Actively Listening To Your Customers

At the center of any company is the customer. Your customers are the heart of everything you do or it should be. Their satisfaction and wellbeing should be our first concern. If it is our intent to truly serve our customers then listening to our customers should be a top priority. Their problems, their concerns, their likes, and their dislikes should be paramount to the way we do business. Understanding how to listen is a skill that must be taught, and re-taught, practiced, implemented, and re-taught again. Some of these skills are as follows:

•      Tune out all distractions

•      Concentrate

•      Don’t interrupt

•      Listen to More than Their Words

•      Repeat What They Say

•      Take Notes

•      Control Your Emotions

•      Continually Probe

•      Solutions Reached

•      Express Gratitude 

Active listening is not easy. If you are a Type-A person (driven, motivated, active), you like to talk rather than listen. At the other extreme, if you are a Type-B person (laid back, unhurried, inactive), you may be on the receiving end of a conversation but not paying attention to what is being said.

Active listening involves being totally focused on hearing the words the customer is speaking, interpreting what these words mean, and responding in a positive manner that demonstrates that (1) you understand what the customer is saying, and (2) you consider what they are saying to be important.

Active listening is the only effective means to rapidly uncover information that is critical to satisfying the customer. Here are some ways to hone your active listening skills we mentioned above.

Tune Out All Distractions - When you are conversing with a customer, learn to tune out all distractions and focus totally on what your subject is saying (if you have a cell phone or pager, turn it off or place it on vibrate). Ask a few questions to guide the conversation if necessary. Otherwise, shut up and listen intently.

Concentrate - As the customer speaks, concentrate on what the customer is saying (rather than thinking about how you want to respond). Otherwise, you will miss the fine points that could lead to more probing questions and more valuable information.

Don’t Interrupt - Do not interrupt. People like to talk and do not like to be cut off. Once customers exhibit a willingness to talk, you should focus on the information they want to provide rather than trying to interject your own opinions, which most often causes them to "clam up." It is also a signal that you do not consider their opinion important.

Listen to More Than Their Words - Don't just listen to their words. Also focus on the triad of tone, inflection and body language. These can be as telling as the words themselves, because they reveal how the customer feels.

Repeat What They Say - Occasionally repeat what the customer has said in a manner similar to this: "If I understood you correctly, you (restate what you believe the customer said), is this correct?" Not only does this demonstrate your comprehension and attentiveness, it also allows them to correct or clarify a possible misunderstanding.

Take Notes - Always take notes so you can correctly recall the customer's key points later. This activity also serves to reinforce how important you consider the customer's information to be.

Control Your Emotions - In the case of a complaint, if the customer is upset, control your emotions and be courteous, no matter how rude the customer may be. If the complainant begins to use abusive language, it is acceptable to ask him or her to please calm down and stop using offensive language. If the customer continues, explain that right now two people care about this problem, but one is rapidly losing interest; then once again ask the customer to calm down. Usually this tact will be effective, but if the complainant still persists in being vulgar, explain you are sorry but you must leave now. Then leave or hang up.

Continually Probe - Continually probe to ensure you have all the right information. Once you believe you do, ask the customer if a particular resolution would be satisfactory.

Solutions Reached – When a solution is reached, quick action must be taken. When you have agreed on a solution it is important that you move heaven and earth to carry it out in a timely manner. Action is paramount on solidifying the importance of the customer and their concerns.

Express Gratitude – Once everything has been resolved an expression of appreciation is extremely powerful in letting them know how important they are to you and your company.

Active Listening Skills should not be limited to merely our customers, but everyone with which we must deal. Employees, associates, colleagues, friends, family members, and spouses are energized by a trusting loyal listener. Developing and maintaining these skills is key to successful problem solving, management, and steering any organization through the often troubled waters of life.

References

David Benzel (2008). “Lead through listening” SuperVision; Jun 2008; 69, 6; ABI/INFORM Global

Scott Clark (2003). “Active listening helps understand customer needs” Puget Sound Business Journal   http://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/stories/2003/08/11/smallb2.html

John Case (2003). “The Power of Listening” Inc.com magazine http://www.inc.com/magazine/20030301/25206.html

The Customer Experience Should be Central to Our Experience

The other day while consulting with a lighting technician for one of Branson, Missouri’s many entertainment shows. I made some suggestions on how they might improve some of the lighting effects and visual images used during some of the numbers. Overall, I had been very impressed with the show and my suggestions were simple tweaks to what was already being done. In one number, however the visual imagery and the musical number being performed were in sharp contrast to that of the energy of the song. My suggestions were not simple tweaks, but a whole new approach. The song was Lionel Richie’s “All Night Long”, which is about having a party all night long, a fiesta, or celebration. The song is played with energy and excitement in a very audience engaged atmosphere. The lights and imagery used with the number however were in contrast to that energy. They were soft and romantic, like that of a ballad, soft blues and light purples depicting a soft moonlight night.

