Pillars of Excellence: How Your Customer’s Voice is Key to Boosting Profits

Let’s cut right to the chase: We’re in business to fulfill a mission and deliver value that someone—be it stuffy boardroom members, investors, or end users—will pay for with cold, hard cash. Without their monetary thumbs-up, we'd be out of business, period.

Here’s the kicker: We pour heaps of money and effort into crafting killer marketing and sales strategies to draw in these paying customers. But then, bizarrely, we often leave all those golden nuggets of customer insight gathering dust in the realms of sales and marketing. Why aren’t we leveraging this goldmine across our operations?

Do you know why customer success teams exist? I’m talking about the companies that have an account manager, a project manager, technical? teams, PLUS a customer success person (or some variation of this). They exist because the company has lost sight of the customer's voice the moment the ink dries on the contract. Suddenly, it’s all about what’s easiest or most cost-effective for them, internally, to deliver the products or services instead of what makes the most sense for the customer.?

But shouldn’t the customer perspective be the star of the show at all times, not just before the sale?

Just tuning in? Fuel your journey to operational excellence with our Pillars of Excellence series. Start from the beginning with BUILDING EXCELLENCE: HOW LEAN LEADERSHIP STOPS DAILY FIREFIGHTING, or catch up on last week’s insights with PILLARS OF EXCELLENCE SERIES: BUILDING BRIDGES, NOT TUNNELS.

Understanding Customer Centricity

Customer centricity keeps us focused on what is best for our customers and therefore what is best for our company (and it doesn’t work the other way around). It's about ensuring every process and decision directly addresses the needs and expectations of your customers.

Start with understanding your Voice of The Customer (VOC). Our VOC captures the needs, wants, expectations, and preferences of our customers and, in turn, provides the framework for understanding what is value-add or non-value-add. Integrating VOC into operational strategies ensures that the whole team—not just sales—understands what the customer truly values.

Start with questions like: ...Read the full bog here