Replying to LO29065 --
Dear Organlearners,
Roy Greenhalgh <rgreenh@attglobal.net> writes:
>Rarely do I find a company that has made a statistical
>study of the demands placed upon it by its customers.
>To the question "What are your customers really asking
>for?" I constantly get a blank response.
>
>And as to "How do you know you are matching your
>customer's demand?" I get an even hazier look.
>
>And yet these are two very simple measures to get, and
>to work from.
Greetings dear Roy,
I agree with you.
Yet I am reminded of the days when i used to lecture to large
chemistry classes (150+). Asking students what they want in such a
large class seldom leads to a response from them. Asking them
individually in a more personal atmosphere often reveals that
(1) they confuse wants (desires) with expectations.
(2) they expect the university to continue with what they have
become used to at school
(3) they do not expect their wants to be met with at university
just as those wants were not met with at school
(4) they have just a tacit knowing of their wants and find it
difficult to articulate them.
But back to organisations in general which have a customer front. Apart
from the facet which you pointed out: "what does the customer want", there
are also two other facets to think of.
(1) The person who deals with the custormer is deaf to the articulated
want(s) of the customer. The customer is an object rather than a human.
When it happens to me, i repeat what i want. If this has no effect, i ask
still in a friendly manner to speak immediately to the person's superior.
I will then explain to the superior what happened. This usually has the
desired effect, the superior telling that person "do want he wants".
(2) The activities are organised in such a manner that it cannot match
what the custromer wants. This is often the case with organisations
depending on IT when serving the custormer. The person will often say to a
customer who wants something specific "the computer cannot do it". The
actual reason is that the computer programmer(s) failed to create a
program which could do it. Here even the superior will respond in the same
manner since not knowing self enough of IT.
Apart from statistical analyses as you have suggested, the senior managers
of those organisations can get off their little thrones, pretend
themselves to be customers and then gain first hand experience the service
which customers get. I think they dare not do it because they suspect the
shocking experiences which they will get as custormers and that they will
be incapable of rectifying it with their management practice. It is here
where it seems to me that Fred's Breakaway may help them to improve on
their management practice.
Another thing which such organisations can do is to introduce a journal
for customer comments at the place where customers get their service.
These comments can then be used to reorganise the system so that the
customers are satisfied that their wants had been met with. Obviously,
this journal has to be studied on a regular bases to see where the
organisation can still improve.
With care and best wishes
--At de Lange <amdelange@postino.up.ac.za> Snailmail: A M de Lange Gold Fields Computer Centre Faculty of Science - University of Pretoria Pretoria 0001 - Rep of South Africa
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