As we discussed my suggested changes to the lighting, the technician commented that the lead performer, and head of the entertainment group, said he didn’t want anything in the lights or visual imagery that would distract the audience from the lead performers. Needless, to say I was a little set-back. I understand what his concern is, but entertainment like any business is about the customer’s entire experience. Our decisions on how we do business should not be centered on us as a company, our products, or our services; they should be centered on our customer and their overall experience in doing business with us.

If anyone has truly mastered the concern for the consumer’s total experience it is Disney. Go to any theme park and you will be swallowed up in an experience that goes far beyond mere amusement rides and games. Your customers judge you not simply by the product or service you provide, but by everything associated with the experience of receiving that product or service.

• How hard was it to find your product or service?
• How hard was it to find your company on the web or physical location?
• How was the staff in answering questions about the product?
• How did the information on the website appear? Was it useful or just rhetoric?
• How was the purchasing process?
• How was the perceived value compared to the actual cost?
• How was the delivery process?
• How was the service after the sale?

Literally everything in your company is a part of the consumer experience, from when the customer first recognizes they have a need for something, to when they become satisfied that such need has been met. And beyond! This does not mean that everything we do must have an elaborate show filled with tremendous fan fair. It means balancing the experience surrounding our product or service with the experience most desired by our customer.

I am amazed with the number of companies I’ve had the opportunity to work with that try to control the customer to the company’s desired experience and place the concerns of the customer second to that of the company. Oh, don’t misunderstand; the company must make a profit, and a healthy profit. The company owes it to its customers to stay in business, and continue to serve them. And this can only be done by making a profit and weathering the economic storms that rag continually.

As we step-back and make a conscious effort to take-in the whole of the customer experience surrounding our products and services, from the customer’s point of view, we discover a balance in how we do business. We also quickly recognize that most often it is the little things that make the greatest difference. It’s in the way a sales representative greets a customer. It’s in how a service technician answers a customer concern, or the way a billing statement is arranged, so that it can be easily read and understood by the customer. In many of these cases there is no additional expense. It’s just simply how we do business, however the returns for customer concern translates directly to the bottom line, profitability.

Too often we as managers and executives get caught up in the day-to-day pressures of our jobs and the financial concerns, the employee concerns, legal issues, vendors, and the list goes on, and on. Yes, these are all very important and do require our attention; however they cannot trump our concern for our customers. Regularly take time to experience your company from your customer’s point of view. Walk out your side door jump in your car parked in a reserved parking spot and drive several blocks away. Now take your tie off, unbutton your shirt collar and return to your place of business as a customer.

• Is it easy to find?
• How’s the parking?
• Is it clean and inviting?
• The list goes on and on . . . . . and you should be the best judge of your business.

People can argue back and forth about products and services supplied by different companies their pros and cons, however there is little argument when it comes to the way a superior company treats their customers. And that is a choice we can all make, we have a choice how we treat and respect our customers and contribute to their overall experience.

This article was first published in December 2010 on the "Social Media Today" website.

Lean Methodology 5 - Building a Positive Team Environment

          While working as an assistant production manager, I with all of the other employees, met for a regular company meeting. There were two shifts so we met from 4:30pm to 5:00pm during the shift change, when both shifts were at the plant. One of the managing family members whose father had founded the company years ago, made a great deal of ado about how generally incompetent we all were. Then she singled out one individual and identified how they had printed a job that wasn’t supposed to have been run. The customer had ordered manual X and the pressman had printed Y.

          I didn’t really know the guy, he was on the other shift, however something just didn’t add up. I started digging, “what had really been the problem?” The job, like most orders from this customer, was a rush order, and it had been well communicated all the way through the plant, “that it had to be run that day”.

    The stock had been pulled and delivered to the press, with its proper job number. Stripping had delivered the plates to the press with the same proper job number as well. The Job Ticket however was not around. It had been there but somehow it had been misplaced. The pressman took a few minutes looking for it, but then decided to get the job running. He had run the job countless times before, and he could look for the ticket during the run, but still it couldn’t be found. The second shift began and the importance of the job was conveyed to the bindery, the job was completed and delivered the next morning by 8:00am as promised. An hour later our customer called, their product assembly line was shut down; we had printed the wrong manual.

