Elsmar Cove Forums Index - The Top 10 Training Topics for Customer Focus

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The Top 10 Training Topics for Customer Focus
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Posted by: ccochran

Howdy, friends:

Here are some thoughts on training and how it relates to driving customer focus in organizations. It is entitled, "The Top 10 Training Topics for Customer Focus." This piece is part of a book I'm writing on customer focus. As always, I would love to hear what you think about it, positive and negative.

Craig

Posted by: Bill Ryan

Another excellent article, Craig.

As I came to the end I found that I had to reread everything after Topic #8. I just couldn't stop thinking of different "ethical" issues I've run across throughout my working career and how I've learned to handle different situations (although I still have the "insert foot......" syndrome occasionally).

Nice job

Posted by: ccochran

Bill,

Thanks a lot for your feedback. Ethics seems to be one of those training topics that only sees the light of day when there's a crisis--not when everything is fine. Of course, there might not ever be a crisis if ethics was a normal issue that was regularly discussed and trained on.

Can you think of any other training topics that could help drive customer focus?

Craig

Posted by: Bill Ryan

One thing that I deal with on an almost daily basis revolves around "good enough". For instance - An operator/inspector will identify something as out of specification "by a pinch". The cell technician or manager will sign off the NCM ticket as "OK to process" and ship parts. The reasoning, many times, is that "it won't affect the fit/function or the customer's process and they won't even be aware of it. We'll fix it later". 9 times out of 10 that may be true but....! While I fully understand that our economics come in to play, the attitude just doesn't sit right with me most of the time. My biggest issue with it pertains to the message we send to the operator/inspector. When it happens too often (without following topic #4 - Effective Communication) they begin to continuously "fudge" numbers because "it doesn't matter". Perhaps this is already "implied" in one or more of the topics but it doesn't jump out at me.

Just a minor "vent" - One other thing we are ridiculously good at is "blamestorming". I realize this ties in to Topic #6 (Root Cause Analysis) but I just laugh to myself as in each instance it seems we try to find out who to "write up" as a first step. I am so tired of sitting in on problem solving meetings and spending the first half of the meeting trying to determine who messed up.

Posted by: Craig H.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ccochran

Bill,

Thanks a lot for your feedback. Ethics seems to be one of those training topics that only sees the light of day when there's a crisis--not when everything is fine. Of course, there might not ever be a crisis if ethics was a normal issue that was regularly discussed and trained on.

Can you think of any other training topics that could help drive customer focus?

Craig

Craig:

While it makes sense to seperate these topics as you did, I think it is important to emphasize, maybe at the end of the piece, that each skill is a subset of the "serve the customer" whole.

For instance, communication is very important, as you pointed out. Document control is a part of the communications picture. Communicate a lie, and the effectiveness of all communications is reduced. So, in a way, these issues are interrelated.

Also, there might be some people who will say that EVERY company exists to make a profit. That may be true, but every PERSON within that company is not necessarily there to make a profit (unless a paycheck counts as profit). Most, if not all, have an impact on customer service in some way, and that impact surely had an influence on the creation of their position in the first place.

Once again, a very good piece, with some interesting views. Good job!!

Posted by: ccochran

Bill,

I had never heard the term "blamestorming" before, but I think I've participated in a few of those sessions in the past! How to break out of that is the big question. If your organization has a defined problem solving method, maybe it could be revised to include a specific step of "focus on the problem, not the people." I'm a huge proponent of simple step-by-step problem solving methods that enable teams to focus on the problem and its true causes, instead of on the supposed "people who screwed up." Your discussion of 'good enough' is right on the money.

Craig,

Great point. I need to bring the whole article back around to the fact that all the training topics are intermeshed and inseparable from one another. The all must be integrated for any of them to work well. And your point about everyone not being there to make a profit is correct. Ultimately, the combined actions of everyone converge in such a way that the organization realizes a profit. Individually, people's jobs often have nothing whatsoever to do with net income in the micro sense. It's the accumulated efforts of everyone that gets the job done. Excellent commentary, CH.

Talk to you soon,
Craig

Posted by: Jim Howe

Craig, I found the article to be well thought and well written. I do however have concerns with Time Management. A lot of folks wear more then one hat now a days and trying to prepare the next day in advanced would be a difficult situation. We just don't know what the next day will bring. its kind of like fortelling the future.

For example, I have several task that I must perform on a daily basis, providing an event happens! One of my tasks would be to write ECR's (engineering change request). The number of ECR's I write in a single day varies from zero to ten or more (sometimes takes up the whole day). The same goes for the number of NCR's (nonconformance reports), which i also write. How do you plan ahead with these kind of tasks?

How about the "Top Nine..." as title? or can you give Time Management a little more thought and revise it?

