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What's the root cause of the mindset that fails to put the customer first?
A) People lack common sense
B) No time to think
C) Investors are more important
D) Employees are real asset
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Comments (15)
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Eric Braun
President and Principal Consultant at TeamShare Solutions
I think that quite often people are more focused on themselves and how they fit into their existing processes. If the process does not suppor the customer, the people do not. When a question or problem arises, they fall back on the process, which is already flawed. The assumption that a process can accommodate all situations is false, so their needs to be room for exceptions in order to keep the customer first.
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Do you the customer trust your business partner (in this case the vendor or reseller) enough to share with them what you want to accomplish believing that they will provide valuable advice/best practices/input without asking for handouts. On the flip side, does the vendor care enough to reach out to customers for input on product development, service offerings, etc to forge/support collaboration. You need both to be customer centric.
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Gert-Jan van Vorst
Procesarchitect at Sint Maartenskliniek
My penny: people are too much selfcentered instead of outcentered, being the true basis for placing the customer first. Hostmanship starts with putting the other party first.
E) Most people (whatever the process is) can not do this. It's more a psychological and sociological issue than a manegerial or process issue in my opinion. -
Eric Braun
President and Principal Consultant at TeamShare Solutions
Gert, I agree with you that it is natural and easier to think of oneself. It may not be conscious, but it is our self-preservation instinct. That is why an organization must design processes to force a focus on the customer and to provide positive reinforcement/incentives for those who focus on the customer. The phenomenon can be changed through cultural change.
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Rose Noxon, PhD
Senior Principal Business Process Expert at CACI
I do not think it is any of the four choices you offer. In working on several process models for ISO and other customer focused quality processes, I find that those providing the service can often feel they know what the customer wants/needs better than the customer does. Even though that may be a true fact - no customer wants to be made to feel this - and this thinking fails to put the customer first. I noticed that the more technical the service the more likely the technicians fail to relate to the customers on the customer's terms. This isn't lacking common sense (one of your choices) - but lacking customer sensitivity.
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This is clearly a leadership issue. If an organization's leadership truly reinforces a customer-centric environment (and not just lip service), it can be done.
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Michael Ferrari
BPM Consultant, enterprise architect
I would say that in small companies it is easier to do than in large one.
When you are so far from the customer POW that you can't even think of his mindset, then you (and your company) have a problem :) -
bhushan upadhye
Project Manager at Patni Computer Services
I see this more from the point of view of people as followers & not leaders, they tend to lack the risk taking ability for which both the vendor & customer are responsible.
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David Picard
BPM Visionary and Technology Executive
I generally agree that leadership is an aspect of the problem, however execution without proper discipline and communications can still occur despite the best intentions and high level direction provided by the core senior leadership of an organization.
Frankly, I find that the customer focus is more often than not lost in decomposition of the problem / solution through the communication channels and is exacerbated by poor traceability of functional specs back to the core business requirements. This is further impacted by gaps introduced when components of a solution are built against the functional spec without understanding of the business context. Solution delivery must ensure the business requirement is clear throughout the process to all parties.
Compromises are also often introduced based on degree of difficulty and artificial budgetary constraints without proper and timely escalation to those team members who have a higher degree of insight into core objectives and customer demands. -
Arthur Gold
Quality & Environmental Management Professional
I agree that it is primarily a leadership issue. But there can be a situation where management does "get it" regarding customer focus but does not effectively deploy their ideas.
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Tomas Rådkvist
Senior Consultant at Ardevo AB and Owner, Ardevo AB
In my experience there can be a number of reasons for this and the most common one is that the customer is not clearly defined in that specific part of the organisation.
Furthermore the needs of the customer is not very well known and the internal culture is often more focused on "getting the work done" rather than creating defined values for the customer. In short - ignorance is the culprit and this is of course very much a leadership issue. -
Douglas Sargent
Operational Development Manager Latin America
Usually processes are fragmented into the different areas or functional silos of the company. Add to this that usually management KPI's are focused on the span of command of the local manager. Therefore each area loses focus of the end consumer and focuses on their internal customers.
As a sidenote don't agree with your root cause options. -
Jean-François DAVID
Strategist, Consultant, Higher Education Lecturer
Another reason can be "double language" of organizations.
One side client-centric strategy is communicated everywhere, present in any company flyer, "everything for client", "client is our key asset",... (pull strategy).
Another side R&D people saying "innovation will never come from client", disappointement of focus groups experiences, ...
Just look at CRM softwares, softwares concerning "customer relation" :
Their first purpose is to increase efficiency of sales, by a clever segmentation of customer opportunities!
Everybody claims a "pull" strategy, we are still in "push" organizations... -
Fred Engelberger
Supply Chain and Operations Professional
The 4 choices offered are all very good. I would lean towards (A) as the most likely cause but possibly reword it to say lack common sense and tact.
There is a 5th choice I would like to see added and that being the customer's approach. Society is often coached to take aggressive approaches to getting what you want. This often results in customers being rude, demeaning, and playing the "customer first" card to bully a supplier/service person into a bad business proposition for their company. The bad taste created by these type customers often, unfairly, compromises the service provided to the good customer. -
Lasse Lindquist
Senior Manager at Capacent A/S, Business Process Management, Business Development, Information Management
I think we all want the best for for our customers - but the question is - what do the customers want? - What does it mean to put the customer first? Customer Value Management will give you a tool to measure what customers really value - there are many reasons for using CVM:
• Better prediction of business performance with customer value data
• Measure how the organization performs compared to the competitors in creating customer value
• Maximize utilization of market research with simple and easy to use tools
• Prioritize scarce resources by focusing on specific strategic and tactical actions to keep existing or attract new valuable customers
• Support alignment of the organisations to create maximum customer and thus shareholder value
• Support marketing in communicating strengths in the market
The overall purpose:
I like to say that organizations have to win in 3 markets;
• The customer marked (winning marked shares, customers etc.)
• The employer marked (attracting and developing the right employees)
• The financial marked (delivering the results to the shareholders)
There is a set of common principles and economic truths that applies across all industries, countries and markets.
1) Customers evaluate what they get against what they pay.
2) Customers try to maximize their return
3) Value, Quality of the Products and Services and Satisfaction with the Price or Costs of doing business are all perceptions.
4) Perception is reality in the marketplace.
5) The customer has choice and they compare values against competitors or alternative places to spend the money. The firm that provides the best value (as the customer defines it) gains the greatest share over time.
6) Good isn’t good enough. The higher the overall value perception in the market the higher the loyalty. The firm with the highest value retains the most customers over time.
These principles present common problems for businesses. To win in business all firms must do three things, better than the competition.
1) Choose their value proposition
2) Create the value
3) Communicate the value
Choose the value.
Does the organization truly understand what their customers’ value, what really will improve the quality of their customers’ lives. Is their value proposition right for today’s market?
Create the Value
Are the organizations really creating valuable products that provide solutions to real needs in the marked.
Communicate the Value
Does the customers in the marked (also the potential customers) understand the value proposition. Price is a value driver too. It must be managed the same as quality. Price satisfaction is made up of actual price, perceived price and various other price satisfactions drivers.
The customer is king in thease times
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