false and continue to hold that your orig-inal cognition is valid. This is acceptable behavior but not necessarily the best choice in the long run.

Recognition of cognitive dissonance is good because it makes one feel better and because one can come closer to consonance by eliminating contradic-tions. On the other hand, some ways of reducing cognitive dissonance involve a distortion of the truth, which ultimately can trigger wrong decisions.

When confronted with two belief cognitions that seemingly contra-dict each other, the dissonance can be resolved by finding a third piece of information relevant to the two beliefs. For example, if the owner of a Brand X car believes it is the best car being made but learns from a trusted source that Brand Y cars have better fuel economy, greater safety or a superior warranty, cognitive dissonance can be resolved by acknowledging that no car is perfect. This enables the owner of Brand X to continue to believe that she owns an exceptional value, but admit (however grudgingly) that some attributes of Brand Y are superior to Brand X.

cognitive dissonance and customer communicationInitial discussions with new custom-ers can be revealing. It’s during this period that your customers’ cognitions are discovered. As might be expected, all customers are unique with respect to their individual beliefs as well as the strengths of those beliefs. So to maximize the positive impact of your customer communications, it is essential that you understand the extent of whatever cogni-tive dissonance may exist as it relates to your customers. Generally speaking, you have only a limited amount of time to gain your customers’ attention and then engage in a convincing dialogue that results in a sale of your products, services or concepts (such as lean enterprise, lean Six Sigma and CI), or alternatively, a resolution of a problem as perceived by the customer. Whether dealing with an automobile, a home or the resolu-tion of a legal case, whatever cognitive dissonance exists must be identified and, subsequently, minimized so as to assure complete customer satisfaction.

At this point, consider which commu-nication modes are most likely to produce optimal results and then select which-ever mode offers the greatest likelihood of success. It would be ideal if we could enumerate the available modes and apply some mathematical model to identify the preferred mode of communication, but that’s not the way it works.

So what should you do? To begin, the selection process depends on the situation. The dependent variables are communication objectives, timing and location as well as the presence and extent of various customer cognitions. As with any situation, you need to acquire as much information about all of the dependent variables as possible and then process the information in a way to minimize the impact of cognitive dissonance. It seems this is much like what is done when using

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linear programming; i.e., minimizing or maximizing an objective function in the presence of multiple input variables.

In any case, whatever and however customer communications are to be improved, it always was and always will be the responsibility of the sender of communications, not the receiver, to make them understandable, consistent and acceptable.

When you begin a new consultancy, cognitive dissonance consistently raises its ugly head. All too often pockets of resistance within organizations actively and sometimes passively build walls to keep out something new that is misun-derstood or not trusted. Thus, there is a need for a corrective action approach that is designed to overcome this resistance to progress.

When offered the opportunity to speak to new consulting clients about lean enterprise, lean Six Sigma and CI, communicate the “four A’s.” These phases in enhancing customer communications are awareness, appreciation, application and applause:

• Awareness. Until people are knowledge-able about the existence of a subject, fact or concept, nothing can happen as it relates to its introduction to an organization. Awareness begins with hearing and/or seeing the words that describe a subject, fact or concept.

• Appreciation. Once awareness exists, the next communications phase is to begin to appreciate the rewards associ-ated with implementing a topic such as the subject tools. Appreciation is best developed by providing actual results of previous implementations of a subject tool in a similar organization or industry.

• Application. Following completion of the awareness and appreciation phases, the next phase is applying the subject tool within an organization or a subset

of an organization. The latter occurs when management prefers to give the subject tool a limited tryout or test run before initiating an organizationwide implementation.

• Applause. When the first three phases have been completed satisfactorily, it’s time to begin the fourth and final “A,” applause. Applause is the ceremonial recognition of a job well done within an organization. Participation in this phase traditionally is limited to an orga-nization’s employees, but companies can gain marketing and sales advan-tages by inviting external customers to attend. Picture in your mind’s eye having external customers view the company-wide recognition of their salesperson, customer service rep, closing services rep or construction superintendent receiving awards for their excellent work on behalf of external customers.

When using the framework of the “four A’s,” learn everything you can about your customer or potential clients. Under-stand their needs and desires. Sometimes, customers cannot provide comprehensive data about desired deliverables. But if you understand their underlying need and purpose, you can communicate and effec-tively deliver the goods.

Proactively seek feedback from consumers. Just because consumers haven’t complained does not mean they are satisfied. Many, maybe even a majority, of complaints go unspoken. A structured outlet for feedback gives customers the chance to provide a wealth of valuable information.

Don’t be afraid to use your own words to restate what the customer just told you. This shows that you understand the content of the communication without simply repeating back what was said to you. Simply repeating word for word what was said only reveals that you remember what was said. It doesn’t mean you have a

true understanding of the content or the meaning behind the words.

conclusionThis article has addressed the need for careful and controlled introduction of topics that some organizations consider controversial. These include topics such as lean enterprise, lean Six Sigma and CI. Introducing these topics can cause cogni-tive dissonance among potential clients and customers. But using the “four A’s” as a phased approach can overcome cogni-tive dissonance. It’s especially important to recognize that the “four A’s” were created and have been applied success-fully for the sole purpose of overcoming the costly human resistance caused by cognitive dissonance.

A few years ago, the founder of one of the largest and most successful personal injury law firms in the Southwest decided he wanted to implement CI in his firm. Recognizing the personal resistance that would result from cognitive dissonance that the attorneys and other legal staff members would offer, he started out by initiating the “four A’s.” He wanted to transition from business as usual to improved processes with reduced cycle times, fewer administrative errors and greater client satisfaction.

The choice as to how you commu-nicate with your customers is yours. But introducing the “four A’s” to your customers can help overcome whatever cognitive dissonance exists. d

Jack B. ReVelle is a consulting statistician for ReVelle Solutions LLC. He is a fellow of IIE, ASQ and the Institute for the Advancement of Engineering. He earned his B.S. in chemical engineering from Purdue University and his M.S. and Ph.D. in industrial engineering and management from Oklahoma State University. He served for 12 years in the U.S. Air Force and was awarded the Bronze Star while stationed in the Republic of Vietnam.