The Hindu Business Line : 99% performance begs to be beaten

The first secret of successful companies is to let customers define service value. "Too often, management sets service levels according to its own standards. This standard is rarely defined by the customer's perception of value, or measured in terms of customer satisfaction," rues The Customer Satisfaction Audit, by Abram I. Bluestein, Michael Moriarty and Ronald J. Sanderson of A.T. Kearney, Inc, from Book Land (www.bookland.co.in/audits) .

The book, which is one of more than a score such self-assessment audit titles, offers `an eight-step approach to ensure that your firm stays focussed on customer needs to promote real gains.'

Service involves much more than the delivery of a product to the customer, notes the intro. "A product is the sum of many services that go into making and selling it." Customers are the ultimate judge of what their requirements are, and also of the acceptable level of service and quality. "They judge their satisfaction not only by the product itself, but also by the totality of experience that comes with it."

Therefore, rather than trying to match the competition's low prices, companies can eliminate operations that don't add to customer value and thus `improve asset and expense productivity.' Having `elements of a total customer satisfaction process' in the form of `survey techniques, sales force feedback activities, market segmentation strategies, or innovative order entry and fulfilment techniques' is not enough. What you need is `a well-developed and coherent customer satisfaction process that is linked to operating strategies and plans.' In the `cycle' of customer satisfaction, portrayed in the book, understanding customer requirements is only the first step. What should follow this is the making of strategic investments - that is, `committing resources to those areas that will increase an organisation's ability to meet the needs of its customers, rather than subordinating this need to cost reduction priorities.' Some of these areas might include employee recruitment and training, or providing follow-up service, say the authors.

A `structure for execution' comes next in the cycle; for, `organisational restructuring is necessary when traditional barriers isolate functions and discourage them from working together to meet customer demands.' Organise for excellence, to take the cycle forward, by abandoning `traditional functional goals' in favour of `cross-functional objectives.' And lastly, monitor for results by obtaining customer feedback, before `launching the process anew.'

Among the many examples of companies that `listen' and respond are Nissan and FedEx. "Nissan set a standard for engineering-driven automobile manufacturers by putting new model form-fit-function design into the hands of customer teams," note the authors. What about Federal Express? It counts its service failures not in percentages like most companies, but in absolute numbers, one learns. Because "every single service failure is a lost opportunity to delight a customer."

At the other end of the spectrum, though, are companies that wallow in their own myths and remain far from satisfying customers. One such myth that holds such companies back is that price is the only thing that matters.

Another debilitating myth reads, "We're already at 99 per cent." No, that's not good enough, urges the book. "Few customers would put up with electric service that was unavailable for 14 minutes every day, or drinking water that was not potable four days each year. Most people would tire of a book with five typographical errors on each page." Watch out, therefore: "Ninety-nine per cent performance begs to be beaten by competitors."

A book that you can't afford to stop reading after just 99 per cent!

http://BookPeek.blogspot.com

D. Murali