Who Are Your Customers?

A one-size fits-all survey won’t tell you

In order to assess how well you have served your customers, you must first understand their needs and expectations. It’s impossible to gather meaningful data if you aren’t asking the right questions.

Before you can begin to ask the questions, you must first identify who your customers are. Different customers will have varied needs and expectations. Who are your customers? What do they care most about? Some customers are more focused on fast delivery. Others need iron-clad traceability.

Beyond the varied and disparate requirements is the dynamic of change. Requirements and markets evolve over time. Have your customers changed over time? Are you selling into the same markets as 15 years ago? Has your market share grown or declined? Is there more competition? Do you have different tiers and categories of customers?

The variety of customers your organization has is directly relevant to the manner in which you communicate with them, the questions you ask, and the tools you will use to assess their needs and measure their level of satisfaction. Consider the following scenarios.

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Comments

Good Point

"It’s impossible to gather meaningful data if you aren’t asking the right questions"

Excellent comment and quality to digest!

Questions to ask your customers

You make good points but don't come up with a process.

Your customers will engage you only because they have a problem to solve.

This process this is called SPIN then DIFOTIS on $. It's the bones upon which real quality systems are built.

Question your customer to...

1. Describe the Situation..

2. Describe the Poblem..

3. Describe the Implications (what happens if the problem isn't solved = risk assessment)..

4. Cover off how you can meet their Needs....then

5. Make the sale....agree what they want, when they want it and price.

6. Then set up a quality your system to Deliver in Full Om Time In Spec and on budget (DIFOTIS on $)..

7. Finally, set up a customer review cycle to go through 1-7 on an ongoing basis.

Hope this helps

Cheers

Just the beginning

Appreciate your comments. This article only deals with the foundation - understanding what you need to begin. Your points cover some of the actions going forward.

Who is Who?

Well said, Mrs. Robitaille: unfortunately, sales-people are any company's Olympus demi-gods, as top management identifies them with turn-over, hence money-making. All too often, sales-people subscribe customers' orders before having determined their feasibility, most often in terms of on-time-delivery; then, all sorts of phantasies come out to justify late deliveries. And this happens even in companies holding acrredited registration, from ISO 9001 to ISO/TS 16949 to ISO 13485, and so on: this is because registrars's auditors don't drill deep enough in the top management commitment requirements or in the sales-people approach. The records presented are all very nice, but that's the tip of the iceberg; on the other hand, how can evidence of top management's and sales-people's feeling and thinking be collected? Auditors surely smell the rat, but how can they provide sound evidence to their principals? Maybe some kind of sales ethical code standard would help, but it be would be hard work: who are Registrars' customers? Thank you.