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Relentless information gathering. Clarity ofpurpose. Clarity of communications. Andsetting the example. As leaders in ourorganizations, we may privately say to

ourselves that the customer can’t always be right,but the facts are the customer is still the customer.It’s customers we are in business to serve—beyondtheir expectations. And it’s customers who ulti-mately determine who is allowed to stay in busi-ness—and prosper.

Customers we select to pursue and personallycommit to serving have a profound effect on:

kWhat culture we build, kWhat reputation we develop in the marketplace, kWhom we attract, and kHow our executive leadership is perceived.Similarly, whatever directions, personal follow-up,

values, and commitments emanate from the top exec-utive office of our organization sends reverberatingripples to the farthest corners of our organization.

Thus, what an organization receives back as cus-tomer, employee, and supplier feedback—no matterhow it is expressed and experienced—reflect thoseexecutive directions, values, and communications.

I once asked a CEO Peer Group to divide a sheetof paper down the middle. On the left side, I askedthem to list their corporate priorities, not to exceed10, in descending order. On the right side, I askedthem to list where they invested their time, not toexceed 10, in descending order. For at least half of theCEOs, “developing customers and business” wasnumber one. However, “developing customers andbusiness” too often didn’t make the list of how theyinvested their time.

In other words, like it or not, we are receivingback from the marketplace—our customers andemployees and suppliers—what we are sowing.

If there is a central key to how we navigate anddevelop business prosperity, it is wrapped around:

kRelentless communications (i.e., researching,processing, and broadcasting customer-relatedinformation), and kIntegrity of action to the mission. Here are but a few of the opportunities for top

executives to “stay in-tune” with the market andinfluence their primary constituencies, includingemployees, customers, suppliers, and friends.

Creating a Customer-Centric OrganizationSelect any of the following, and then perform to themaximum, not the minimum.

Twice a year, offer a list of your top priorities to yourorganization. In too many organizations, mostemployees do not have clarity of where their orga-nization is going or what it is to accomplish beyondperforming the job at hand. As a result, mostemployees are reduced to performing in a reactivemanner throughout their day. Recommendation:twice a year outline your top three or top six or top10 priorities, and then share them with your per-sonnel, explaining the whys. This exercise canmake a profound difference in supporting initia-tives that only the individual—often at a key, fragilemoment—can engage.

Personally visit at least one of your top 20 customersevery week, and report to the organization what youlearned, and what needs to be different. Leaders go fre-quently to the front line—and that’s your customer.

Developing a Customer-CentricGraphic Arts OrganizationOur mission is to spoil our customers so much they wouldnever want to leave, and no one else would ever want them.—As reported from a chain of reprographic stores in Southern California.

BY SID CHADWICK

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There’s no better way to really know what’s needed,or expected, whether it’s a Periodic Business Review,or a planned business development appointment.Such initiatives inspire your customer contact andproduction teams; elevate your sense understanding,integrity and accountability; and ensure you makemore correct, proactive decisions.

Take a key production person with you to visit targetaccounts. It’s my bias that such an activity tends towin on many fronts. People tend to understandbetter what they personally experience. When a keyproduction person visits a target account, there’s first-hand knowledge gained about the customer’s needs,expectations, and frustrations. Ownership of the cus-tomer’s expectations is at least partially transferredto your production person—and not just for theirdepartment’s part of a project. Chadwick’s rule ofthumb: Every key production manager should investat least one-half day a month onsite with a targetaccount. If this is done, many other objectives andopportunities become possible.

Issue a monthly or bimonthly (written) report toemployees regarding your organization’s achieve-ments, challenges, and changing market conditions. Ifyou put this in writing, you may be assured thatfolks will read and reread its content. Whatever timeyou invest in this communication can be countedon to have a payback of at least 100 times forimproving organizational understanding, focus, and

initiatives. Note: you should expect your most loyaland committed suppliers and customers to find away to bootleg a copy.

Personally visit a top performing company—at leasttwice a year—and take a key manager with you. All ofus need to be inspired. All of us need to experiencelive examples that can lift our organization’s per-formance. And most top performing organizationsallow a confidential exchange of visits if there’s nota direct competitive threat. My experience and biasis that most top performing organizations have sev-eral areas we can learn from; but we must makethe challenging effort to pursue the “hidden per-formance secrets,” and then follow-up with a planof implementation.

