Be Different or be dead

February 15, 2010

Why internal customers are as important as external ones

Source: Pexels

Absolutely true. If the way people treat fellow employees is memorable, the customer experience will be delightful as well.

If the service provided among employee groups sucks, service to external customers will follow suit.

Employees need to WOW! one another if they in turn are to be able to WOW! a customer.

Organizations are a mosaic of customer - supplier relationships. Marketing serves Sales; Engineering serves Marketing and Marketing/Sales/Administrative functions serve the Customer Service Organization.

If external customers are to be dazzled, the delivery process needs to operate seamlessly and all delivery units in the organization need to dazzle each other; providing their piece of the service delivery chain and going the extra mile for their internal customer.

If one link in the chain fails then the chain breaks and the external customer is ‘de-dazzled’. If on the other hand every link not only plays their expected part but also goes the extra mile for their internal customers, the service provided to the external customer will most likely blow them away.

How do you know what level of service quality is being provided?

Constant measurement of the service quality provided to customers must be done; the use of internal report card Is the method I successfully used as the leader of many different types of organizations.

Service stories should be told. And service heroes should be honoured.

We need, however, to take this a step further and apply the report card process to measure internal service quality. Sales should rate the level of service Marketing provides them and Marketing should rate Engineering.

Every internal customer-supplier relationship needs to be measured to see if the customer has been dazzled in an engagement with another employee

How to build a report card

Its really not that difficult to do and it doesn’t have to be complicated.

Pick six deliverables Sales expects from Marketing, for example, and have Sales rate on a 1-5 scale how effectively and consistently Marketing delivers each.

Have monthly joint review meetings to discuss the results and strike action plans to address any shortfalls.

Include internal service quality in the bonus compensation plan. I assure you that if part of Marketing’s bonus is based on the report card from Sales, the marketing folks will definitely pat attention to Sale’s needs, wants and desires.

The payoff: the service delivery process gets better and better over time; internal customers get dazzled.

And, the external customer both reaps the rewards of having a delightful service experience and returns the favour with continued loyalty.

Cheers,
Roy
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series

• Posted 2.15.10 at 03:31 pm by Roy Osing
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February 6, 2010

3 easy and proven steps to make an astonishing strategy

Source: Pexels

3 easy and proven steps to make an astonishing strategy.

If you have to capture the essence of your business plan strategy in an elevator ride, here’s how to do it.

The best business plan  for your organization can be developed by answering these three questions:

1. HOW BIG do you want to be? — your growth and financial targets;

2. WHO do you want to SERVE? — the customers you want to focus on to deliver your HOW BIG numbers;

3. HOW will you compete and WIN? — the way you intend to uniquely deliver what your chosen customers desire.

The final step in the process is to seamlessly articulate the answers to these three questions into your strategic game plan statement — a compelling and succinct expression that leaves no doubt where the organization is going and how it intends to compete and arrive at its destination.

Here’s an example:

“We will grow our top line sales revenue by 3% over the next 12 months (HOW BIG) by focusing our scarce resources on the retired couples segment of greater Seattle (WHO to SERVE). We will compete and win by providing personalized transportation services to assist them in getting around the city. (HOW to WIN)”

There you go. Specific. Simple. Understandable. Compelling.

Your strategy elevator speech.

I find that the game plan is extremely valuable in explaining to employees where the organization is going, and painting a picture of what the strategy looks like when it is being successfully executed.

Rarely does a strategy session start with the objective of creating an expression of strategy that captures the minds and hearts of the warriors you will be counting on to win…. the strategic game plan statement does.

Cheers,
Roy
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series

• Posted 2.6.10 at 01:55 pm by Roy Osing
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February 3, 2010

Why a great business plan is absolutely clear on ‘HOW to WIN’

Source: Unsplash

Why a great business plan is absolutely clear on ‘HOW to WIN’.

Traditional business planning methods have issues; they’re all screwed up. 

The first two questions you have to answer in the strategic game plan creation process:
▪️ HOW BIG do you want to be? — what are your growth and financial goals?
▪️ WHO do you want to SERVE? — what are the customer groups you want to focus on to deliver your growth goals?

”How will you WIN?”

The third and final question one asks is a critical one: “How will you compete and win?, and the answer to the question drives a stake in the ground in terms of how you will differentiate yourself from your competitors and beat them handily.

HOW to WIN follows the WHO to SERVE question. You are looking for uniqueness relative to the customer groups you have chosen to target and not the market generally.
You may have capabilities that stand out from your competitors in the mass market, but the challenge now is to focus on those that relate to the particular customer groups you have chosen to meet your revenue growth goals.

This is very important. If you have chosen customer groups ‘A’ and ‘B’ for example, then you need to differentiate yourself from others vying for the attention of these two groups specifically.
You will be searching for ways of delivering what these two groups want in a more compelling and special way than anyone else attempting to do the same thing.

Answering the HOW to WIN question involves in-depth competitor analysis: Who are they; what are their strategies? How do they differentiate? What is their value proposition?

As a practical way of determining your competitive position, I suggest creating the ONLY statement for your organization.

“We are the only ones that…” will separate you from the herd! 

Jerry Garcia, former leader of the legendary rock band The Grateful Dead, nailed it: “You don’t want merely to be the best of the best. You want to be the only ones who do what you do.”

This is not a task for the faint-of-heart. Engage your team in the task. It involves looking at every nook and cranny in your organization for opportunities to separate yourselves from the pack - brand, service, product, product support, and how you leverage technology are some examples of where you can look.

Here’s an example:
“We are the ONLY team that provides integrated safety solutions that go beyond the needs of our customers ANYTIME, ANYWHERE. We are committed to grow our customer’s business. We ONLY serve safety.”

Rules for creating The ONLY Statement

▪️ The ONLY statement must speak to the experiences and value you create for people not the products or services you want to push.

▪️ Keep it brief. It’s a sound bite not a narrative. If it consumes a page it isn’t a viable claim.

▪️ Talk to the specific customer group you are targeting not the market in general.

▪️ Test your ONLY statement with customers and employees to ensure it is relevant and true.

▪️ Consider your ONLY statement a draft. The reality is you won’t get it right the first time, so take your almost-there only statement and start working with it.

Refine it as you go. And stay alert for a response by a competitor who may suddenly come awake when they see your move.

Cheers,
Roy
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series

• Posted 2.3.10 at 01:53 pm by Roy Osing
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