...unleashing the power of the human spirit in the workplace
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CONTACT Toll Free: LEARN Strategic Planning Facilitation- 3 stories Team Development and Improvement - 3 stories
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Excerpt from "Me as CEO: Becoming CEO Without Leaving Your Day Job"Who is Your *REAL* Customer?Employees are drilled constantly on improving customer satisfaction, customer delight and the customer is king. It's a daily mantra and understandably so. However obvious it may be to some, many employees don't know or forget where the money comes from. There are three sources in any organization: shareholders, borrowing or customers. Shareholders are grumpy about constantly throwing more money after an investment. They prefer to add a little bit and then take out a whole bunch. Banks and other paper institutions (as in commercial paper, not Xerox) will only go so far and they likewise expect more coming back than what is given out. It's only customers who will pay more of their hard earned currency for the goods and services your organization has decided to offer than what it costs you to make, deliver and serve it. Customer are the lifeblood. You need to remember that each day as your paycheck, livelihood and family depend on it. For Every One Customer There are Really Two. What you may not know, unless you are in Sales, is that for every one business customer, there are actually two customers. There is the organization buying your goods or service and then there is the individual in the organization who has chosen you, or your company, to be the supplier. Let's call that decision maker the client and the business, government or organization the customer. Client vs. Customer Satisfaction. When you deliver your goods or services, you have both the client and the customer to serve. We all know about customer satisfaction. But what about client satisfaction? The client needs your great service, competitive prices and results, certainly, but he or she also needs something else-- avoiding the whiplash of the blackeye. The client, whether it's the purchasing buyer, the project leader, the director or VP, or whomever decided that your company becomes the supplier over the many others vying for the same opportunity, has put his or her trust in you. Actually, it's more than trust. A reputation is on the line. You can understand it in your own organization for this is an universal truth-- bring in an outside supplier, contractor or company and your judgement and ability, your very reputation, are on the line. Choose a supplier who creates more headaches and difficulty than it brings to the table and eyebrows get raised. The chooser, or client, gets a blackeye for being so stupid as to have made such a poor choice when there are countless other options from which to choose. Make several poor choices and you are likely to be removed from the responsibility of making any in the future. You may even lose your job. Works the Same When Recommending Promotions or New Employees. The same thing applies for references or vouching for a new employee candidate or for someone seeking a promotion. Each time a client vouches for a "supplier" and the outcome becomes problematic, the client loses in reputation. In this case, we define the employee for promotion or the potential employee as a supplier. The unfortunate thing is that if the supplier does a fantastic job, that doesn't necessarily give a boost to one's reputation or judgement. Seems unfair but it follows another universal principle which will be explained when we go over the Kano model. The client then can only lose and not gain, even if you do a fantastic job. The result is that every sourcing decision puts the client in a risky position. It becomes your job as the supplier to reduce that risk. Even if you aren't in sales, marketing or customer service, your thorough and quality performance on your job adds to the whole contribution of cost, quality, service and delivery. Understanding the Client/Customer Principle is Critical to Becoming CEO. The real customer, then, is the one who has the most to lose and who is also the key decision-maker to ensure that you and your company are chosen and continue to be chosen for further business. That business, that revenue, is your lifeblood. Understanding and applying this principle of two customers for every one customer becomes absolutely critical on your road to becoming CEO. |
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