“Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.“
Bill Gates
Businesses are in business to meet the needs of the customer. Considering customer importance from all seats in an organization helps the company satisfy customers and increase customer retention. No matter the job, your work should make a positive difference to customers, and your performance should have an impact on your resume.
Customer care builds customer loyalty
As much as businesses are looking to keep customers, customers look to build long-standing relationships and partnerships with their vendors and contractors. Skipping from one volatile, flighty vendor relationship to another can be costly for every customer. Sometimes, customers seek to build relationships with vendors that can scale with their business over time. I have seen client contracts with ad agencies for as long as ten years. No client makes that type of commitment without expecting service fitted to their needs. However, contract terms will include an exit clause. Clients will terminate contracts early and leave when the agency fails to meet their expectations and to care for them. When customers see that a company focuses on helping them succeed, they know where to build their business, and this is where customer loyalty starts.
Listening to the customer helps the business succeed
Customers tell you where a business is performing well and where it is failing. Customer listening unveils systemic problems, quality concerns, and opportunities for product development. Customer feedback is a way to identify projects that directly relate to improving the customer experience. These are the projects that leaders pay attention to and support. At an industrial vacuum pump manufacturer, there were several customer complaints about damaged shipments for specific pumps. The manufacturing engineers initiated a packaging project to improve the integrity of shipments. When our actions showed that we were listening to the customers, we saw the difference in our customer service ratings and quality ratings. Customer feedback is a business’s best friend and tells where to focus on change and improvement efforts.
Results for the customer show your performance
What if your position is not customer-facing? You can still build company clout and influence decision-makers if you focus on problem-solving and center ideas on the customer. I mentioned in an earlier article that as a file clerk, I addressed a consistent customer problem when I realized that many files pulled were to address name misspellings on timeshare contracts. You can find opportunities to improve service if you stay ground engaged and take the time to look for them. Know the performance metrics that leaders monitor. Businesses link key performance metrics (KPIs) to customer service. Focus on problems that relate to and impact those metrics. This strategy positions you to sell your initiative and garner leadership support and “funding.” If and when your project is complete, you can add to your resume how your project impacted business results. When I finished a project, I added to my resume, “Reduced average response time to customer quote requests from 12-15 days to 2-3 days within three months.” Focusing on customers in this manner is one way in which you can lead from anywhere within a company.