Your customers do not care whether you make your quarterly numbers or fulfill your organization’s KPIs. They have their hands full with their own workplace issues, KPIs and deliverables. Why should they care about you, and your issues?
It just could be that your professional urgency conflicts with your clients’.
And besides, your customers do not care about creating tremendous customer experiences… for you. That is not their job function.
Think about it. You just may be leaving customer care up to your customers. And they really do not care whether, or not, you meet your job’s performance criteria.
First, when sales people put on the pressure to fulfill their quarterly quota, clients go dark. Why? Because chances are, end of quarter sales persistence represents the rare time the seller actually does contact that buyer. So much for “sticking close to the customer” for customer retention?
Then, when implementation of technical and engineering solutions falls short of what was promised and contracted for, clients are dismayed. Why? When internal personalities and tribal wisdom “knows better than” the client, regarding what that client actually wants and needs, outcomes under serve end users. And, so much for listening to the voice of the external customer for customer success?
Also, when internal sales and client service teams are in such a rush to fulfill their daily call quota, they do not take the time to truly listen to the stated and unstated needs of the real, live customer. Consequently, these teams come across as apathetic to serving the customer, rather than engaged. What type of message – and customer experience – does service delivery apathy send to customers?
Consider all of the nuances involved in best serving – and continuously delivering on – the needs of your customers.
Your clients may be diplomatic by going dark. Why? If you really stick close to the customer, then you two have an implicit understanding in your relationship. Customers are not there to serve the needs of your own organization. And they sure aren’t there to make sure you fulfill your KPIs and quotas.
Yet, consider how many times each day you and your teams let your own performance criteria creep into customer care. Regardless of how you care for the customer, in terms of selling, designing, delivering or serving.
End of each fiscal quarter is organizational mea culpa time for businesses which are falling short of “making their numbers.” The next time you contact your own clients, consider reaching out to them with that acknowledgement. You just may find you have a more engaging, and ultimately rewarding, conversation with decision makers and the rest of the people you serve.
Move one millimeter beyond the traditional definition of your job description and the confines of your professional discipline. As a result, move one millimeter beyond your current professional comfort level. Otherwise, understand that your customers really do not care about whether, or not, you are making your numbers. Instead, they are depending on you to care for them first. Then, they will take care of you. Make sense?
Stuck in Yesterday’s mindset? Start moving one millimeter forward, today and tomorrow.
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Babette Ten Haken, Founder & President of One Millimeter Mindset™, is an innovative speaker, strategist, and storyteller. Babette’s One Millimeter Mindset™ Workshops and Speaking programs leverage collaboration to catalyze professional innovation, workforce engagement and customer retention. Babette’s playbook of collaboration tools, Do YOU Mean Business?, is available on Amazon. She is a member of SME, ASQ, SHRM and the National Speakers Association.
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