Using
Information to Create Value for Your Customers
By Rick Tate and Michele Richards
(Rick is a highly regarded expert in the world of customer service.
He is an extraordinary speaker, trainer, author and human being)
Ask
most any employee at work today in American business the same
question: "What's our biggest problem?" and you're likely to get the
same answer: "Communication!" How can that be? Look at the
proliferation of technology that has vastly improved the way in
which information is sent and received in corporations. Consider the
inordinate amount of time we spend during the typical business day
in meetings. What about voice mail, e-mail, pagers, cell phones, fax
machines and computers? Yes, even with the multitude of
communications technology at our fingertips; even with the increased
knowledge base and education of the American worker; even with new
concepts in leadership and teamwork, most people will tell you the
major cause of problems in organizations can be attributed to
"communication."
We
wonder just how much information we are communicating is really
relevant to what people actually need to do their jobs in a way that
creates value for our customers? Perhaps it's time to consider that
our communications problems lie not in "how" we communicate, but
rather in "what" we communicate. Is the customer's voice and
evaluations the core of the information we channel through our
organization, or are we simply using the progress in hardware and
software to create better ways to communicate the same information
we have in the past with new methods?
Would
we have a different type of organization if we made the theme of our
information processes "what the customer wants us to know" instead
of "what does management want to tell and how do they want to tell
it?" How much more effective would we be if everyone knew what was
on the customer's mind when doing business with us, what the
customer truly valued, and what real experiences the customer deals
with?
How
Far Have We Come, Really?
One
of the reasons the "mom and pop" organizations of the 1920's and
1930's worked is because there was very little distance in time and
space between a company's employees and its customers. Communication
was easy because there were fewer organizational layers which
separated employees from understanding what their customers really
wanted, needed, and expected.
During
the next two decades, American organizations grew in size and scope,
adding layers and layers of organizational structure between their
employees and customers. Information flowed from the top,
"filtering" through the middle management funnel and was eventually
delivered to people at the bottom of the pyramid. There was no
sinister plot to withhold information from people. Management simply
felt that employees were uninterested and didn't have a need to know
certain information critical to the business
In
the 1960's, we became concerned about the morale and motivation of
the workforce and began to see the need to improve the way we
communicated with employees. Company meetings became a thing to do.
Cross-functional staff meetings became normal. The "corporate
newsletter" went to press all across the nation. Middle management
was encouraged to "pass the word" down and keep people informed
because we had learned that open communication positively impacted
employee morale and motivation.
By
the early 1980's the emergence of a totally new economy would make
our past practices ineffective. A major lesson learned was that in
order to compete in an era that demanded quality products and
quality performance, it was critical to have the active involvement
of people. As a result, the need for better employee communications
structures emerged as the need for information sharing between
departments was becoming a critical business strategy. Here is where
we saw the growth of the global employee newsletter, employee
forums, meetings with management, problem-solving teams, advanced
quality circles, TQM initiatives, etc. Like never before, employees
had access to an overwhelming amount of information from a multitude
of sources.
But
the nature of the information passed along didn't really change that
much. People were better informed about organizational "events," pay
and benefits issues, who was being recognized for exceptional
performance, new business ventures, who got promoted, and so on.
There was improvement in data about the quality issues with regard
to product production. There was some business news, but it was
normally just a report on sales, profit, earnings and budget. And,
it was communicated in a macro sense which still left employees
(with perhaps the exception of those in sales and marketing) in the
dark about just how they individually connected with the company's
success.
But,
Where Did the Real Customer Go?
By
the end of the 1980s, we saw the "internal customer" concept take
hold. By introducing the idea of serving an internal customer,
organizations were attempting to bring each employee down the line
closer to the user of its products or services. "I'll serve the
customer, you serve me, and your internal customer will serve you.
In the end, we'll all be working toward the same goal."
It
was a new and impressive concept, but unfortunately one that
delivered some unintended consequences. In many cases, a new
hierarchy was created that merely replaced the old one. Support
functions such as Human Resources, MIS and Engineering now perceived
that they were less important than those who were in direct contact
with the paying customer and it was their job to be at the mercy of
the Sales and Marketing and operational functions. Many times this
situation created more hostility and lack of cooperation than what
we had before. And all it took was for one function in this linear
organizational structure to be out of focus on what the primary
objective was to sub-optimize the results of the whole organization.
