Listening to the Voice of the Customer

The Customer is the person who pays our paycheck. If we don't provide acceptable product guality, delivery service and price the customer will tell us with their non purchase. 

A dissatisfied customer is a threat to any business. "Badwill'' spreads like wildfire, especially on the lnternet. Organizations can be destroyed overnight by bad publicity. In this new business reality every organization needs to take customer care very seriously, and listen to every customer. 

The Customer today has so much choice about potential suppliers that they can switch sources of supply very quickly. Customer loyalty is obtained by ensuring that everyone in the organization is focused on delivering value added "Moments of Truth" to each potential customer.

Competing for TimeTime has become the most precious commodity that any organization has, and the primary basis for competitive advantage. Product Quality and Selling Price are usually equivalent between potential suppliers, so now the order winners are Speed of Delivery and Quality of Service. 

Many companies today are competing on the basis of time. In the photo processing industry the old standard of two weeks to get photographs developed has been replaced by the one hour photo shop. 

Last July while I was in South Korea I noticed that the standard development time advertised was 25 minutes. In November when ~ returned the time had been cut to 17 minutes. Customers today are not prepared to wait long for any product. 

Any company that has a large order book of unfilled customer orders is vulnerable to a quicker competitor stealing customers by promising shorter delivery lead times. 

Many people in organizations today are already feeling the effects of the new time constraints' working longer hours and having to make tough decisions about how time is spent. 

The effective use of time will be a enduring challenge not only for organizations but also every individual. Containing CostsEvery organization today is focused on decreasing operational costs. 

ln recent years manufacturing companies have done an excellent job of increasing productivity and reducing labor costs. The introduction of effective planning systems and just in time control systems have ensured that manufacturing costs are contained. The same cannot be said for Distribution. 

In many cases now Distribution costs for a product exceed the manufacturing costs. The next stage of cost containment will be reengineering the business processes of Distribution.