Customer Focus: A Practical Guide
by Sorin Dumitrascu
In order to be successful, companies need to listen and respond to customers' needs and expectations. This helps companies to find out what customers really want from them and what they really think of their services. It also helps them to keep existing customers and attract new ones.
There are five main ways of getting feedback from customers. You can simply observe your customers' behavior, hold a focus group, or conduct a survey. You can also use your salespeople and customer service teams to glean feedback from customers. The Web, e-mail, and social networking allow you to gather feedback from customers in any location. Each provide their own types of data, and companies should choose which ones suit them best.
There are four main steps involved in exploring customer needs. First you need to gather information about the customers' current situation. You then try to discover their desired situation. You also need to investigate any past experiences they may have had with products similar to yours and finally you carry out a gap analysis.
Companies need to manage customer expectations in order to try and provide the final outcome they expect. Customers expect a collaborative relationship, choice, and good value. They also expect prompt response and dispute resolution, a feeling of importance, transparency, two-way communication, and relevant marketing campaigns.
CRM systems help you to efficiently manage your customers' expectations. There are different strategies for this that ensure that the needs of your customers are met quickly and completely. CRM also helps you to provide effective, efficient processes and put your customer at the center of the organization. Finally CRM provides end-to-end connectivity that links the organization with its internal and external customers and its suppliers.
Every organization that wants to move to being more customer focused should have a strategy in place. This customer-focused strategy is built around three key decisions.
The appropriate scale and scope of your strategy is the first crucial decision. This refers to the elements that need to be involved in your organization's customer focus solution.
Next, you must decide the level of integration between these elements. Finally, you need to make the decision whether to create a low, moderate, or high level of customer focus.
When designing your strategy, taken into account the relevant operational strategies for becoming more customer focused that already exist, including Six Sigma and customer relationship management (CRM).
There are five main ways of getting feedback from customers. You can simply observe your customers' behavior, hold a focus group, or conduct a survey. You can also use your salespeople and customer service teams to glean feedback from customers. The Web, e-mail, and social networking allow you to gather feedback from customers in any location. Each provide their own types of data, and companies should choose which ones suit them best.
There are four main steps involved in exploring customer needs. First you need to gather information about the customers' current situation. You then try to discover their desired situation. You also need to investigate any past experiences they may have had with products similar to yours and finally you carry out a gap analysis.
Companies need to manage customer expectations in order to try and provide the final outcome they expect. Customers expect a collaborative relationship, choice, and good value. They also expect prompt response and dispute resolution, a feeling of importance, transparency, two-way communication, and relevant marketing campaigns.
CRM systems help you to efficiently manage your customers' expectations. There are different strategies for this that ensure that the needs of your customers are met quickly and completely. CRM also helps you to provide effective, efficient processes and put your customer at the center of the organization. Finally CRM provides end-to-end connectivity that links the organization with its internal and external customers and its suppliers.
Every organization that wants to move to being more customer focused should have a strategy in place. This customer-focused strategy is built around three key decisions.
The appropriate scale and scope of your strategy is the first crucial decision. This refers to the elements that need to be involved in your organization's customer focus solution.
Next, you must decide the level of integration between these elements. Finally, you need to make the decision whether to create a low, moderate, or high level of customer focus.
When designing your strategy, taken into account the relevant operational strategies for becoming more customer focused that already exist, including Six Sigma and customer relationship management (CRM).
