Tuning in to customer satisfaction enables producers to reap the financial rewards

By Dan Abbott

Everyone in the business who has contact with the customer needs to develop the necessary skills, knowledge, and behaviors to represent your business¡¯ vision of ¡°highly¡± satisfied customers.

Customers are like radio stations. They all operate on the same bandwidth but are located at different frequencies. As product and service providers, we need to become adept and adaptable tuners, able to move up and down the bandwidth easily, tuning into each customer¡¯s frequency in order to satisfy them. Why? Because there is a critical relationship between highly satisfied customers, what we are calling ¡°Customer WOW,¡± and your business¡¯ bottom line.
A study by PNC Bank in Pittsburgh drives this point home. The study found that customers rating themselves as ¡°highly satisfied¡± maintain a 20-percent higher account balance than those who rate themselves as simply ¡°satisfied¡±.1 Conversely, according to a Forum Corporation study, almost 70 percent of the reasons identified by customers for leaving a business and switching to a competitor had nothing to do with the quality of the product or its price2 (see Figure 1). It is all about the quality of the service, or lack thereof.
We are only fooling ourselves if we believe a one-size-fits-all approach to keeping our customers ¡°highly¡± satisfied is wowing them into remaining loyal to us. This is especially true within industries that are perceived by the customer as providing a commodity. The only way you can break free from the volume/price challenge created by a commodity-driven mindset is to spoil your very best customers with world-class service. Once hooked, they will never be satisfied with a competitor¡¯s commodity-only approach to serving them.
So, how can we get on the right frequency in order to improve the bottom line? It is simply a matter of aligning our business¡¯ systems and training our people to accurately tune into the customer¡¯s needs so we can cash in on Customer WOW.
Achieving Customer WOW that creates a financial payoff may require you to re-think how you operate your business. A good place to begin is by identifying the organizational competencies required to achieve the ¡°WOW¡± level of service you need within your company. In 1999, AchieveGlobal, an internationally recognized leader in performance improvement, conducted extensive research on this subject, documenting more than 2,800 ¡°customer service moments.¡±3 AchieveGlobal has distilled into five customer service strategies what they have learned about satisfying customers. These five strategies form the core of their ¡°Service Difference¡± curriculum and are represented by the acronym:

See the ¡°big picture¡± and how customer service fits into it.

Establish an authentic human connection with each customer.

Render timely, accurate, and thorough service.

Value and respond to unique customer needs.

Extend a hand to repair and strengthen relationships with customers who are upset or angry.

These five strategies outline for us the organizational and human behaviors and competencies needed to achieve Customer WOW. AchieveGlobal ought to know, as they received high marks for ¡°The Service Difference,¡± which was used to train the volunteers at the 2002 Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City. These five strategies clearly define for us three areas we need to address in our organizations to achieve Customer WOW:
• Strategic planning in order to capture the ¡°big picture¡±;
• Alignment to the plan so we can ¡°value and respond to unique needs¡± and ¡°render timely, accurate and thorough service¡±; and
• Training to ensure our people have the interpersonal and customer skills needed to deliver the WOW.
Let¡¯s look at each of these three areas in greater detail and see how they can help you start tuning and cashing in on customer satisfaction. We are going to use the acronym WOW to help us remember each of these three areas:

