Q. How do you assess
customer feedback?
We bring everybody together
to talk about what we’ve
learned — what that might
mean in terms of our own team.
Does it mean we have to switch
players on the team? Is somebody getting a little complacent?
Is there a skill set that’s missing
that we need to change? Is there
something they’re asking us to do that maybe isn’t realistic for
us to do and maybe isn’t a good
lineup for our business, and
how do we approach that with
them and develop actual strategies together to respond to what
the customer is saying?
We just don’t do it in a vacuum
with one person here making a
decision. Make sure that all
team members have the chance
to understand that there are
things changing with the customer and have their eye out
there seeing what might be
helpful to everybody.
Everybody has different viewpoints. In our world, you have
people who do design, people
who do production, people who
deliver and install items; their views are always different
because they see something different about that process that
impacts the customer. Let’s say,
for example, a customer’s dock
is never opened on Thursdays.
The customer asks us to do all
their work on Thursdays, but
they may not realize that their
dock is always jammed up on
Thursdays, and that’s not a good
day for us to come there. Simply
pulling that viewpoint in — we
would miss it otherwise.
Q. After assessing feedback,
how do you circle back to your
customers?
Say, ‘OK, here are some
things we think might be helpful. What do you think about
these ideas? Would they work
for you? Are we on track, or
are we off track? What seems
to be workable?’
It’s a learning and exploration process. There are a lot
of things that companies do
the same, but there are a lot of
things that they do differently.
You can accidentally impose
views that you have just
because that’s what you’ve
done somewhere else, and
that can be helpful, but sometimes, that can be harmful
because you’re not seeing an
opportunity or not seeing the
vision that this customer has is
different than another one.
You have to be cautious that
you don’t get stuck in that rut.
It’s sticking to the basics. It’s
not magic. It’s saying, ‘What’s
working? What’s not working?
Why is it working? Why is not
working? What could be better,
and how could it be better?’ It’s
some simple basic questions
that you can ask at any point at
any time in the day.
HOW TO REACH: BKM Total Office of Texas LP, (214) 902-7200 or www.bkmtexas.com