Anyone who has ever struggled with the ritual stringing of Christmas
lights knows all too well what happens when one bulb goes awry...
the entire string doesn't work and we fail to meet the ultimate
goal. Further, the time it takes to solve the problem of "one small
bulb" is great and the agitation is profound. Much like the weak
link in a chain, when people move in different directions, the
effect is disastrous.
The
"internal customer" also failed to create the support employee's
connection with the paying customer. Many times internal customers
were demanding fulfillment of requirements merely because they were
now in a position to do so, not because demands created value for
the paying customer. In many instances, the paying customer was once
again lost due to the internal struggles raging within a company ...
ironically all in the name of serving the customer!
Yes,
by the mid 1990's, we were incrementally better at communicating
with employees and understanding customers. But, the external
environment had not changed incrementally over the past 30
years...it had changed fundamentally! And our efforts were not
paying the dividends in bringing about the type of change that was
really needed, or that most business leaders really desired.
Massage Therapy
But
what to tell employees? The truth? Unfortunately, the "message due
jour" was massage therapy...candy coated information which presented
a view of things through "rose colored glasses." "Times are tough;
we have challenges, but we're the best, always have been, and
everything is under control." Messages about the realities of the
new economy were massaged to the point that many did not see the
urgency and importance of individual change. We still held on to the
dependency model of the 1940-50's in which the employee sensed that
they would be taken care of and that the organization had things
figured out.
And
without a shared sense of what was really happening and the
consequences of not changing fast enough, we labored through times
in which credibility was lost as many suffered those consequences
without being duly prepared. How many employees in the 1990's have
been victims of corporate downsizing without even understanding the
real business issues which caused them to lose their jobs?
Moving Forward?
To
be successful in the future, we must look to another model of
communication. One which will have at its foundation that shared
sense of reality, the shared knowledge of the real threats to
business success that are needed to galvanize employees and create
and a sense of urgency to tackle those threats. What we so
desperately need in business today is a revolution in the way we
gather and disseminate information in our organizations. We have the
tools, but we've been focusing on the wrong information. It's time
that we take a good hard look at "what" we communicate in our
organizations and decide that what we've been doing for the last
half decade will not cut it for the future.
Believing
in and talking about a customer-driven approach is one thing;
delivering it is quite another. Being really customer-driven hinges
on one critical business factor...every single thing we do must be
centered on bringing the customer back to do business again!
Many
people long for the past when businesses were smaller and the link
between the store operator and the customer was unfiltered.
Relationships between owner and manager with their customers were
strong because the separate parties had more personal knowledge of
each other. Today, technology allows us to return to the advantages
of relationships past, while simultaneously utilizing the advantages
of being big. We're now able to put information into the hands of
those employees who serve customers directly and indirectly.
Customer information put into the hands of employees allows them to
perform their jobs in extraordinary ways.
So
knowing this, why are we so reluctant to share valuable customer
information with all employees? Perhaps we're holding on to the old
beliefs of our corporate ancestors who felt that employees didn't
need to know certain information and were uninterested. Or, maybe we
don't trust our employees with customer information. It's also quite
possible that we don't spend time on a customer agenda because we
don't have enough "real" information about customers. We may have at
hand customer statistics and numerous reports about customer
purchases. But do we really have the type of customer information
that lets us truly understand what the customer values when they do
business with us?
In
any case, we must begin to examine these assumptions that serve as
the foundation of our actions and rationalizations. If we do not
change our fundamental theories and beliefs we will be severely
hampered in our attempts to improve our business practices and
capture the involvement of employees. We must move towards a "right
to know" theory of customer information. We must have a "shared
sense of reality" theory when it comes to deciding what information
people should have. With the right philosophy, we can move toward
implementing the tactics necessary to improve the customer value our
organizations offer.
Usher In Customer-Centered Communications©
If
the goal is clear...to focus organizational insights, efforts and
talents on creating value for the customer...then there is an
effective approach: Customer-Centered Communications© .
