What does it mean to be Customer-Centric?

In theory, customers would be at the heart of every business. In practice, there’s a real tension that between business interests and customer needs and wants. All customers want great quality, service, and functionality at the lowest possible price, but businesses exist to deliver a return to their shareholders. So although most businesses start out with a focus on customer needs, bit by bit their attention shifts to profitability, operational efficiency, what their competitors are doing, etc, etc, etc. Over time they become less customer-centric and more company-centric or competitor-centric.

The rub, of course, is that for every business that does not pay close attention to customer needs, there is a competitor who does. And no matter how efficient a business is, unless it produces what customers want to buy it will not be successful over the long term.

Businesses that recognise and respect that tension, however, improve their profitability by adopting a customer centric strategy. By looking at every problem or opportunity from the point of view of the customer, the business gains new market insights and is better able to compete. They remember that the customer always has a choice.

Today’s renewed focus on being customer-centric is due to globalization and the internet, and the increased choice that customers now have as a result. Power has shifted away from the salesperson having all the knowledge, to the customer. An hour’s desk research now produces a list of suppliers in any given market, as well as a host of unbiased, real-life consumer reviews of how well the company or product performed when used in anger. When customers make an important purchase, they can spend as much time as they want researching their options and are quite likely to know more about it than any salesperson. The company that wins their business will offer the best value for their particular situation – whether they are looking long term or short term, whether they want something cheap and cheerful, or something they expect will last a lifetime.

So being customer centric means putting the customer at the heart of decision making and planning; being aware of different customer needs, and catering to a specific segment. Apple has done this to stunning and profitable affect.

How to Listen

1. Pay attention
2. Don’t talk
3. Don’t think about your reply while the other person is still speaking
4. Pause before replying
5. Think about what the other person has said
6. If it’s helpful, say back to them what you understood they said

How do you excel at listening?  What do you do badly?  What tips can you share to listen better?

What Gets Measured Gets Done

There’s nothing like a blog post on measurement to get comments flying.  It is as though in business “To Measure” or “Not To Measure” is an either/or.  Of course it isn’t!  Both qualitative and quantitative aspects of management and leadership can and must live happily side by side. 

It was Tom Peters, the indefatigable business guru who inspired this blog, who reminded me of the importance of measuring the important stuff in business.  I recently came across one of his essays from 1986 entitled “What Gets Measured Gets Done”.  In his tireless campaign to improve customer service, improve efficiency and generally shake up business people everywhere he advocates measuring our promises to improve.  Then holding ourselves accountable – weekly – with our peers. 

He suggests starting out by quantifying 10 areas that are fundamental to success: sound advice which just happens to work.

As regular readers will know I have been moaning about my weight for far too long.  I keep meaning to do something about it, and then nothing happens.  Well measurement turns out to be the answer.  By rigorously measuring my calorie intake on a daily basis at last I’m beginning to see results, even though my running has taken a bit of a back seat recently.  And I’m still eating everything I enjoy, admittedly in smaller quantities.

This isn't rocket science, but neither is it the Atkins diet, the cabbage soup diet or even the Dukan diet.  It's the measurement diet.  And it works astonishingly well, without buying a single book, DVD or branded kitchen scales.

Peters recommends regularly celebrating small successes, a Danish pastry for meeting a project milestone or whatever.  It’s nothing more complex than carrot and stick, or positive reinforcement, but it has a dramatic and hugely beneficial effect.  I'm looking forward to my slap up meal for losing a stone!

Thank you, Mr Peters.  Still inspiring excellence after all these years ...

And just in case you can’t find the article when you type “What Gets Measured Gets Done” into Google, here’s a link to the essay:  http://www.tompeters.com/col_entries.php?note=005143&year=1986. 

The Value in Neat and Tidy

Tidying up is a thoroughly therapeutic task. Organising something that was previously chaotic has so many benefits, quite apart from the calming effect on the soul. My kitchen cupboards recently unattached themselves from the wall thanks to an over-enthusiastic washing machine. Rather than have their precious contents become part of an insurance claim, I emptied the cupboards. This was not only hard work (who would have thought kitchen cupboard could hold so much?) but also revealing.

I found ingredients that had been bought twice (a surprising number), ingredients that should maybe be eaten up (nothing earlier than 2009, but even so …) and bottles that had never been opened (but will be now). In short, I had only a vague idea of what was in my cupboards. And I only moved three years ago!

Although kitchen structural defects are not to be recommended to anyone, I have found the act of clearing out, cleaning up, and re-organising to be extremely valuable. I have reassessed what I really need, what is only used occasionally or not at all. And I have resolved to simplify: which should save money, save space, and improve efficiency.

