Part 12 (2/2)

Does this sound a lot easier than the other four quadrants? That is because it is You need less maturity in the top half of the tier, and there is less risk involved in Product/Service Health than with efficiency measures At a minimum, you should knoho your customers are and be able to deterht ask, how could you not knoho your customers are?

I'll admit, I found it hard to fathoue enjoys relaying centered on a clerk in an ad with freshmen for at least two years toothe clerk the common refrain that he was her custo He ranted about how she should be doing everything in her power to satisfy his needs since he was the reason the school existed

”Where is your custo the attention the other students were giving him

She calmly waited for him to pause She wanted to make sure he heard her clearly

”Deary, you're mistaken You're not the custo, ”nice retort” or ”cute coue was a facultyfound it extremely humorous Of course, I can't blame them-it was a funny line But, how true was it?

Do we sometimes confuse who our custoues that ”we could get a lot more done if we didn't have to deal with customers”

If it is obvious who your customers are and what they want, then there wouldn't be so many customer service courses and seminars It may be one of the most basic axioms: the truth is not always obvious

The truth is not always obvious

You would think the opposite to be more likely Falsehoods and lies should be hard to find The truth shouldn't be hard to find The truth shouldn't be hidden or obscured by extraneous data The truth should be obvious

What should be obvious-like the truth or who your customers are-is not always obvious

So how do you determine who your custo effectivenessa si who your customers are

One simple view is that your customer is who pays your salary This allows you to deteranizational level) Let's start with the obvious (but not necessarily the ”truth”) You are paid by your organization But how is that funding derived? If you are a for-profit, it most likely comes from the sale of a product or service The buyer of that service or product ical question is, who pays the recipient of your product or service? You should follow this logic until you've identified the end user or purchaser

Let's look at a car's airbags The worker who quality-checks the airbag believes his customer is the automobile manufacturer who has the contract with his division That is accurate, but not the truth It's neither the car manufacturer nor the dealershi+p that buys the cars This is clearer e look at the buyer who is the rental car agency The rental car agency then rents the vehicle to a final end user (customer) Is that the true custoer who sits in the ”shot gun” seat who actually benefits fro is a truer representation of that customer That of course can be extrapolated out to include those who love that passenger The passenger's children, parents, and spouse

If the person quality-checking the airbags sees the underlying truth about the real custoe that worker's behavior patterns? Hoould it change that worker's self-esteeanization, this process still works Consider Habitat for Humanity When you volunteer your time to Habitat for Humanity, is the site supervisor the custoanization? Or is it the person ill eventually take possession of the home? Or is it the children ill have a ”real” hoo even further and ask if the real custoest that we go as far as the direct end user In this case, it's the family who ultimately lives in the house

When we look into this reality far enough, we resolve to accept that our customers are much more than the first purchaser of our products or services When we look this deeply we find the truth of who our customers are

Of course, e look at the effectiveness e, and custoh to determine the immediate customer You'll need to knoho they are so you can ascertain what the customer considers important You will also need to determine what their expectations are and how to meet those require with the custoht place to start collecting, analyzing, and reporting data, measures, and information Let me tell you a story about a restaurant owned by Toood food

Toht, but he wanted to do better He wanted his restaurant to be the best in the town, perhaps even a prototype for a chain of restaurants Histhat appealed to everyone He thought an even better restaurant would provide a good future for his family

He wanted to knoell the business was actually doing and how to improve He decided to collect , but to also better predict if his vision had a chance of coanizational development or process ireat er/owner and his passion for the business, the product, and customer service made him a natural His co low-end jobs, saving and scri all of his savings into his own restaurant He knehat it was like to be underpaid and underappreciated What he didn't knoas how to take his drea inforht of customer satisfaction surveys He created a coive to the custoive customers a chance to critique their restaurant experience froood and bad points to the survey It was good in that it would provide quick feedback from his most important critics-his customers The feedback would help the staff and remind them to keep the customers' happiness at the forefront

On the other hand, he knew custoht not always provide the information needed to help him improve because many people don't like to complain-unless they are extremely dissatisfied

Besides the qualitative infor the quality of his services and products This information was readily available

Tom had empirical data on his customer base-since most customers used credit cards, he could determine the number of repeat customers and how often these customers frequented his restaurant He also could determine the menu items they ordered He knehen his busy times were and when the restaurant was slow He actually already had a wealth of usage information This information in conjunction with the custoood picture of hoell his business was doing

To an objectivethe custoht the coh of an intrusion

To in local food critics He reviewed the service of his staff by personally observing the their opinions on the restaurant He reviewed the speed of the food preparation and delivery, as well as the check out speed for the customers He compared this information to that of other top restaurants in the area

With these inputs Toood indicators of the quality of his restaurant from the custoht There are other measures he could use, like availability (restaurant hours), reliability (consistency in taste, quality, and tiht) These would help round out his ive him a more coe data were a good start

Re at the custoues efficiencyon Return vs Invest of Fear is born of the unknown The unknown factor in anization suffering from immaturity) is how the information will (and won't) be used That is why I push for all metrics efforts to clearly communicate how the metrics will and won't be used

Even if you promise that the measures you collect and report won't be used i culture of trust in your organization, the workforce won't believe, and fear will rule At least if you use efficiency measures If instead you start with effectiveness measures, it is easy to convince others that the inforainst them This is because all of the measures will reflect the customers' point of view

A real life example follows