If Strategy begins in the mind of the strategist, then the object of it?s focus must be the customer.
The customer should be in the dead center of your strategic focus - at least that's the way it's supposed to be. Yes, many claim they are "customer centric", but a peak under the rug of their thinking would expose that answer as more a platitude than a priority.
Yet, if you expect to take your company to the next level ...If you expect to compete against competitive rivals ...If you want to establish industry dominance, then a Focus on the Customer must consume both your and your organizations thinking.
Ponder this...
There is only one reason your business exist --The Customer.
All of your current success and future growth will come from the customer. Every product or service, every building and plant, every process, every investor, every employee and every vendor all the way up the value chain exist only to meet the needs of the customer.
When you?re putting out fires in the business - it's so you can get back to serving the customer better. When you are trying to out think, out wit and out market your competitors - it is so you can serve the customers needs better. When you are innovating new products and services - it is so you can help customers solve more problems faster at a lower cost or with more convenience.
So, if a focus on the customer is the center of a businesses existence, then why is it so hard to keep our focus on the customer?
Look, we're human. We are proud of what we do. We are proud of the products we make and the services we offer. Just getting those products made and those services delivered takes an incredible amount of our available focus. Further, the product is tangible. The service has a tangible element to it. The buildings and plants and factories are tangible. And the people that make all of it run are certainly tangible. So, it's only natural that our thinking and focus be drawn to these concrete elements of our business.
The gravity of all this pulls our focus way from the customer.
In contrast, if you hold a thousand focus groups, you still may not have solved the riddle that is the mind of the customer. Yet, it's these inconsistent, disloyal, unfathomable customers that hold the key to our future business growth and ultimate success.
If you're thinking I'm overstating what should be obvious to anybody that's had a year of business school, then take a look at the marketing communications, press releases and websites of a couple dozen fortune 500 companies. Just read the first paragraph or two. Do they start off talking about their customer?s needs and problems or do they start off talking about themselves?
Point made.
But, how can we get our focus back where it belongs; on the customer?
Here are a few quick ways...
Take a quick look at your Marketing Communications. If the first sentence or paragraph starts off talking about your company or it's products and services - send it back to the marketing department for a rewrite. Same goes for your Mission Statement. Especially your Mission Statement.
Next, pick one customer out of one segment. Now, just spend 5 minutes everyday at the beginning of your workday for a single week thinking about this customer. Do it before you start sorting through the morning?s emails.
Finally, instead of asking sales or marketing what the needs, frustrations and challenges of the customers are, go to your production and service fulfillment people, your IT people, your plant or operations staff, your accounting department and ask them. That will give you a clear indicator of how customer focused your business really is.
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