This question demands we know what behaviou

Here are seven questions we should all ask to unravel what is required to deliver superior customer service.

1. What customers do we need to make our business successful?

   This question demands two answers.

   The first is what is our business? In reaching this understanding it is beneficial to remember the truths embodied in the following story.

   One of the world's leading manufacturers of electric power tools invites its new executives to attend an induction course, at the opening session of which they are urged to consider a slide projected onto a large wall screen. The image put before them is of a gleaming electric drill and the executives are asked if this is what the company sells.

   The executives look uncertainly around at one another and tend as a group to concede that, yes, this is indeed what the company sells. It seems like a safe bet. They are immediately challenged by the next slide, however, that of a photograph of a hole, neatly drilled in a wall.

   "That is what we sell", the trainers suggest with some considerable satisfaction. "Very few of our customers are passionately committed to the deployment of electric power tools in their homes. They want holes. And it is your jobs as executives in this corporation to find ever more competitive, efficient, and imaginative ways of giving our customers what they want, holes in their walls".

   The second is what does a successful version of our business look like? What values of which financial, customer and community metrics describe our view of a successful business?

   The two answers enable us to start to determine how many customers, with what problems, we need to solve in order to have a successful business.

2. What do our preferred customers expect?

   This question demands that we know not only what products or services a customer group needs, but what problem needs to be solved.

   Customers will expect us to solve their problem, not just to meet their need. In solving their problem what will they expect in terms of sales, credit, logistics, billing and communication?

   We must match the minimum of what they expect with the minimum of what we provide. We must be willing to ask what customers need and not fall into the trap of using the opinion of one (ours). Conducting well constructed and sampled qualitative research is a good way to find out the relative importance of customer expectations and quantitative research to find out how many customers exist with groups of expectations. If we cannot afford to then we should talk to the people from whom our preferred customers buy.

3. What would surprise them?

   This question demands knowledge of customer's unmet needs.

   In addition to understanding what our preferred customers expect as a minimum, we must understand the range of services which they would not expect, but value. In doing so, we will know what services to give to deliver superior service. Typically, these services are low cost ones which we can afford to give away.

   For example, following up a customer in retail sales of medium to high value goods or services has high impact on reducing any feelings of remorse over the purchase and highlights any issues over the purchase to be dealt with quickly. The cost is a few minutes of labour and a phone call. The service is unexpected and in the vast majority of cases very welcomed and valued.

4. What would make it easy for our preferred customers to do business with us?

   This question demands we know how our customers prefer to buy and what problems our approach to selling may cause them.

   Designing our business interactions to help our preferred customers buy our goods and services allows us to focus on two things in sequence.

   First is to design our processes to help our preferred customers buy, thereby reducing their perceived costs.

   Secondly, is with that design of processes in mind, to reduce our costs of executing those processes.

   Making it easy to do business with us has two advantages. It usually reduces the cost of the transaction leading to higher available margins. Making it easy to do business with us will also help capture market share of our preferred customer segment, above and beyond what is calculated by a competitive analysis excluding this parameter.

5. What kind of employees do we need to surprise the customers we need?

   This question demands we know what behaviour

   Branding Your Company From The Top Down
   Do you ever stop and wonder why women are leaving your company? Are you unsure how to stem the tide of women leaving corporate America? The simple fact behind the answer is senior management and employees are not on the same wave length. The appropriate policies are in place and every one uses the politically correct rhetoric yet the implementation of policies never seems to trickle down to those who are affected the most. The women employees know that policies, for the most part, are a joke and not taken seriously by the employer. There is a serious discrepancy in getting the "true" message to the right people. Here are some reasons why.1) Lack of legitimate support for women at workThe Party Line: The company has developed a strong platform of supporting women in the workforce. The Reality: Women have not attained parity with in the organization.The Solution: Th
   and tend as a group to concede that, yes, this is indeed what the company sells. It seems like a safe bet. They are immediately challenged by the next slide, however, that of a photograph of a hole, neatly drilled in a wall.

   "That is what we sell", the trainers suggest with some considerable satisfaction. "Very few of our customers are passionately committed to the deployment of electric power tools in their homes. They want holes. And it is your jobs as executives in this corporation to find ever more competitive, efficient, and imaginative ways of giving our customers what they want, holes in their walls".

   The second is what does a successful version of our business look like? What values of which financial, customer and community metrics describe our view of a successful business?

   The two answers enable us to start to determine how many customers, with what problems, we need to solve in order to have a successful business.

6. What do our preferred customers expect?

   This question demands that we know not only what products or services a customer group needs, but what problem needs to be solved.

