Marcia's Leadership Q and A's: Your Customer Defines Quality--What are They Saying?

Q. Our customer service is declining.  I feel it. We don’t connect with our customers the way my Dad did when he started this company. How do we get that focus back and have everyone in the organization on the same page?

A. Having the focus on your customers is a powerful foundation. Bring some of your managers together and have some discussions. Bring your staff together (in teams or all together (on Zoom, too), depending on the size of your company—what’s manageable?)  First, ask the questions about “What are you trying to accomplish together” (beyond making a profit) and “Who are your customers?” you may find that there are not easy answers and it takes a few conversations to clarify these answers.

Then ask and make time to have some customer-focused questions: what do our customers want? What do our customers need? What can we do to create value for them? Why aren’t we? What’s getting in our way? If we make changes, will it differentiate us in the marketplace?

Most importantly, how do our customers define Quality (speed, accuracy, dependability, service, friendliness, response time?) What do our customers care about? Are we taking care of them? How can we do better, consistently? Do our customers reach us quickly, or are they on hold for more than two or twenty minutes? How fast do we respond to customer requests or problems?

When you explore these answers together (and make sure that if customers aren’t being served well, that there is no blame. Have a healthy discussion about creating the processes to help the customers.) You will continually learn more about the Voice of your Customers.  Then you can create ways to improve that connection again.