CUSTOMER MANAGEMENT

‘Ready. Fire! Aim.’ is a characteristic approach adopted by Ross Perot, the Texan billionaire, in the context of intensive product innovation. Most organizations, however (whether privately or publicly owned) cannot indulge in the unfocused expenditure that this implies, even though it is one method adopted by some of the world’s most successful corporations. If you operate within tightly defined limits, your approach must be more carefully prepared, even though the overall aim - that of satisfying ever more demanding customers - is the same.

Marketing strategy, often seen as the province of resource-hungry specialists, has some important ideas which can be applied not only to fast-moving consumer goods, but also to the internal customer in a service organization. The traditional ‘Ps’ - product, price, place and promotion - are these days augmented by softer ‘Ps’: people, process management and physical environment. These new criteria can be used to define a level of customer service which is not necessarily expressed in the traditional 4 Ps. They can indeed become the cornerstones of a ‘marketing’ strategy whether customers are internal or external.

Under ‘people’ for instance, we think of the knowledge and skill levels our team will require to deliver excellent service, and process management encompasses all those organizational systems and procedures which are required to ensure that service delivery excels. Such processes are often encapsulated in a quality policy within a total quality management (TQM) system. Formal quality systems, such as TQM or Business Excellence, are of course grounded upon consistent attainment of standards.

For customer service, standards can be set in the context of a ‘service promise’ - the contract which we make with and deliver to our customers to guarantee their satisfaction with our service. A service promise must be clear and deliverable, which requires it to be articulated in SMART objective language, communicated throughout the organization, owned by all levels of management and consequently properly resourced. A service promise can operate between departments within an organization, or between interdependent business units.

POINTS TO PONDER

1. Does your organisation have a service promise or its equivalent such as a customer charter?
   
   

2. Is this promise linked to your organisation's strategy?
   
   

3. At what level is this accepted?

In order to help you,  we will be publishing a dossier on this subject called  "Managing Customer Relations"  this dossier along with our well stocked on-line reading room will help you to develop your knowledge in this area as part of our multi-format management development infrastructure.