   Customers will expect us to solve their problem, not just to meet their need. In solving their problem what will they expect in terms of sales, credit, logistics, billing and communication?

   We must match the minimum of what they expect with the minimum of what we provide. We must be willing to ask what customers need and not fall into the trap of using the opinion of one (ours). Conducting well constructed and sampled qualitative research is a good way to find out the relative importance of customer expectations and quantitative research to find out how many customers exist with groups of expectations. If we cannot afford to then we should talk to the people from whom our preferred customers buy.

7. What would surprise them?

   This question demands knowledge of customer's unmet needs.

   In addition to understanding what our preferred customers expect as a minimum, we must understand the range of services which they would not expect, but value. In doing so, we will know what services to give to deliver superior service. Typically, these services are low cost ones which we can afford to give away.

   For example, following up a customer in retail sales of medium to high value goods or services has high impact on reducing any feelings of remorse over the purchase and highlights any issues over the purchase to be dealt with quickly. The cost is a few minutes of labour and a phone call. The service is unexpected and in the vast majority of cases very welcomed and valued.

8. What would make it easy for our preferred customers to do business with us?

   This question demands we know how our customers prefer to buy and what problems our approach to selling may cause them.

   Designing our business interactions to help our preferred customers buy our goods and services allows us to focus on two things in sequence.

   First is to design our processes to help our preferred customers buy, thereby reducing their perceived costs.

   Secondly, is with that design of processes in mind, to reduce our costs of executing those processes.

   Making it easy to do business with us has two advantages. It usually reduces the cost of the transaction leading to higher available margins. Making it easy to do business with us will also help capture market share of our preferred customer segment, above and beyond what is calculated by a competitive analysis excluding this parameter.

9. What kind of employees do we need to surprise the customers we need?

   This question demands we know what behaviou

   Postage Meter Supplies
   The postage meter is a crucial piece of office equipment that makes mail management a simple task. Depending on the diversity and the volume of mail handled, several ranges of postage meters are available in the market. In accordance with the Federal regulations, the meter unit of the equipment can only be leased, while other parts can be purchased or leased for a time period.The supplies pertaining to the postage meter can be broadly classified into consumables, software, data provision, and hardware. Most can be purchased online from recognized postage-meter vendors. Consumables include bag and tray tags, tabs, water seals, bottled ink, inkjet printer-specific cartridges, white or colored adhesive labels, strapping, and glue dot.The most common software used are a combination of the CASS (coding accuracy support system) and PAVE (presort accuracy validation and evaluation).
10. What do our preferred customers expect?

    This question demands that we know not only what products or services a customer group needs, but what problem needs to be solved.

    Customers will expect us to solve their problem, not just to meet their need. In solving their problem what will they expect in terms of sales, credit, logistics, billing and communication?

    We must match the minimum of what they expect with the minimum of what we provide. We must be willing to ask what customers need and not fall into the trap of using the opinion of one (ours). Conducting well constructed and sampled qualitative research is a good way to find out the relative importance of customer expectations and quantitative research to find out how many customers exist with groups of expectations. If we cannot afford to then we should talk to the people from whom our preferred customers buy.

11. What would surprise them?

    This question demands knowledge of customer's unmet needs.

    In addition to understanding what our preferred customers expect as a minimum, we must understand the range of services which they would not expect, but value. In doing so, we will know what services to give to deliver superior service. Typically, these services are low cost ones which we can afford to give away.

    For example, following up a customer in retail sales of medium to high value goods or services has high impact on reducing any feelings of remorse over the purchase and highlights any issues over the purchase to be dealt with quickly. The cost is a few minutes of labour and a phone call. The service is unexpected and in the vast majority of cases very welcomed and valued.

12. What would make it easy for our preferred customers to do business with us?

    This question demands we know how our customers prefer to buy and what problems our approach to selling may cause them.

    Designing our business interactions to help our preferred customers buy our goods and services allows us to focus on two things in sequence.

    First is to design our processes to help our preferred customers buy, thereby reducing their perceived costs.

    Secondly, is with that design of processes in mind, to reduce our costs of executing those processes.

    Making it easy to do business with us has two advantages. It usually reduces the cost of the transaction leading to higher available margins. Making it easy to do business with us will also help capture market share of our preferred customer segment, above and beyond what is calculated by a competitive analysis excluding this parameter.

