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- Some Fast Rules
- The cost of satisfying a complaining customer is likely to be less than the cost of losing the customer
- Don’t make promises that you cannot keep
- Write down what you have agreed to do and then do it
- Customers – Perspectives, Perceptions & Expectations
- Reality & The Complaint
- The complainer may technically be wrong - but their perception is that he/she is right
- Deal with facts and not opinions
- Make sure that you have all the facts before making a decision
- Understand that resolution is not always a matter of right and wrong
- Dealing With Perceptions
- You must understand that the customer's perception of the situation may be much different from yours
- Perception is closely linked with expectation
- Perception may have originated from initial contact
- with the organization
- with the marketing material
- with customers
- with the product
- Expectations are set up by the customer and depend on:
- past experience
- socio-cultural aspects
- education
- You cannot assume what an expectation is. You need to ask questions and listen to determine what exactly it is.
Until next time...
Sheryl Tuchman, SPHR, SHRM-SCP
http://tools2succeed.com/
WHO ARE YOUR CUSTOMERS?
CUSTOMERS
- By customer, we are talking about anyone who directly receives the products or services you provide. Remember that there is a difference between stakeholders and customers. Stakeholders are individuals or groups, inside or outside the organization, who have a significant stake or interest in your success. However, stakeholders are not the direct recipients of the product or service you provide.
- Some organizations have a single "generic customer." An example would be fast food store that treats all customers the same. Most organizations have different types of customers, representing either different segments of the market or different segments of the business. For example, a service station might have people who fill up with gas, others who want repairs, and still others who purchase convenience store items.
WHAT ARE YOUR DELIVERABLES TO THEM?
DELIVERABLES
A deliverable is an "end result benefit" that an organization provides to its customers.
- It is not simply a product or service.
- It is linked to a specific and measurable improvement in the life of the customer.
- It begins to distinguish an organization from its competitors.
- The best way of thinking about a deliverable is by identifying how the life of a customer improves by being a beneficiary of the organization's deliverable.
- The concept of a deliverable gets at the deeper needs, concerns, or desires of the customer.
TOMORROW'S CUSTOMERS AND DELIVERABLES
Next, we will jump to the future and consider the same questions – who will be your customers five years from now and how will you describe them? Your answers should, at least in part, come from your understanding of your mission, environmental analysis, and forecast of the future.
How might tomorrow's deliverables change?
Until next time...
Sheryl Tuchman, SPHR, SHRM-SCP
http://tools2succeed.com/
Although some industries are more stable than others, the organizations that flourish in the long-run are those who engage in continual strategic renewal.
Most businesses are internally driven, which means their strategy is driven by what they have done in the past. The weakness is not anticipating changes in the marketplace and therefore failing to be adaptive and innovative. Organizations that are customer-driven try to develop a strategy by "being close" and "listening" to the customer. The consequence of trying to be too customer-driven is trying to be "all things to all people."
Organizations that are market-driven make conscious choices about which markets they will serve and how they will add value to their customers. They seek to differentiate themselves from their competitors by identifying the specific benefits they will or will not provide, and they organize around the delivery of these benefits.
A market-driven strategy is not the same as asking customers for their input and feedback. It is based on making decisions about how the organization wants to compete.
We believe that it is through a market-driven strategy that you will best compete in the present and plan for your future.
Until next time...
Sheryl Tuchman, SPHR, SHRM-SCP
http://tools2succeed.com/
