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Learning from Experience
The dot-com bubble of the 90's can be instructive:
- We should be fiscally responsible.
- If it's too good to be true it probably is.
- Extreme selfishness is not good for us.
It can also teach us that products with no direct connection to clear customer value are recipes for failure. This is the most extreme example of the tendency, but other examples abound.
How clear is your connection to your customer's own sense of their satisfaction? Do you know how it will change in the future?
Out of the Depths
Customer Satisfaction is a critical issue that, until recently, was largely below the waterline of corporate awareness. Many companies are now coming to the realization that the customer ultimately decides what Quality comprises, and what is deserving of purchase. So the sooner we know what they think, what they need, what they will want in the future, and how our future offerings will affect what drives them, the sooner we can deliver that value to them and prosper.
Rebirth
This realization is driving a rebirth of Customer Satisfaction. But we’re early in that process.
Customer Satisfaction is both deep and broad and at the same time is uncharted territory; hence it requires a lot of care and planning. Customer Satisfaction has no consistent, independently recognized structure as does Quality. So your choices are to organically grow Customer Satisfaction by best efforts (trial and error), or you can partner with a practitioner and integrate an approach developed by them. The classic buy option is not available here, for the reasons listed above. Partnering is five to ten times faster and more effective than growing your own. And, partnering yields greater net value, sooner.
Growing Up
Even though Customer Satisfaction is not as well defined, specified, and systematized as Quality is, it can be approached in a disciplined manner, and some Quality principles and processes can be applied:
- Define the space
- Establish a baseline
- Create and/or specify appropriate processes
- Employ constant improvement
- Create regular feedback processes
Customer Satisfaction is a vibrant mix of systems and people. Because it is so young, it leans more toward the people side than does Quality. Therefore, many companies put Customer Satisfaction under Marketing. Located there, Customer Satisfaction can quickly become an effort of outward messaging, spin, and minimal listening. While it’s true that Customer Satisfaction depends on a lot of perception, and managing perception is critical, customers quickly see through such sham Customer Satisfaction programs, and in fact de-value the vendor that deploys them.
To gauge and enhance your Customer Satisfaction, contact us now
