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Customer Orientation

Definition
Customer Orientation is demonstrating concern for satisfying one's external and/or internal customers.
Behaviors
An employee demonstrating this competency:
  • Lives a business mission: to be the preferred supplier through total customer satisfaction
  • Quickly and effectively solves customer problems
  • Talks to customers (internal or external) to find out what they want and how satisfied they are with what they are getting
  • Lets customers know he/she is willing to work with them to meet their needs
  • Finds ways to measure and track customer satisfaction
  • Presents a cheerful, positive manner with customers
Importance of this Competency
Customer Orientation means focusing one’s own and one’s units efforts toward meeting the needs of internal and external customers. The principle of customer orientation is at the heart of the total quality movement, which involves continuous improvement to meet and exceed customer requirements. Customer Orientation is also essential for survival in today’s increasingly competitive marketplace. Only companies that effectively meet the needs of their customers will survive.

To achieve internal effectiveness and efficiency, organizations must also ensure that individual units are responsive to the needs of their internal customers.
General Considerations in Developing this Competency
This competency requires a particular orientation and attitude, rather than the extensive development of new skills. Thus the primary way to develop this competency is to put it into practice, by identifying your units internal or external customers, talking to them to understand their needs, and focusing the units efforts toward meeting these needs.
Practicing this Competency
  • Meet with your unit to identify its major customers. List the customers who receive the work outputs from your group. Analyze and prioritize the list. Identify who are your most important customers and who will become your major customers over the next 2 - 3 years.
  • Set up meetings with your key customers. Ask them how satisfied they are with what you are providing them now, and what you can do to provide better service.
  • With your unit, identify ways to measure the quality and responsiveness of the service you are providing (e.g., number of errors detected in shipments each week; average time from order to delivery).
  • Create a graph of each key service measure over time, and post the graphs where everyone in your work unit can see them.
  • Identify and implement improvements in work processes that will result in better customer service.
Obtaining Feedback
Periodically meet with your key customers to review the service you have been providing and identify ways to improve it. Periodically survey your customers to learn how satisfied they are with your units service. Create a survey that includes both quantifiable ratings and open-ended questions.

Identify what work processes or assignments are currently hindering your units ability to provide excellent service to its customers. Develop ideas for changing the work processes or assignments and discuss them with your manager.

If your job involves providing direct service to external customers, consider taking a course that provides role plays and feedback on customer interactions.
Learning from Experts
Interview individuals with a reputation for providing excellent service to their customers. Find out what these individuals did and how to improve their service to their customers.
Coaching Suggestions for Managers
If you are coaching someone who is trying to develop the compentency, you can:
  • Provide feedback and suggestions to help improve customer service.
  • Demonstrate through your own actions a commitment to providing excellent service.
  • Ask this person what you can do to enable him/her to do a better job of focusing on customer service.
  • Observe this person in interactions with key internal or external customers and provide specific, constructive feedback.
  • Recognize and reward behavior that demonstrates a commitment to customers.
Sample Development Goals
By February 15, I will meet with each of my unit’s 5 key internal customers. I will ask how satisfied they are with the service we are providing and what we can do to improve it.

By March 8, I will meet with Lila Welch to learn what her unit has done to provide excellent service to its internal customers. From this conversation, I will develop a list of specific ideas to consider for application in my unit.

By April 30, I will complete a self-study course in customer orientation skills and identify a list of ideas to apply in my own unit.
Development Resources

BOOKS AND PUBLICATIONS

Becoming a Customer-Focused Organization, by Craig Cochran. Chico, CA: Paton Press LLC, 2006.

Customer Centered Growth: Five Proven Strategies for Building Competitive Advantage, by Richard Whiteley & Diane Hessan. New York, NY: Perseus Books Group, 1997.

Customer Chemistry: How to Keep the Customers You Want-And Say "Good-Bye" to the Ones You Don't, by Mary Naylor & Susan Greco. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, 2002.

Customer Once, Client Forever: 12 Tools for Building Lifetime Business Relationships, by Richard A. Buckingham. New York, NY: Kiplinger Books, 2001.

Customer Power: How to Grow Sales and Profits in a Customer-Driven Marketplace, by David C. Swaddling & Charles Miller. London, UK: Wellington Press Group, 2001.

Delivering Knock Your Socks Off Service, by Performance Research Associates. New York, NY: AMACOM, 2006.

Great Customer Connections: Simple Psychological Techniques That Guarantee Exceptional Service, by Richard S. Gallagher. New York, NY: AMACOM, 2006.

Improving Customer Satisfaction, Loyalty, and Profit, by Michael D. Johnson & Anders Gustafsson. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2000.

Relationship Marketing: Gaining Competitive Advantage Through Customer Satisfaction and Customer Retention, by Thorsten Hennig-Thurau & Ursula Hansen. Berlin, GR: Springer-Verlag, 2000.

Reorganize for Resilience: Putting Customers at the Center of Your Business, by Ranjay Gulati. Boston, MA: Harvard Business Press, 2010.

Satisfaction: How Every Great Company Listens to the Voice of the Customer, by Chris Denove & James Power. New York, NY: Penguin Group, Inc., 2006.

Service Magic: The Art of Amazing Your Customers, by Chip Bell & Ron Zemke. Chicago, IL: Dearborn Trade Publishing, 2003.

The Customer Delight Principle: Exceeding Customers’ Expectations for Bottom-Line Success, by Timothy L. Keiningham & Terry Vavra. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill/Contemporary Books, 2001.

WORKSHOPS & COURSES - PUBLIC, ONSITE, ONLINE

LinkedIn Learning. Online courses.
https://www.linkedin.com/learning/search?keywords=Customer%20Relationship%20Management%20(CRM)

Customer Relationship Management. 25+ programs. Udemy.
https://www.udemy.com/courses/search/?q=customer%20relationship%20management&src=sac&kw=customer

Customer Service Excellence: How to Win and Keep Customers. Two days classroom and online. American Management Association. Tel. 877 566-9441.
https://www.amanet.org/customer-service-excellence-how-to-win-and-keep-customers/

Delivering Knock Your Socks Off Service. Self-study course. American Management Association. Tel. 800 250-5308.
https://www.amaselfstudy.org/courses/delivering-knock-your-socks-off-service-2/

Leading Extraordinary Customer Service. Two days. American Management Association. Tel. 877 566-9441.
www.amanet.org/seminars/seminar.cfm?basesemno=05101

ServiceSkills eLearning. Four series on customer relationship management. Tel. 800-882-0011.
https://www.serviceskills.com/courses

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
See Appendix


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