It is Needs not wants, stupid.

The critical step in improving customer understanding is to stop asking questions. Instead listen to the customers opinions, perceptions and expectations.

Enter a Disney theme park and you will be greeted by courteous cast members (road sweeps, characters, security personnel) who politely listen, understand and act on the questions customers ask. Using a structured approach cast members guide a dialogue to elicit customers needs, identify actions and develop a plan in less than 30 seconds. In fact they can articulate customers needs even when customers themselves don’t know them.

So lets get scientific about the customer experience and scrap those dumb surveys that are subjective, self selecting and geared to understanding wants.

Certified Process Professional Masters (CPP-Master) Program

(Sydney Australia Oct 27-31, Brisbane Aus Nov 3-7, Dubai UAE Dec 7-11, Orlando US Jan 22-23, Denver US Jan 26-30, London UK Mar 2-6)
www.bpgroup.org/certification-by-city.html

An internationally recognised program with proven track record delivered by been there and done it coaches more than 130 times, in 52 cities with delegates from 105 countries. 

The program, now in its tenth year, utilizes the BP Groups approaches and framework to help you and your organization win the triple crown – simultaneously reduce costs, grow revenues and enhance service. Producing Immediate and sustainable business results across any industry and sector. 

Become a qualified CPP-Master and demonstrate your professionalism.
www.bpgroup.org/certification-by-city.html

Don't ask the customer want they want. Determine what they need.

Do you give our children everything they say they want? Of course not. 
Then why do we spend gazillions doing that with customers? Research and Focus Groups, Customer Panels, Surveys, Voice of Customer and so on.


The answer isn’t there.
You have to figure out what the customer needs even when they don’t know it themselves.

Remember Henry Ford’s quip: If I had given the customer what they want they would have said faster horses”!

 
Have you identified Customer Needs, or do you stop short with Wants?

BPM, Balanced Scorecard, EA and High Performance (presentation)

At a recent performance appraisal this comment was made seriously,
"If you pay me for doing dumb things, I will get really smart at doing dumb things".

Do you measure people with 'dumb' metrics - activities and outputs, or with Outside In measures of results and outcomes? If Balanced Scorecards (BSC) and Strategy Maps fail it is largely as a consequence of having dumb metrics in there - activities and outputs.

So how can we measure the right things and encourage success? Instead of people rushing to deal with a call (because all calls must be less than 2 minutes) how do we measure the meeting of a customer need - effective resolution of a query? Using the appropriate process and performance metrics within an articulated Enterprise Architecture is a good starting point. This presentation leads us to the how of that. Enjoy.

Business Process Management - Building The BPM Balanced Scorecard from Steve Towers