How To Identify And Fulfill Customer Needs

Summary and book report

The Service Advantage: How to Identify and Fulfill Customer Needs

Karl Albrecht, Lawrence J. Bradford.

Homewood, Ill.: Dow Jones-Irwin

HF5415.5 .A43 1990

Summary:

According to this book, to know your customer is the basis thing for a success business. A good way to learn to do something better is to observe in action those who do it very well. The company who know their customers better than anyone else has more chance to success. In order to know your customers first of all is to know what a customer is. There are several tips you should keep in mind:

(1)A customer is the most important person in any business. (2)A customer is not dependent on us. (3)A customer is not an interruption of our work. He is the purpose of it. (4)A customer does us a favor when he comes in. (5)A customer is an essential part of our business, not an outsider. (6)A customer is not just money in the cash register. (7)A customer deserves the most courteous attention we can give him. (8)Without him we would have to close our doors.

Thinking the way the customer thinks is very important. In a service context itÐŽ¦s probably best to do unto others as they would have themselves done unto. In order to do that, you have to know your customers want ÐŽ§to be done unto.ЎЁ Creating a shared frame of reference is a well know prerequisite for effective human communication. Successful businesses excel at creating shared frames of reference. They make a concerted effort to view the company through their customerÐŽ¦s eyes.

Service management is a total organization approach to marking superior service the driving force of your business. It is a transformational concept, a philosophy, a thought process, a set of values and attitudes, and a set of methods. The most compelling reason is to gain superior customer knowledge and make service your driving force is to create differentiation from your competitors. One of the most potent ways to create market differentiation is by linking the quality of service with the quality of the product. Service quality, product quality and cost containment are the dimensional choice model. Service management creates a customer centered organization that makes the customerÐŽ¦s needs and expectations the focus of the business. The tips here is ÐŽ§the customer may not always be right, but the customer always comers first.ЎЁ

The customer report card is a window to know how customers feel of you service. Customers are different and have different needs, even within fairly close geographical confines. You must have a blueprint for excellent; a systematic method for assessing your customerÐŽ¦s inputs: like attitudes, values, beliefs, wants, feelings and expectations. That blueprint is the customer report card.

A customer report card is a physical, tangible, management tool. It provides data, from the customerÐŽ¦s perspective, on your service performance. The report card is crucial to your business success because it is your direct contact with the frames of reference of your customers. Before you building your customer card, there is something you should consider first: Who are your customer? What do customers want? How are you doing, in meeting their service requirements?

It is also important to examine the attributes on your employeeÐŽ¦s report cards. These attributes, commonly called ÐŽ§quality of work lifeЎЁ, come from the employeeÐŽ¦s perceived quality of all the aspects of their relationship with the organization. After all, the quality of work life has a direct and powerful influence on how they treat one another and your paying customers. To gain the service advantage you will need to gather the most complete and accurate information you can from all your customers.

Seeing things as the customer does is important for another reason. When you are able to see your business the way your customers see it, you have stepped into another personÐŽ¦s frame of reference. And when you get into another personÐŽ¦s frame of reference, you get into their view of reality. Seeing your business through the customerÐŽ¦s glasses will require some special tools and techniques: a knowledge of demographics and psychographics, and a basic understanding of research methods and tools. There are three basic question you need to address about demographics: What are they? Why are they important? How do you collect them?

Demographics provide the profile of your average customer, they are your first source of information. These special data are the most common means for segmenting your market and for identifying new targets you wish to reach with your product or service. The demographic data will help to know who your main customers are!

There are numerous ways to gather qualitative and quantitative data. Among the most common qualitative research tools are: face to face in-depth interviews, opportunistic interviews, telephone interviews, on-site interviews, and focus group interviews.

Employees, the best secret weapon. Your employee should be your first market in any service initiative. If you have not sold your employee on the notion of superior service, it will be very difficult to change the organization culture to one that puts the customer first. It is a serious mistake to attempt to launch a service initiative in an organization which has internal problems or issues that may be counterproductive to the new service culture. The employees represent one of your most valuable means for gathering information about your customers. They are kinds of sort of frontline radar; an early warning system. And each of them can function as a valuable data collection center. The employees can be your best secret weapon in the war to win customers. You need show them how to do on-the-spot market research. Other radar stations for gathering customer information are at refund and exchange counters. These are the best opportunities to learn about customerÐŽ¦s buying habits.

The customer contact employees are a special category of persons who are ideally place to help you get to know your customer better. Each of these persons can serve as a magnet to attract information about the customer. And they are the ones who man the frontline radar stations. So, be sure you are well using these resources!

Listening to your customers. Customer constantly tell you what they think. They do it subtle