I especially like the training for Root Cause Analysis and the Mission and Stradegy. Of the two I think the Mission and stradegy would be the most beneficial.

Thanks for great article!

Posted by: Wes Bucey

I think most of us have time management problems. Even though I know how to handle them on a theoretic basis, I still have emotional issues dealing with priorities. The toughest part is avoiding "overbooking your time."

The major downside is the feeling of failure when you are unable to complete everything on your "to do" list.

This is definitely a case of "Do as I say, not as I do."

To achieve real satisfaction in our lives, we have to be VERY realistic in scheduling our time. Often this means saying, "NO!" to requests and claims on our time. If we decide to change priorities in midstream, we have to realize that some things from the original list will fall to the wayside.

There was a time in my life when I put in 80 and 100 hour workweeks, but I was more than adequately compensated (or so I thought then.) In retrospect, I traded family and friends for money and prestige, but I had created a little "fiction" that I was earning the money for them.

Ultimately, each of us makes decisions about priorities. We only hope we have sufficient information to make the correct decision.

Posted by: Randy

I'll just ditto the comments above. Real good article and topic

Posted by: ccochran

Jim, Wes, and Randy:

Thanks for your insightful feedback. I went back and looked at the Time Management section of the article. Yes, I think I could probably clarify this a bit. In my own little world, time management boils down to thinking about the major tasks I have do, the night before I have to do them. There will always be distractions and things that pop up, but I try like the devil to knock down the tasks I had planned on attacking. In fact, I'll carry around a little index card in my pocket with all my "To-Dos" on it, crossing each of them off as the day progresses. The index card is my Palm Pilot. If it's been a good day, I can toss the day's Palm Pilot into the recycling bin. If it's been a bad day, I'll have to finish the list the next day. But at least I am focused every day on what I'm hoping to do. Very basic stuff, but complex things don't work for me. I think I'm going to edit the time management section a bit.

Thanks again, guys. It's a beautiful weekend in Atlanta. I hope it's a nice one where you are.

Craig

Posted by: ISO-Stupid

Excellent article. *two thumbs up*

Some internal thoughts while I was reading your article...
Nineteen (19) years ago I was taught that Customer Service begins within the organization; effective and efficient communication between departments, strong time management, stress management and resource management skills and cross-training departmental support mechanisms. Once that was accomplished, serving the external customer became easy.

I believe the appropriate term then was, "TEAMWORK". Has this fallen by the way-side as so many other "buzz-words"? *thinking out loud everyone*

Good Luck with your article, Pamela

Posted by: ccochran

Pamela,

Now that you mention it, I don't guess I did use the word "teamwork" anywhere in the article. This would seem to be a significant omission. Maybe the sum total of the training topics I mentioned would drive teamwork (?). This is similar to angle that Craig H. mentioned, in that all the training items are really part of a single overriding initiative: serving the customer. They are also part of a culture that encourages and nurtures teamwork.

Thanks for your feedback. Hope you had a nice weekend.

Craig

Posted by: Jim Howe

Quote:

Originally Posted by ccochran

Jim, Wes, and Randy:

Thanks for your insightful feedback. I went back and looked at the Time Management section of the article. Yes, I think I could probably clarify this a bit. In my own little world, time management boils down to thinking about the major tasks I have do, the night before I have to do them. There will always be distractions and things that pop up, but I try like the devil to knock down the tasks I had planned on attacking. In fact, I'll carry around a little index card in my pocket with all my "To-Dos" on it, crossing each of them off as the day progresses. The index card is my Palm Pilot. If it's been a good day, I can toss the day's Palm Pilot into the recycling bin. If it's been a bad day, I'll have to finish the list the next day. But at least I am focused every day on what I'm hoping to do. Very basic stuff, but complex things don't work for me. I think I'm going to edit the time management section a bit.

Thanks again, guys. It's a beautiful weekend in Atlanta. I hope it's a nice one where you are.

Craig

I recall the late 1980's at GAC (Goodyear Aerospace ) where all the managers were sent to seminars for time management. They came back with something called, The Franklin Planner (if memory serves). As I remember this beautiful, leather bound planner was used by engineers and managers to plan their day, weeks, and months. The problem, as I recall, was that they were constantly writing in the planner (taking notes, setting dates). In fact it was an interuption during meetings to alow these guys to finish their notes in their planners before we could move on.

I like your index card idea better! Anyone remember the Franklin Planner? Do I remember it correctly?

Posted by: Bill Ryan

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jim Howe

I like your index card idea better! Anyone remember the Franklin Planner? Do I remember it correctly?

You are probably remembering correctly. Our company chose between the Franklin Planner and Daytimer (went with Daytimer). I still rely on mine fairly heavily (along with my old Palm Pilot).