13. What kind of employees do we need to surprise the customers we need?

    This question demands we know what behaviou

    Lifting the Load with Used Heavy Equipment
    Nowadays the used heavy equipments can satisfy the construction needs. They satisfy the needs in various forms like new heavy machinery, used heavy-duty equipment or even leasing or renting. One should ensure first that the used heavy equipments bought should be of high quality and would be safe to use. All companies do not sell the used heavy equipments but do definitely tell from where they could be purchased.There are many companies, which sell the used heavy equipments, and their sales have created a good market place for the buyers and the sellers to come together for moving used iron. These auctions save the expenditure on transportation fee due to different onsite auctions. The main objective of the auctions of used heavy equipments is to make the process as easy as possible and the most cost effective to the clients. There are various benefits of sale of used heavy equipments
    ould surprise them?

    This question demands knowledge of customer's unmet needs.

    In addition to understanding what our preferred customers expect as a minimum, we must understand the range of services which they would not expect, but value. In doing so, we will know what services to give to deliver superior service. Typically, these services are low cost ones which we can afford to give away.

    For example, following up a customer in retail sales of medium to high value goods or services has high impact on reducing any feelings of remorse over the purchase and highlights any issues over the purchase to be dealt with quickly. The cost is a few minutes of labour and a phone call. The service is unexpected and in the vast majority of cases very welcomed and valued.

14. What would make it easy for our preferred customers to do business with us?

    This question demands we know how our customers prefer to buy and what problems our approach to selling may cause them.

    Designing our business interactions to help our preferred customers buy our goods and services allows us to focus on two things in sequence.

    First is to design our processes to help our preferred customers buy, thereby reducing their perceived costs.

    Secondly, is with that design of processes in mind, to reduce our costs of executing those processes.

    Making it easy to do business with us has two advantages. It usually reduces the cost of the transaction leading to higher available margins. Making it easy to do business with us will also help capture market share of our preferred customer segment, above and beyond what is calculated by a competitive analysis excluding this parameter.

15. What kind of employees do we need to surprise the customers we need?

    This question demands we know what behaviou

    Your Employees Deserve More Than Money For Their Effort
    Most people want to matter and be part of something special. We spend 2000+ hours at work. This equals approximately 20% of all the hours in a year. We sleep 30-35%. There's 45-50% of the hours in a year left to us to travel, eat, do whatever chores we have, sit in traffic, shower and brush our teeth, clean our houses, set goals, visit family and friends, shop - and whatever else it is you do with your time.Point is, leaders need to be aware that their employees are exchanging 1/5 of their valuable time for something provided through your organization. For some, exchanging time for money is enough, but most require more. Like I said earlier, people want to matter and be part of something special. They want to stretch and be challenged and be a part of something larger than themselves. They want to grow and see a pattern of growth in their lives. They want to work with people they lik
    how our customers prefer to buy and what problems our approach to selling may cause them.

    Designing our business interactions to help our preferred customers buy our goods and services allows us to focus on two things in sequence.

    First is to design our processes to help our preferred customers buy, thereby reducing their perceived costs.

    Secondly, is with that design of processes in mind, to reduce our costs of executing those processes.

    Making it easy to do business with us has two advantages. It usually reduces the cost of the transaction leading to higher available margins. Making it easy to do business with us will also help capture market share of our preferred customer segment, above and beyond what is calculated by a competitive analysis excluding this parameter.

16. What kind of employees do we need to surprise the customers we need?

    This question demands we know what behaviour, skills and knowledge are required to solve our preferred customer's problem, exceed their expectations and make it easy to buy from us.

    To deliver superior service, employees need to believe in delivering superior service. Beliefs drive attitudes and behaviours. An employee's attitude towards customer service is the starting point to delivering superior service.

    Recruitment must take into account the beliefs and attitudes of prospective employees as well as their technical skills and experiences.

    The beliefs and behaviours of prospective employees must match those required to deliver the minimum service required and the unexpected service which will be valued by our preferred customer segment.

17. What would make it attractive for people who would surprise the customers we need to join us and stay?

    This question demands we know what will win the competition for the behaviour, skills and knowledge we require to provide superior service to our preferred customers.

    What rewards and recognition system will encourage the types of employees we want to come to our organisation and to stay, grow and teach others?

    What design of performance management system will reinforce the behaviour and performance we need to be able to deliver superior service to our preferred customer segment? Will it weed out those who do not fit because of poor behaviour or poor performance?

18. What information would tell us that our business is successful?

    This question demands we know not only the values of lagging financial, customer and community metrics that indicate a successful business, but also leading indicators of superior customer service.

Taking time out to ask some or all of these powerful questions on what is necessary to provide superior customer service will create some anxiety. It is designed to. The answers will, in most cases, show a gap between what is happening now and what is needed to deliver superior service.

To close the gap takes both will and ability, not only of the leader of the organisation, but also the team they lead. Involving the team in answering these powerful questions will get the buy-in required to start on the journey to providing superior customer service.