Figure 1. Reasons why customers leave and switch to a competitor

Wait before you leap
Prior to making any changes or enhancements, you need to devise a method to capture your customers¡¯ current level of satisfaction or dissatisfaction with your organization. Suitable methods can include surveys (online or paper), focus groups, customer meetings, or meeting with customers one-on-one.
The key is to record and document your findings accurately, no matter how flattering or painful they may be. Regardless of which method or methods you choose to collect the data, do it now. This information is absolutely critical to your business¡¯ success.
Once you have data in hand, arrange for a wide cross section of your managers and employees to meet at an off-site location for a two- to three-day customer satisfaction strategic planning session. A group of 15-30 is large enough to represent your overall organization or division. Make sure to include the right mix of owners/officers, senior managers, mid-level managers, supervisors, and front line employees. Why? Because you need your entire team behind any plan you come up with to make it work.
Seek a skilled facilitator to assist you with this task. A facilitator will help your group work through the process and provide valuable insight and objective feedback. A competent facilitator will actually save you money in the long run and bring additional value to your new process.
Your goal on the first day is to grind out a vision, identify any contradictions to your vision, and set strategic directions for your company¡¯s customer satisfaction initiative. On the second day, break your people into task teams and assign each team a strategic direction. Their goal is to develop the specific tasks needed to support their assigned strategic direction. Next, let your teams work out a yearlong implementation schedule; then break the schedule into achievable, quarterly chunks. You now have a solid plan of attack and the support from all levels within the organization you need to make it work.

Organize around the customer
In order to ¡°value and respond to customers¡¯ unique needs,¡± you¡¯ll need to fine-tune your organization. Begin by looking at reorganizing or revamping your business¡¯ current systems, processes, and people around your new customer satisfaction vision and strategies. Aggressively seek out ways to smash barriers that inhibit providing the level of customer satisfaction you want to achieve. Challenge your own processes.
Ask yourself: Why are we going through this process? Is this process creating value for our customers and is it making us money? Look for ways to eradicate politics and sacred cows that creep into your business and negatively impact employees. You¡¯ll want to consider aligning your compensation and reward programs so they help drive the customer satisfaction results you desire.
Remember, your goal is to create a customer-driven company. Why? Because you want to make money. And we know that highly satisfied customers will want your products and services and be willing to pay for them.

Business improvement means investing in business planning. Using a qualified facilitator for your planning, strategy, and scheduling sessions will result in more productive, innovative, and collaborative outcomes.

Work with your people
With your vision and plan developed, it is time to meet with the rest of the organization. Share your vision, objectives, strategic directions, and implementation schedule with them. It is your intention to build enthusiasm among the troops. But, be careful not to get caught up in the moment. Make sure the picture you paint is backed by solid action. This is no time for hollow promises or superficial intentions.
Your plan will need an education and training component for preparing and empowering your people. This first component will focus on formally educating your employees about the new standard and expectations. You need to be able to answer the why, what, when, how, and where questions. This helps set the stage and relieves the rumors and anxiety.
The next component is your training plan. Your comprehensive training plan will provide your people with the skills, knowledge, and behaviors necessary to ensure they are prepared to interact with your customers. If implemented correctly, your employees will be committed to achieving the team¡¯s business results and will be equipped with the skills and knowledge to follow through on that commitment. You are now ready to unleash your customer service champions.
The concept of improving customer satisfaction is not just a trendy thing to do. It is for the improvement of your business. Your objective is to create highly satisfied customers. Doing so will lead to increasing customer loyalty, a clearer distinction between you and your competition, and a chance to raise prices and enjoy greater long-term profitability.
Customers have grown so accustomed to receiving mediocre service that when they find a business willing to go the extra mile they will, without a doubt, take notice. This is why we need both the organization and its people to understand that customers are like radio stations. Yes, our customers all have similar needs, but they also have significant differences. It is tuning into the differences that allows us the opportunity to achieve Customer WOW.

Dan Abbott is a management consultant and team leader at DynaMax Performance Solutions. He has more than 20 years experience in the aggregates industry. He can be reached at (541) 791-8701 or abbottdan@dynamaxteam.com.

Footnotes
1 ¡°The Economics of Customer Satisfaction,¡± Harvard Business Review, March-April 1999.
2 ¡°The Customer Driven Company: Moving from Talk to Action¡± Richard C. Whiteley, the Forum Corporation, 1991.
3 ¡°When Caring is not Enough: The Service Provider¡¯s Evolving Strategic Role,¡± an AchieveGlobal white paper, 2000.