The document discusses keeping customers as the central focus for any business. It provides 7 steps to putting customers first: 1) Make customer service core values and mission, 2) Create customer-friendly systems, 3) Describe all jobs in terms of customer experience, 4) Meet customer needs and solve their problems, 5) Make the customer experience enjoyable, 6) Get to know customers through ongoing dialogue, 7) Manage the entire customer journey from initial contact to post-purchase reflection. The conclusion emphasizes that customers are the sole reason a business exists and ultimate determinant of its success.

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MTL: The Professional Development Programme
The Customer Focus
THE CUSTOMER FOCUS
Keep your eye on where the customer is
MTL: The Professional Development Programme

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MTL: The Professional Development Programme
The Customer Focus
Attribution: All images are from sources where a Creative Commons license exists for commercial use. All icons are on subscription
from thenounproject. All clipart is from free sources. The MTL Professional Development Programme is copyright of Manage Train
Learn.
The Customer
Focus
Introduction: It is easy to lose sight of the customer in the day-to-day running of a
business. Many people, especially managers and team leaders, may not even see the
customer and may spend all their time focusing on their employees and their
problems. But inward-looking businesses are risky businesses. Your main focus has to
be on your customers. And that means looking outwards.

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MTL: The Professional Development Programme
The Customer Focus
https://www.flickr.com/photos/64738468@N00/30109041/
Do everything for your customers
1. PUT THE
CUSTOMER
CENTRE-STAGE
You can do two things to put your customers at
the heart of your business. The first thing is to
design your core values and beliefs around
service to your customers. That means spelling
these beliefs out in your mission statement, core
values, and key beliefs such as Campbell’s Soups'
“obsessive desire to satisfy our customers”. The
second thing you must do is to put your money
where your mouth is and carry out these beliefs
with action.

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MTL: The Professional Development Programme
The Customer Focus
2. CREATE
CUSTOMER-
FRIENDLY
SYSTEMS
https://pixabay.com/en/child-labor-car-mechanic-cars-labor-934893/
Be led by how you can assist the customer
Carl Sewell runs a US car dealership in the. Simply
by changing his focus from looking inside to
looking outside, he was able to beat the
competition. Here are 3 changes he made:
a. Instead of accepting orders if he could fit them
in, he accepted all orders regardless.
b. Instead of opening at times to suit his staff, he
opened at times to suit his customers.
c. Instead of putting profit first, he put service
first.

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MTL: The Professional Development Programme
The Customer Focus
https://pixabay.com/en/window-cleaner-architecture-home-246423/
Describe jobs like cleaning in terms of your customers
3. FOCUS ON
THE
CUSTOMER
Jan Carlzon of Swedish Airline, SAS said, “There
are only two levels of staff in a firm. Level one is
the sales people. Level two is all the other people
whose job is to support level one.” This means
that everyone, from the humblest cleaner to the
most elevated director, needs to know the effect
their job has on the customer. You can do this by
ensuring that all jobs are described in terms of
how they add to the customer's experience.

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MTL: The Professional Development Programme
The Customer Focus
4. MEET
CUSTOMER
NEEDS
https://www.flickr.com/photos/jerseygal2009/5852940671/
Let the customer tell you what they need
There are only two things that people want from
you when they come to you for your product or
service. The first is to meet a need that they have
right now. Without your product or service, the
customer will have an unmet need and therefore
a problem. The contact you have with a customer
can be seen as a problem-solving exercise. The
second thing they are looking for is not to have an
unpleasant experience in meeting this primary
need.

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MTL: The Professional Development Programme
The Customer Focus
A bookshop visit can now be a memorable experience
5. MAKE THEM
FEEL GREAT
https://pixabay.com/en/library-bookshop-books-antiquariat-1124718/
Not so long ago, bookshops were places where
browsing was discouraged, silence reigned, and
eating or drinking strictly taboo. Today, the book-
buying process is an experience where customers
can drink coffee while browsing or spend
evenings listening to their favourite authors over
a glass of wine. Buying a book is no longer a
simple act of shopping. It’s an experience that
people enjoy and want to feel good about.

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MTL: The Professional Development Programme
The Customer Focus
6. GET TO
KNOW YOUR
CUSTOMERS
https://www.flickr.com/photos/poptech/6267256781/
Ask, listen, and respond
You cannot create a show for your customers
unless you know them well and what they come
to you for. To find this out, you need to develop
an ongoing dialogue with them where you do the
asking and listening and they do the talking and
wishing. When you are able to gather this
information, you can then work out just what
kind of experience to give them. And you can do
this not just for the paying customer, but for
internal customers too.

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MTL: The Professional Development Programme
The Customer Focus
https://pixabay.com/en/using-device-phone-mobile-using-1577035/
Online or off, customers go through the same journey
7. MANAGE
THE
CUSTOMER
JOURNEY
All customers go on the same 5-stage journey.
Stage 1 is their decision to use you.
Stage 2 is their moment of contact with you.
Stage 3 is their using your service or buying your
product, when you will live up to their
expectations or not.
Stage 4 is their leaving you, which is often the
moment when they form their most endurable
impressions of you.
Stage 5 is their reflecting on the experience.

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The Customer Focus
This has been a Slide Topic from Manage Train Learn
AFinal
Word
Many organisations see their customers as another “stakeholder”, on an equal footing with other
groups, such as employees or suppliers. They’re not. Your customers are the reason you exist. And
the reason whether you will succeed or not.