          The rest of the story, our customer had originally ordered manual Y, which we delivered, but due to a change in their production schedule they changed and were assembling product X. The purchasing agent had called in with the change. Our dear friend, the lady who had made all the fuss, took the call, went back, and got the job ticket from the press station without saying anything to anyone. She then returned it to her desk to make the change, and where it still sat when the customer called the next day with the problem.

Needless to say that company meeting was probably one of the worst I have ever seen or been a part of. It did so much damage to employee morale overall, which took nearly a year to overcome. The pressman was a quiet kind of guy, very conscientious about his work, but became very removed, and was gone within a few months.

          Teamwork begins with a cooperative commitment from all parties, especially top management. There cannot be this attitude that every problem needs the face of a human to go with it. Teamwork is the creating of an environment where people are encouraged to unite with one another under a common goal, a work environment where people feel free to discuss and resolve problems openly rather than behind closed doors. Teamwork is also where there are no mental score cards of issues and problems being stored as potential ammunition in an attack of another, in some feeble attempt to prove one’s own individual worth, by overstating the imperfections of another. Belittling is just not cool.

          In a true environment of teamwork there is a feeling of “we’re all in this together.” People are enthusiastic about coming to work every day, sharing with others, and learning from each other. The company is energized, productive, and synergizing. Real meetings are organized and conducted in meetings and not in the secluded hallways afterwards. Information is shared openly and freely, even problems, because of the genuine understanding that hidden problems and distorting information do not lead to improvement.[1]

The problems we face are not people problems as much as they are process problems. Dr. W. Edwards Deming, an American statistician who has contributed much to the quality improvement movement, spent much of his life trying to convince people that most of the quality problems were “in the process, not the person”. For most of his life he promoted what he called the “85/15 rule”, based on his experience and research, 85% of the problems in a company come from the process of getting those things done. The 15% was from the people that are involved with the process of the production. By the end of his life he said it was really more like 96/4.[2]

          Understanding this difference is paramount in developing your team. You have people who work in the company’s process, or you can have a team working together to prefect the company’s process. Hajime Ohba, the former president of the Toyota Supplier Support Center, captured this idea well when he said, “We get brilliant results from average people managing brilliant processes. We observe that our competitors often get average (or worse) results from brilliant people managing broken processes.”[3]

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[1] pg 29 - George, M., Rowlands, D., & Kastle, B. (2004). What is Lean Six Sigma?. McGraw-Hill, New York, New York

[2] pg 19 - George, M., Rowlands, D., & Kastle, B. (2004). What is Lean Six Sigma?. McGraw-Hill, New York, New York

[3] PrintCEO February 2009 “The Process of Manufacturing Customers” by David Dodd

Lean Methodology 4 - Making the Commitment to Improve

             The implementation of any improvement is not easy; it strikes at the heart of good leadership. Many companies have such a tight niche that has been well in trenched overtime. They feel comfortable where they are and don’t really see the need for change. They believe their customers are loyal and everything is fine, which simply is not true. Those that feel that way should read no further, for without real commitment any attempt will be an exercise in futility.

If you’re ready, let’s take just a few moments and review a few questions:

·    Do you have the Vision to keep you on course?

·    Are you committed to customer satisfaction?

·    Are you ready to learn and explore new thoughts and ideas, and are you willing to help and inspire those around you to do the same?

·    Do you truly value the people you work with and do you consider them partners in this improvement process?

·    How’s your agility, are flexible enough to meet what could become a very demanding environment?

·    Do you have a strong future orientation and are you willing to make the long-term commitment?

·    Do you manage by facts instead of being reactionary and impulsive?

·    Can you focus on results and creating value both for your customers and all those involved with your company?

·    Do you have stamina for when times get tough?

The purpose of these questions is to explain the nature behind the Leadership that is required to meet this challenge. To aid in this quest I highly recommend creating the following two items, a Vision Statement and a Mission Statement. A Vision Statement is a short declaration of what an organization aspires to be in the future. I would add the near future, because the statement will change as your paradigm changes, and it will. A Mission Statement answers the following questions: who are we, who are our customers, what do we do, and how do we do it. These two statements will give clarity, direction, and purpose as you begin this quest.[1]

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[1] Total Quality Management, pages 17- 53

Lean Methodology 3 - Knowing Your Process

            The term process is defined as the interaction of some combination of people, materials, equipment, method, measurement, and the environment to produce an outcome such as a product, a service, or an input to another process.[1] It is important to understanding that a process is the whole as well as the sum of it individual parts. We can look at the process of taking a print job from the customer through its different stages and then delivering the finished product back to the customer. And we can also look at simply the process of writing up an order, the process of setting up the press, the process of moving a job through the design department, or the process of servicing customers.