Develop systems to gather and systematically reviewtop customers’ performance. Few organizations per-form an in-depth quarterly review of customers’ per-formances. The drill too often is similar to, “if the topline and bottom line are acceptable, then let’s go onto something more productive.” Yet, customer attri-tion leaves a trail and usually contains a preventablestory. Business development activities, purchases,and an outline of services used—for a period of timethat may go back as far as three years—need to bereviewed for your top customers and prospects.Inevitably, questions are raised from this type ofreview that deserve to be investigated. Predictably,remedial action opportunities are uncovered.

Spoil customers so much thatthey would never want toleave because it’s customerswho ultimately determinewho is allowed to stay inbusiness—and prosper.A

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Develop systems to gather and systematically reviewcustomer feedback. Too many of us do not systemat-ically review feedback from customers, which is usu-ally rich with opportunity. For instance, do we captureand review all customer complaints? (To test this, gotalk to your bookkeeper, prepress specialist, CSRs,delivery person, or receptionist.) Do we capture andreview requests our organization could not respondpositively to? (To test this, go talk to your estimator.)

Write a Quarterly President’s Report. We now havefive clients who are writing Quarterly President’sReports that are forwarded to customers and targetprospects’ “enlarged buying centers,” their employees,suppliers, and friends. The CEOs personality inevitablycomes through and is priceless. Format is generallykept to two pages. Content includes what’s beenaccomplished (or almost accomplished), what’s new,what’s heard from key suppliers, and what to expect.

Create a relentless education and performance improve-ment program for your customers, employees, and sup-pliers. In other words, give folks another reason toprefer your organization. I believe that purposefulsharing of information and collaboration createopportunities for performance improvement. Gener-ally speaking, organizations that implement employee,customer, and supplier education programs receive apayback that’s easily 1,000 times the investment. Doproblems and errors still occur? Of course. But in thefinal analysis, how would your customers vote on yourcreating and committing to such offerings.

Writing Your FuturePlease note that none of these customer-centricoptions are limited to company size, capitalization,location, or capabilities. My experience is that thoseorganizations who have taken up these challengesrecognize more than anyone what opportunities arenot yet successfully engaged.

We write our future prosperity every day—not bybeing the lowest cost producer, but rather by devel-oping and delivering to target customers more fortheir money and what they need.

Inspired leaders understand that we are experi-encing a period of change like perhaps no other. Andthrough all this, certain inspired organizations con-tinue to change, reconfigure, implement, and prosper.

To successfully create and sustain a customer-cen-tric organization requires a focused sense of purposeto perform, with relentless communications to thatend. And this process starts at the top.

Are you Listening?

EXCERPTS FROM ARTICLE BY BILL BLADES

A study of more than 8,000 people found thatalmost all of them believed their communicationwas as effective or more effective than their co-workers. In other words, almost all of thembelieved they were above average. Research, how-ever, reveals the average person listens at about25 percent efficiency.

If you are not listening intently or if you interruptsomeone, you can expect a cold response. Thebrakes come on and the possible relationship-building process stops.

Effective listening shows concern for clients andemployees and builds rapport and trust. Listeningto clients will enable you to learn business and per-sonal things that most competitors do not hear.

Real selling is 90 percent asking great questions,listening intently to every word and taking great notesand only 10 percent talking. What kind of questions?

Probing means that you are seeking additionalinformation or clarification. You must avoid ques-tions such as, “Why do you say that?” which putsthe person on the defensive. Also, be sure yourquestions do not change the subject. A betterquestion is, “Can you tell me more about…?”

Reflecting is paraphrasing what you heard. Notword for word as a parrot. Rather, “This is what Iheard and what I wrote… Did I hear the gist of it cor-rectly?” This communication skill gives you the oppor-tunity to ascertain correctness and to avoidmisunderstandings.

I suggest you pause for a few seconds afterclients finish their remarks. First, they may not havefinished. They might be pausing to catch theirbreath or they might be formulating a thought.Allow three to five seconds of pause to ensure youdo not interrupt. Pausing also allows you time tothink before jumping in just as the client finishes.

Pausing also enables you to listen better becauseyou are allowing your brain the freedom to soak upand retain the spoken words. Those that pauseexhibit a professional style and are known as greatconversationalists.

Remember that the greatest problem with com-munication is the illusion that communication hasbeen achieved.

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