Introduction
I can hear some of you saying what do you mean “are we really serving your client?” Of course we are, otherwise, we would not still be in business. In response I would ask when the last time was you asked your client what they really needed. When was the last time you took the time to sit down and really listen to what the needs of their organizations are?
The focus of this white paper, number two in the DBAI White Paper Series, is a look at the question of whether you as an organization are really serving your clients to the ultimate level that you can. Are you really earning the revenue you collect for your services? Are you ethically performing what you think the client is asking for in return? When does your responsibility as an organization really end?
We have seen many changes occur in the global workplace over the past several decades. Unemployment has been on a roller coaster ranging from very low to record heights. A question of loyalty to our organizations on the part of our human capital assets has been paramount in many businesses. We have also seen an increase in the number of employees jumping to new opportunities because it looks good in their portfolio of skills. We are fully cognizant of the fact that as time goes by, things will change.
You have a choice to make to either cut costs or raise your revenue. If you chose to raise revenue, I hope that you understand that the key to that is your customers and their believe in your organization.
Having been on both sides of the desk I would suggest that to better serve your client you need to change your perspective on your role by following the strategies below:
Strategy 1: Stop playing the blame game
A stakeholder calls to inform you that they are having a problem. What is your first response? Many of you may have responded with “That’s not my Job:” or “if there is a problem, they must be doing something wrong>” Wrong attitude. If there is a problem that comes to your attention, you need to take concrete steps to address that issue. Create a cross-functional team which includes both internal and external stakeholders to find a root of the problem. Under no circumstances do we start laying blame on anyone until we have all the facts. The team must operate under s sense of inquiry and open dialogue. We need to get everyone’s views on why the problem exists absent a win-lose relationship. What we mean is we don’t pinpoint the cause until we have gained the knowledge continuum wide as to why the problem is showing up.
Strategy 2: Become a true partner with your clients
Your responsibility is to acquire and maintain customers. We never want to provide them a reason to leave for “greener pastures”. It is critical that we stop being reactive to customer problems and move to being proactive. You should be able to see the problems before they occur. It means that you need to conduct frequent customer visits. We need to treat the customer the way we treat our neighbors and family. Conduct that Gemba Walk of the customer operations and learn first-hand how they operate. Keep an open mind as to how you can do things better in a way that benefits the customer.
Strategy 3: Recognize the value your customers bring to the table.
Do you know the lifetime value of your customers? Not sure how to calculate it? It is simple. Take the total revenue generated from the customer and divide it by the tenure of the customer. This provides you with the lifetime value they contribute to the organization.
Once you have done this you are confronted with two tasks. One, identify your most valued customers by the amount of revenue. Find out the degree that you have the share of customer in their business. Second, review the full list and see whether you can determine how to increase your share of their business.
There can be many reasons why you don’t have majority share of customer. They don’t know everything you can do. They may have an extended relationship with another vendor for some of their business. Explore those relationships and don’t shy away from asking how you can expand your partnership with them.
Give you an example. In another “life” we worked in retail. We had a client who had been ordering their needs from Amazon. We promised to provide them the same products with better services including hand delivering the product to them, the five-mile drive back and forth was well worth it, for we ended up with a 100% customer share for the products we sold.
Strategy 4: Don’t stereotype your customers
Don’t ever make a snap judgement about any customer regarding what they can or cannot do. We are not a betting type, but I am willing to bet your judgement is wrong. Don’t ever pre-judge the size of their business they have to offer because unless you are part of internal management you have no clue as to what they can afford to do.
Strategy 5: Be willing to take a certain level of risk
We have defined excellence among other definitions, as the willingness to risk more than others think safe to change the corporate culture. Being involved I continuous process improvement means you are involved within an experiment. Experiments inherently have risks. In trying to meet the need of the customer be willing to escape the box and think out of the narrow view of solutions. Design thinking tells us to ask the question what if? Edison, regarding risk, tells us that he did not fail, he just found 10,000 ways that did not work. We are not suggesting that you send care out the door. Every organization has a level of risk that they will not cross but be willing to stretch the boundaries a bit.
Strategy 6: Gain a sense of ethics
We get the problem maybe an inconvenience. It may be a drain on your resources. However never look for shortcuts to resolve the problem. Never undertake a solution which is against your organizational culture. Violations of business ethics never gets anyone what they want in the long run. Make sure that you are treating your customers the way you would want to be treated if you were iin their shoes.
Strategy 7: Be prepared to present the cost benefits of the process
I don’t care if you are an internal customer or an external one, management is still going to be concerned with the financial returns on any project. It is critical that your cross-functional team include in their communications the break-even analysis of the costs involved. It should include two perspectives. The first is what is the process costing the organization and the customer due to the errors. Second, what is that financial picture likely to be when the solutions are implemented.
This brings us back to our original question- are you really serving your customer? The answer lies in the basis of the relationship you have established with them. Are they just some nebulous part of your business or are you involved in a win-win relationship with them. They are a vital part of your organizational success and need to be treated accordingly.
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