            In any company you visit there is a work flow process. More often than not it is just understood and has little or no documentation in writing. On the one hand the work flow process should be so simple that it does not require detailed documentation. On the other hand a work flow process without any documentation is a process governed by the ever changing nature of human character, habits, trial-and-error, and what seems to work at the moment. Improving any process begins by documenting the process as it stands. In this way we come to know our own workflow process.

            The simple task of sitting down and writing out your company’s workflow is paramount to identifying problems and areas of needed improvement. This is the first step in becoming Proactive, let’s look at our alternatives.[2] This seemingly simple act of writing down each part of the production process and its processes begins the improvement process in three important ways, self-evaluation, examining the process, and sharing the knowledge with others.

First self-evaluation, by writing down the step by step processes of getting work done you are compelled into a natural state of process-evaluation. As you write each step down in a given process you naturally must analysis and justify the step within your mind before you can communicate it in writing. When you find difficulty explaining a step, you’ve just identified an area of concern. The tendency is to jump up from your work and race to the problem, “STOP”, don’t go, and stay engaged in your task. A key to all this improvement is creation of a proactive mind set and not reactionary, we need to see the big picture.

Once we are done going through and documenting the entire workflow process we can now look at the other ways this activity can help us in the improvement process. The Second is Examining the process. With the workflow process laid out, we can examine the entire system to identify any potential problems and to make sure the work is done correctly. The problems and concerns can now be more easily identified, and prioritized insuring that as problems are dealt with they are done in an organized manor with emphasis on those problems of greatest concern.

Third is Sharing the Knowledge. With a floor plan of the workflow process laid out, you can share the information with others and gain their understanding of the process, clarify the workflow details, and get additional input into the improvement process.

Nothing can replace the line by line, step by step written communication of your workflow process; in essence we define each part of the process. However to gain an improved view of the entire process it is well recommended that we also create a workflow diagram, just like a house plan for a home builder. A Workflow Diagram is a series of boxes and lines that shows the relationship and interaction between one another. The boxes represent a particular step in the process, while the lines show the interactions.

There are many different types of diagramming tools that have been developed over the past few years of manufacturing improvement. Roadmap, Tree Diagram, STM (Scientific Thinking Mechanism), SIPOC process Diagram, Value Stream Mapping, Cause and Effect Diagram also known as a Fishbone Diagram, Interrelationship, Affinity to name just a few. I’m not so concerned with the tool as to introduce you to what must be done. A simple Workflow diagram is easy to conceive and understand by most people and a great place to start.

I would like to highlight the FAST Diagram, which is much like a workflow diagram with added direction. FAST is the acronym for Function Analysis System Technique developed by Charles Byetheway in 1964. It is a diagramming process, which visually highlights the different functions of a product, system, or service and their interrelationship to the other parts of the whole. In essence, FAST is a method of stimulating organized thinking about any process by asking thought-provoking questions.[3]

The major elements of a FAST diagram are:

1 – Critical Path – a horizontal path detailing the functions required to produce the desired outcome.

2 – Questioning Process – the systematic process of questioning, HOW the function is being accomplished and WHY is it being accomplished.

3 – Arrangement – in order to have logic, the diagram must answer succeeding questions along the critical path. HOW questions reading left to right and then WHY questions reading right to left.

4 – Scope Lines – these are vertical lines that indentify the area of our focus which have immediate bearing on the process at hand.

5 – High/Lower Level Functions – those functions outside the scope of our improvement study that we may not have control of.[4]

            This FAST diagram is a sample of what one may use in analyzing the critical path of a simple reorder job as it travels through the prepress department and its relation with other jobs.

            If you’re still not quite sure how to begin start with a simple sheet of paper and start doodling, don’t be afraid you’re going to be redrawing again and again and each time it will be better. Another idea is to use post-it notes as you would a box on your diagram. In this way they can be easily moved as you identify things of interest or the process flow conceptually changes. Once you like what you see write it down.

The main thing is to just dive in, there's not a wrong way to do it.

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[1] Total Quality Management, 2003, page126
[2] Stephen R. Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Habit 1: Be Proactive

[3] Value Engineering, Thomas R. King, page 63-76

[4] Value Engineering, Thomas R. King, page 63-76