Customer-Centered
Communications© means ensuring
that every employee in your organization has an intimate knowledge
of your customers' wants, needs and expectations through the
distribution of information.
In
order to foster real, fundamental change in the way we use
information to create value for the customer, we must first
understand the challenges that lie ahead for creating this change:
-
How do we begin
to emphasize WHAT we communicate to our employees, after so many
years of focusing on HOW we communicate?
-
How do we use
information to help our employees get closer to our customers,
when our corporate culture may lack basic trust in people?
-
How do we
harness employee talents, insights and energies toward serving
end-user customers, when we've encouraged them to spend so much
time focusing on serving each other?
-
How do we use
information as a strategic tool to make it easier to manage our
organizations?
-
How do we treat
employees as partners in our business, and set the expectation
that they behave the same way?
The
old model of employee communication was linear and inward looking.
It was linear in that information about customers typically entered
the organization through one or two sources. Information was watered
down and passed on until when it reached the support functions it
was nothing more than "nice to know" information. The old model was
inward-looking because it relied heavily on the internal customer
concept. One department only need know enough to serve its internal
customers and had no regard for what was happening outside the
organization
The
Customer-Centered Communications© model is fundamentally different.
It's chaotic. And, as we've learned in recent years, order is born
out of chaos. It's outward looking. It relies heavily on an
employee's "right to know" customer information; real customer
information direct form the customer's own words, in order to make
effective decisions, solve problems more quickly, and develop
objectives which focus on serving the end-user.
Using
the CCC Model as a guide we can begin to ensure that all employees
"hear" the voice of the customer in the customer's own words. We can
use our existing methods of dissemination of information to make
sure the majority of what employees receive centers around customer
issues. The customer is the business...let's make sure our employees
really "know" the business!
Five Steps to Customer-Centered Communications©
Once
you have the good, hard answers to the above questions, it's time to
take action. Throw out every theory you know about communicating
with employees. Now is the time for fundamental change.
It's
time to go back to all those technological advances in
communications that we've spent so much time and money on improving
in our organizations. Use them! Not to communicate the same
information that has been clogging our organizational veins for
decades, but to communicate raw, unfiltered customer information
which will help your employees create value for your end-user
customers.
Involve
employees in the communications process and hold them accountable.
Find ways to use the communications tools available in your company,
along with the talent and enthusiasm of your people, to allow free
flow of customer information. Ask them what information they need
and want, what will help them contribute more, and how best to
deliver it to them. Then, be sure to hold them accountable for
knowing the information. Far too many organizations allow their
employees to depend on the organization for feeding them
information, instead of providing opportunities to get informed,
then holding them accountable for seeking out the information.
Examine
policies/procedures that may inhibit the flow of communication.
Review your policies and procedures manual or any written guidelines
used by management with a fine tooth comb. Do your policies "punish"
people for communicating or for seeking out information? For
example, a policy which prohibits certain employees from taking
action to serve the customer, may be causing your organization to
drift further and further away from a customer-centered environment.
Agree
on what customer information is important to your organization.
Consensus should come not only from management, but from employees
from throughout your organization, and most importantly from your
customers. Ask your employees what they need and want to know about
your customers. Ask your customers want they need and want your
employees to know about them
Get
customers involved in the process. Your customers are just as
anxious to be served by your organization as you are to serve them.
Invite them on-site to meet with groups of your employees. And not
just those from Sales and Marketing, but from ALL functions
throughout the company. Ask them to give your employees a "report
card" on how well the organization is doing and areas for
improvement. Encourage your support employees to make site visits to
your customers' locations. The more they understand the customer's
experience, the better able they will be to contribute to creating
value for that customer.
Tie
individual goals to customer outcomes. Review your performance
appraisal process. Do you hold your employees accountable for
serving the end-user customer? If not, each employee should be
involved in helping to develop goals and objectives which measure
the impact they have on creating value for the customer.
Much
of what we have learned from our experiences in employee
communications no longer applies. We are piloting a new and
different ship on very different waters. We must experiment with new
ways and provide breakthroughs to create lasting changes in today's
organizations.
Printed with the
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