The Shift In Thinking In Customer Focus

Introduction:

In the new management model, business begins with customer focus and ends with customer satisfaction, which are two sides of the same coin. The new management model is a closed-loop system driven by customer satisfaction.

The shift in thinking:

• The customer requirements that you focus your business on are the same requirements you use to measure satisfaction.
• Changes in customer satis­faction or requirements trigger changes in how you do business, and those changes affect customer satisfaction.
• The new management model is a closed-loop system driven by customer satisfaction.

The remainder of the book demonstrates how the desire to satisfy customers translates into action. Companies that are accustomed to defin-ing their activities by other criteria (such as departmental goals, financial requires deep-rooted cultural change.

Fig. shows the correlation between customersoverall satisfac­tion with IBM Roehester and IBM's average stock price.

Fig. compares the percent of customers who said they would repurchase from IBM Roehester and the aetual revenue spent.

As these graphs and our models of excellence show, companies that get elose to their customers, and develop strong customer loyalty, can an-ticipate strong financial performance. The proof is in the numbers.