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Executive Wisdom Consulting Group works with organisations and their executives on strategic listening, and explains that that every employee must know “how” to hear the customer’s voice. It means that people need to move beyond statements about customer desires. A good technique for ensuring understanding is the “Five What’s.” Just as you should sometimes ask “Why?” five times to discover the root cause of an operational problem, you should ask “What?” five times to fully understand customer needs.
For example, if someone says a customer wants “total quality,” it’s appropriate to say. “What do you mean by that?” if the response is, “Rapid response to my problems,” it’s appropriate to respond, “What do you mean by rapid response?” if the questioning process is continued five times, you and your customer will be able to define the exact nature of the attribute in question.
The Society for Executive Wisdom surveyed 147 businesses ranging from sole proprietors to national public companies using this technique with regards to service expectations on their photocopiers. This was done on behalf of a technology client of Executive Wisdom. Here is the resultant summary of the majority response:
What do you expect from your photocopier service provider with regards to Service specifically?
- “We expect outstanding service.”
What does that mean to you?
- “Responsiveness”
What do you mean exactly by that?
- “Quick fix of unanticipated problems for which we should not be inconvenienced.”
What does that mean to you?
- “Minimum downtime of our office copier.”
What exactly do you mean by minimum downtime?
- “Maximum of 3 hours for the copier to be fixed.”
Therefore:
Average time lapse between initial customer call and restored service should not exceed 3 hours.
Our recommendation to the client was to offer this as a paid-for premium service to obtain priority attention. Without a single increase in the number of actual customers, our client increased revenues by a staggering 11% and improved customer satisfaction. It also reduced the customer complaints; because those who did not subscribe to the premium service understood that they would have up to an eight hour response-time, but recognised that clearly by dint of their service relationship.
What internal measures do you have or can you create that will help you monitor how well you are meeting the needs of your “A Class” clients?
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