Monday, May 16, 2005
Customers for Life
Customers for Life
© 1990 by Carl Sewell
Don't charge the customer for any service you wouldn't charge a friend for.
Ask customers what they want. Provide systems, not smiles. Underpromise and overdeliver. When the customer asks, the answer is always yes. Encourage your customer's to tell you what you're doing wrong. Measure everything. Pay people like partners. Show people respect. Be polite.
Nothing paid off better than visiting successful companies. We borrowed a lot of ideas.
The only thing that matters is what the customer wants. And the only way to know for sure what they want is to ask them.
The secret is to identify the three things that are most important to the customer.
We don't want to bother our customers. We give them every opportunity to tell us what they think, but we make it optional. Make it easy for them to tell you. Don't pester them.
Whenever possible we want to help our customers. Our job is to take care of the customer so well that he keeps coming back for the rest of his life.
One call should do it all. Don't worry about people taking advantage of you.
Build in a cushion so you can always charge a little less.
Doing a good job has two parts: doing the job right the first time and having a plan in place to deal with things when they go wrong.
The important thing is designing systems that allow you to do the job right the first time.
The more variations you can eliminate, the better your product or service.
What can go wrong? What can be automated?
If a job is done wrong, the person who made the mistake must fix it and he shouldn't be paid for setting it right. Since the company doesn't get paid for doing a job over, neither should the person who did it wrong.
Each comeback is talked about in the morning quality meeting.
We try to do root cause analysis to figure out what went wrong the first time and fix it so it does not go wrong again.
Customers want firms to do what they say they are going to do.
What is the benefit to the customer? Will the customer understand the benefit?
First we apologize, and then we fix the problem. We have to make a big deal about being wrong.
We have to keep adding new ideas and improving the ones we have.
If you're not getting better, you're getting worse. The Japanese call the process of continuous improvement KAIZEN. Getting better - continuously is absolutely necessary if we are going to survive.
Have you thanked your employees today? There are a lot of things you can delegate. Take a longer-term view of the value of a customer.
Explain to customers how you do things. Thank customers over the phone, thank you notes, etc.
I don't believe you can run an above-average business with average employees. To be the best, we need to find people who are 10s on a scale of 1 to 10.
If people have performed well in the past, they'll probably perform well in the future. So, in interviewing, look for people who have been successful and leaders.
Look for history of success, energy, intelligence, character, will they fit?
If you mistreat a customer, you lose your job. Don't be afraid to fire people.
Is the measurement important? Is the measurement easy to track? Will the employees understand the measurement? Is the measurement stated in positive terms?
The more you post, the more effective it is. We track the number of jobs done correctly.
It would be demeaning to display the number of mistakes publicly.
Measure what is relevant, post results, keep raising the level of acceptable performance, and limit your goals.
Decide to be the best, the boss must set the example, celebrate your success.
In whatever you do, make sure there is a "wow factor" something that will grab people's attention.
Look the part, act the part.
How much could a person spend with you in the course of a lifetime?
When we do a real good job with customers, they tell their friends.
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0385415036
© 1990 by Carl Sewell
Don't charge the customer for any service you wouldn't charge a friend for.
Ask customers what they want. Provide systems, not smiles. Underpromise and overdeliver. When the customer asks, the answer is always yes. Encourage your customer's to tell you what you're doing wrong. Measure everything. Pay people like partners. Show people respect. Be polite.
Nothing paid off better than visiting successful companies. We borrowed a lot of ideas.
The only thing that matters is what the customer wants. And the only way to know for sure what they want is to ask them.
The secret is to identify the three things that are most important to the customer.
We don't want to bother our customers. We give them every opportunity to tell us what they think, but we make it optional. Make it easy for them to tell you. Don't pester them.
Whenever possible we want to help our customers. Our job is to take care of the customer so well that he keeps coming back for the rest of his life.
One call should do it all. Don't worry about people taking advantage of you.
Build in a cushion so you can always charge a little less.
Doing a good job has two parts: doing the job right the first time and having a plan in place to deal with things when they go wrong.
The important thing is designing systems that allow you to do the job right the first time.
The more variations you can eliminate, the better your product or service.
What can go wrong? What can be automated?
If a job is done wrong, the person who made the mistake must fix it and he shouldn't be paid for setting it right. Since the company doesn't get paid for doing a job over, neither should the person who did it wrong.
Each comeback is talked about in the morning quality meeting.
We try to do root cause analysis to figure out what went wrong the first time and fix it so it does not go wrong again.
Customers want firms to do what they say they are going to do.
What is the benefit to the customer? Will the customer understand the benefit?
First we apologize, and then we fix the problem. We have to make a big deal about being wrong.
We have to keep adding new ideas and improving the ones we have.
If you're not getting better, you're getting worse. The Japanese call the process of continuous improvement KAIZEN. Getting better - continuously is absolutely necessary if we are going to survive.
Have you thanked your employees today? There are a lot of things you can delegate. Take a longer-term view of the value of a customer.
Explain to customers how you do things. Thank customers over the phone, thank you notes, etc.
I don't believe you can run an above-average business with average employees. To be the best, we need to find people who are 10s on a scale of 1 to 10.
If people have performed well in the past, they'll probably perform well in the future. So, in interviewing, look for people who have been successful and leaders.
Look for history of success, energy, intelligence, character, will they fit?
If you mistreat a customer, you lose your job. Don't be afraid to fire people.
Is the measurement important? Is the measurement easy to track? Will the employees understand the measurement? Is the measurement stated in positive terms?
The more you post, the more effective it is. We track the number of jobs done correctly.
It would be demeaning to display the number of mistakes publicly.
Measure what is relevant, post results, keep raising the level of acceptable performance, and limit your goals.
Decide to be the best, the boss must set the example, celebrate your success.
In whatever you do, make sure there is a "wow factor" something that will grab people's attention.
Look the part, act the part.
How much could a person spend with you in the course of a lifetime?
When we do a real good job with customers, they tell their friends.
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0385415036
