The Change Dude’s Blog

Customer Focused Change…Do it!

Nearly every survey done over the past 30-some-odd years asking about why large scale technology or process improvement projects fail indicates a weakness in change management. Hmmm..Isn’t that interesting. A recurring failure point. Why?  Why is managing change such a challenge?  In my mind and experience the answer is quite simple. A weak connection to the change’s impact on customers.

Every process improvement guru focuses on understanding customer wants, needs and perceptions before embarking on any business intervention. Improve efficiency, implement new technologies, bring a new product to market, change pricing and packaging, you name the change it should always be underpinned by driving customer retention and/or acquisition. Yet, when I walk into a client situation and ask a simple question about customer metrics the change will impact, I get blank stares. When I ask a Six Sigma Black Belt what the CTQ’s (Critical to Quality) are that made this effort important I get the same result, a thousand-mile stare. And we wonder why employees don’t adopt new practices or technology.

In my earliest interactions with any client the customer is always a topic. How will this change impact the customer’s wants, needs and perceptions? Will it make you easier to do business with? Will your employees be engaged with the change because they know how it will affect customer satisfaction?  Very few clients can answer these questions. Very few consultants working on the change can answer these questions. Hence, all the communication and training in the world won’t make adoption happen or the change stick.

CUSTOMER FOCUSED CHANGE: A PRIMER

DEFINITION: Customer-focused change is a strategic approach where businesses prioritize the needs and experiences of their customers in every aspect of their operations. This involves a shift from product-centric to customer-centric thinking, where the ultimate goal is to enhance customer satisfaction, loyalty, and advocacy.

Imagine!! Putting the folks that pay the bills at the center of the universe. What a strange concept.

A FEW TIPS

Here are some tips on exercising customer-focused change:

Understand Customer Needs: Understand clearly the wants, needs and perceptions of your customers.

Align with Customer Success: If you want a sticky change align your success with that of your customers, ensuring that all facets of the change prioritize the impact on customer wants, needs and perceptions. Don’t be fooled by thinking you know what the impact will be, know if well enough to measure against. 

One of my favorite stories is about a client I worked with to improve their ease of doing business by implementing a new ERP solution. On a customer visit we asked what would make their experience better with the client.  The answer was both hilarious and sad. “If we knew before the FedEx truck drove past the dock we weren’t getting our shipment today.” That’s big. We turned that story into a primary message for the change.  Making sure the investment in time and money wasn’t focused on just hitting a go-live date but on giving that customer and others transparency to their order status.

Prioritize Customer Feedback: Take all customer feedback seriously. Make decisions with that feedback in mind. One of my clients painted on the wall of their main conference room these words: “How will this impact our customers?” At every meeting about the change project the leadership team would point to that question when being asked to decide on a modification to the project.   

Operationalize Customer Empathy: Make it real! Implement practices that operationalize empathy towards customers. Add technology where appropriate to aid in understanding and meeting their needs more effectively. Change should not be just about reducing costs, which it often is, but about reducing operating costs while improving the customer experience.

Engage Employees: Link the change message internally to customer outcomes. Employees really do care about their customers, they want to know how this change will make customers more loyal to the brand and keep their jobs safe.

Exercising customer-focused change, may require businesses to adjust change strategies, processes, and even their organizational structure to ensure that customer needs are at the forefront of decision-making.

Put customers at the center of any change and watch the success rate of adoption increase dramatically.

June 20, 2024 Posted by thechangedude | Uncategorized | Business, continuous-improvement, customer-experience, digital-transformation, Leadership | Leave a comment