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You are here: Home / Professional Development / Are We sabotaging Customer Outcomes because of Our Own Priorities?

Are We sabotaging Customer Outcomes because of Our Own Priorities?

December 17, 2018 by Babette Ten Haken Leave a Comment

Throughout the year, we sabotage customer outcomes in favor of our own priorities. Not intentionally, at least from our perspective.

Nonetheless, from our customers’ perspectives, we cycle back and forth throughout the year. Falling short, and then scrambling to recover, when delivering remarkable and enduring customer outcomes.

The types of customer outcomes which are critical not only to acquiring customers, but also to retaining them, as well.

Why are we inadvertently – or intentionally – sabotaging customer outcomes in the first place? After all, customer outcomes are the key source of customer experience. Why take a chance like that?
  • Well, we have our (still? really?) annual performance review – and we are not confident about its outcome. Even though we “think” we are doing our job satisfactorily. So, we become preoccupied with a drama we create inside our heads. And subsequently lose sight of our customer-focus.
  • Or, we have not met our sales quota. Again. And we are not thrilled about having “that” talk with our micro-managing sales manager. As a result, we quick-sell a few low-hanging fruit accounts. Even though we know these accounts have no chance (or interest) of renewing.
  • Then again, we decide to go off-script in serving a disgruntled customer’s needs. Consequently, we promise more than our company wants to deliver to offset poor product quality.
  • And some of us decide to create a “good enough” engineered solution. Compared to the “best” solution or the “optimal” solution. Because we are keeping non-billable time to a minimum, as mandated by our employer, who emphasizes cost containment above everything else.
  • Feel free to add to this list…

Any way we look at it, we think more about ourselves than we do about best serving our customers’ needs.

When our own professional priorities take precedence over our customers’, we not only sabotage customer outcomes. We sabotage our own delivery on our professionalism.

As we goal-set for all four continuous quarters of the next year, reflect on scenarios which sabotage our delivery on customer outcomes. Once we start to identify these causal factors, we become more proactive in preventing them from sabotaging our professionalism.

Yes, some of these scenarios may not be completely eliminated. And other scenarios may not be ours to control. However, understanding how we reacted to the stuff which derailed our customer-focus – in the past – smooths out performance inconsistencies moving forward.

After all, as Professionals of Worth, we control our own actions. When we become proactive and anticipatory about keeping our customer focus, instead of being self-focused, we are strategic instead of tactical.

Take another look at that bullet-point list at the top of the post. What would you add to it? What are your first steps to ensure your delivery, professionalism and customer focus remain consistent, from the perspective of your customers?

Next, book a one-hour focused coaching session with me to create a strategy for overcoming self-sabotaging habits which also compromise customer delivery. Click on this link and get started today.

Then, pass along this blog to the professional associations you are a member of. Are they looking for a speaker to deliver a keynote or breakout session?
  • Hire me to speak or conduct a workshop at your next corporate or association event. Catalyze your mindset and skill sets.
  • Subscribe to my blog. Never miss another insightful post.

Babette Ten Haken and One Millimeter Mindset™ speaking and storytelling programs leverage collaborative business models and profitable workforces to retain the customers you work so hard to win. Babette is a member of SME, ASQ, SHRM and the National Speakers Association. Babette’s Playbook of collaboration hacks, Do YOU Mean Business? is available on Amazon.com.  Image source: Fotolia

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Filed Under: Customer Experience, Success, Loyalty, Retention, Professional Development Tagged With: business growth, collaboration, customer acquisition, customer experience, customer outcomes, customer retention, customer service, engineering, Industry 4.0, Industry40, professional development, professional speaker, quality, sales, technology, workforce

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