Transferring the same ideas to work is even more worthwhile. Although my hard-disk is unlikely to fall off its perch due to too much data, a spring clean and re-evaluation of what’s important yields similar benefits. Pruning projects has even more value than throwing out duplicate ingredients. The CRM database is next ….

So, it’s Summer Cleaning for me! It doesn’t have the same ring to it as Spring Cleaning, but it has all the lemon-scented benefits.




PS Getting to Excellent isn’t going into semi-retirement, despite appearances. I was away for two blissful weeks in Provence and surprisingly not motivated to blog. I wasn’t sure you would be interested in thyme-scented hills or how all food tastes better in France …

Searching words of wisdom

I’m currently working on a project that includes a lot of text as part of the data.

Traditionally computer systems and databases don’t like free text; they prefer values that can be added, evaluated and easily stored. Of course there is much to be said for that; assigning a value enables us to clarify our thoughts and opinions. But we can’t communicate everything with numbers and capturing free text provides a great deal of rich understanding. It also enables us to store information which may not be considered relevant right now, but could be valuable in the future or to other people.

Happily, searching text has become a great deal more sophisticated than when I first started working with business systems. Databases such as Microsoft’s SQL Server now have the ability to search for meaning as well as words, to rank search results in terms of likely relevance, and to filter out the “joining words” that don’t add anything to the search process.

When we search for things on the internet we use the same functionality. We expect to key in a search term and find relevant information from a variety of sources. We rarely stop to consider the software technology that is behind making it happen, even though it is hugely powerful and is the piece of the jigsaw that makes all the internet information useful.

Our electronic world has made it so quick and simple to send an email to anywhere in the world, so a huge amount of information is being conveyed in free text. Documents can easily be created and stored on the billions of PCs in businesses everywhere - the issue now is to make the information accessible to the people who need it.

Listening - the quiet strength

A number of different incidents recently have made me aware of the importance of listening. Oddly enough, the brighter and more competent the person, the more likely they are to believe they are right and don’t need to listen to other views. Yet in so many cases, being right isn’t what gets results. What gets results is ensuring that everyone is in agreement with the plan: even if it’s not the very best possible plan.

The reason for this will be obvious to anyone who has ever worked on a team. If only one member of the team doesn’t believe in what’s being done, they can stop or slow the whole process. Yet a team where everyone is agreed is pretty much unbeatable: even if they are not as talented as the divided team.

Jim Collins’ influential book “Good to Great” has much to say on how seemingly quiet, experienced leaders are more effective than their showy, high profile counterparts. Collins lists a number of qualities of a great leader, and among them are “confronting the brutal facts” because unless you know the extent of the problem, and the reasons for why things are as they are, nothing can be changed. It is seemingly obvious, yet we can be strangely reluctant in wanting to know the truth. Humility is also listed by Collins as desirable in an effective leader.

Whilst Collins’ research was not statistically valid – I’m sure there are exceptions to every “rule” – his observations are interesting. Putting people first, being humble enough to know when you are wrong, and having the patience to listen what is actually going on, instead of what you think is going on, are foundation stones to making things happen.

To Do

I’ve been through my fair share of time management courses, books and systems. I suspect you have too. Some of them are actually been useful; some less so.

Yet the old stand-by that never fails is the good old To Do list. It’s not fancy, it’s not complicated, but it is effective. A day in the office without a To Do list is likely to be less productive than a day with a To Do list. Somehow it focuses the mind; even if the list only has one big item on it.

So why is a To Do list so useful?

I think it has two benefits. Firstly, it requires purposeful thought in order to write it. If you don’t know what you are trying to achieve, your lack of purpose becomes abundantly obvious. Deciding your objective then becomes your first To Do item. If your objectives are clear, then a little thought about what To Do next produces your list.

Secondly, having decided what should be done listing them provides focus through the day. When you get called into an unexpected meeting, or something takes longer than expected, the list pulls you back to what you hoped to achieve. It often produces a last bit of extra effort at the end of the day to get one or two more items ticked off.

There is something ridiculously satisfying in being able to tick things off.

The To Do list is so simple that it seems almost ridiculous to write several paragraphs on the subject. Yet I’m not the first fan to put fingers to keyboard and take up virtual air time with a subject that must seem second nature to any productive person.

So – can a To Do list be beaten? Is there anything better at aiding and abetting the person who wants to Get Things Done? I’d be interested to know whether anyone can trump it …