Customer First Initiative — A Teamwork Plan to Make Customers #1
Originally written from the viewpoint of a large industrial manufacturer this piece by Paul Coppinger has universal appeal to all business environments and every breed of the client/vendor relationship. Manufacturer and retailer alike will find the theory sound in principle and profitable in practice.-Editor

Our typical buyer (let’s call him Brad Martin) is intelligent, technically proficient, and free to specify and purchase products from any number of companies—including yours. Once Brad chooses your firm for his purchase, how do you reinforce that this was his best possible decision? That your firm and only your firm is the company of choice for his current—and future—business. It’s simple. The companies that are best at customer retention always put the “customer first”.

The “Customer First Initiative” is a broad-based program to help any company understand what customers expect, and how you can give them perfect, consistent and positive customer service.

Success depends on nothing less than this.

“Customer First” is how we keep Brad Martin a return customer. Seven simple elements define the “Customer First Initiative.” You may already use many of these elements in your current working culture, but the Customer First Initiative can be a reaffirmation of how you operate as well as a company wide re-commitment to your customers. The seven elements of a Customer FirstInitiative are:

• Attitude & Projection
  
• Processes & Organization
  
• Organizational Strength
  
• Tools
  
• Metrics
  
• Discipline & Accountability
  
• Teamwork & Respect

Attitude & Projection

Brad Martin has just called in with a question. You’re busy on another project.
Your attitude toward Brad Martin is what Brad Martin will remember when the phone call is completed. A person’s attitude comes across to a customer whether it’s positive or negative, whether it’s in person, over the phone, or in a letter. Always treat the customer the way you would like to be treated. Project yourself into his shoes. And remember, Brad Martin called YOU for help. It’s important to him to get an answer, and he chose YOU over your competitors for that answer. That’s a return customer who deserves to be first.

Processes & Organization

In a typical company, three main processes provide Brad Martin with everything he needs: order acquisition, order execution, and performance measurement. Some companies submerge their processes within an organizational chart in the false assumption this will provide structure. In reality, this promotes inter-departmental handoffs that can cripple a company’s ability to improve personalized customer service beyond a “brute strength” level. Utilizing a Customer First Initiative will optimize the three processes, as the organizational chart falls into place.

Organizational Strength

Once in place, and with a commitment from all personnel, a “customer first” environment evolves naturally. One result of evolution is that personnel gaps will appear. A “gap analysis” is crucial to customer service excellence. This may mean that some current managers or reps may fit better as individual contributors, an individual contributor might be a good candidate for management, and so on throughout the culture. Some may opt to move on or new talent may be welcomed aboard. In all cases, Brad Martin will benefit. That will benefit your company and your entire culture.

Tools

The best tools make good individuals better. Tools may include hardware, software, communication equipment, reporting protocol, training and many other items that will facilitate a “customer first” performance by employees. Excellence in everyday performance is easier with the right tools at hand and makes convincing Brad Martin to do business for the long term easier as well.

Metrics

All companies measure success using metrics like “income” or “cash flow”. Companies have many meters. But customers have just one. Service. You and all your employees must want to score as high as possible on the customer service meter. The Customer First Initiative will take metrics one step further to include meters for on time delivery of orders, the number of days a line item is late, the number of times a commitment date is changed and even if a quotation is late. Your internal service metrics must be more demanding than Brad Martin’s because you’ll want to exceed his expectations at all times.

Discipline & Accountability

It is well and good to talk about putting the customer first, but actually doing it on a consistent basis takes discipline, and lots of it. It takes company-wide discipline to continually put Brad Martin first, to commit to Brad Martin’s success, to make a long term relationship with him mutually prosperous. Each member of your team must be accountable for making this commitment and following through on it. It must become a part of the culture at your firm and has to be integrated into every aspect and every effort of every department to perfect customer service.

Teamwork & Respect

Companies are made up of individuals who succeed or fail depending on how well they work together. The best teams mutually agree on how to accomplish a mission and then concentrate their efforts toward reaching that goal. Such efforts require discipline, focus, mutual respect, trust, and creativity.

The Customer First Initiative will give you the tools to outperform your competitors in customer service, to renew your mutual commitment to each other as a team, to remind yourselves how important each and every Brad Martin must be, and to remember how important customer service is to your overall success as a company.

As your Customer First Initiative gets underway, you should greatly anticipate your next phone call from Brad Martin. I am confident you all will.

FL

Paul Coppinger is a Group VP for CIRCOR International, a publically traded company (CIR), in Burlington, MA. Printed by permission. © 2002 Paul Coppinger. All rights reserved.