Category Archives: Customer focus

Investing in Six Sigma

Posted on November 5, 2006 by John Hunter

Bank of America: Investing in Six Sigma [the broken link was removed] by Thomas Hoffman: To help the bank’s IT organization align more strategically with its businesses, Desoer has challenged her IT staff to learn more about the bank’s external … Continue reading →

Posted in Customer focus, IT, Management, Six sigma, Software Development | Tagged Six sigma, Software Development | Comments Off

No Customer Focus

Posted on November 3, 2006 by John Hunter

John Battelle writes the excellent searchblog. A recent post, Rant: The Comcast HD DVR Is Simply, Terribly Awful, provides another example of a company lacking customer focus. See the comments for even more confirmation of the lack of customer focus. … Continue reading →

Posted in Customer focus, Fun, IT, Management | Tagged bad customer service, culture, design, usability | 4 Comments

Hiring the Right People

Posted on October 7, 2006 by John Hunter

The job market is an inefficient market. There are many reasons for this including relying on specification (this job requires a BS in Computer Science – no Bill Gates you don’t meet the spec) instead of understanding the system. Insisting … Continue reading →

Posted in Career, Customer focus, IT, Management, Performance Appraisal, Popular | Tagged Career, curiouscat, Deming, hiring, management, managing people, Popular | 15 Comments

Google Videocasts on Customer Focus

Posted on August 17, 2006 by John Hunter

Google provides video webcasts of speakers that present at Google [the broken link was removed]. These videos offer a great way to take part in one aspect of work at Googleplexs [the broken link was removed]. Customer Centric Web Decision … Continue reading →

Posted in Customer focus, Google | Tagged Customer focus | 1 Comment

Usability Failures

Posted on July 15, 2006 by John Hunter

‘Smart’ phones, stupid punters? A survey* of 15,000 “faulty” devices by mobile data provider WDSGlobal found 63 per cent of the one in seven new phones which are returned have nothing wrong with them. I believe one in seven is … Continue reading →

Posted in Customer focus, IT, Management, Systems thinking | Tagged bad usability, Customer focus, Data, Management, technology, usability | 7 Comments

Customer Focus at the Ritz

Posted on July 13, 2006 by John Hunter

How to Turn Customer Satisfaction into Profits and Growth [the broken link was removed] by Vincent Grimaldi: Against all odds, the company has broken the old vicious circle of low salary and high turnover by wrapping all its processes – … Continue reading →

Posted in Customer focus, Management, Management Articles | Tagged Customer focus | 1 Comment

CEO Flight Attendant

Posted on July 1, 2006 by John Hunter

Street Smarts: Learning From JetBlue by Norm Brodsky. The Jet Blue CEO works (once a month he estimates) as a flight attendant. He interacts directly with customers in real world situations (not just talking to travel managers in his office). … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, Customer focus, Deming, Management, quote, Respect, Systems thinking | Tagged Customer focus, gemba, Management, organization as a system | 3 Comments

Our Policy is to Stick Our Heads in the Sand

Posted on June 28, 2006 by John Hunter

Conversation with Boston Volkswagen [the broken link was removed] by Paul Graham I recently looked into getting a new car. The Kafkaesque conversation that resulted would have been funny if it were happening to someone else. If only Volkswagen could … Continue reading →

Posted in Customer focus, Innovation, IT, Management | Tagged bad customer service, Customer focus, IT, Management | 2 Comments

Companies in Need of Customer Focus

Posted on June 7, 2006 by John Hunter

You should pay ME – 9 Companies That Don’t Get It [the broken link was removed]: I have been having a hell of a time canceling my old web hosting with Burstband. It’s been a few months now and I’ve … Continue reading →

Posted in Customer focus, Management | Tagged Customer focus | 1 Comment

The Customer Knows Best?

Posted on May 16, 2006 by John Hunter

The Customer Knows Best? Better Think Again by Anthony W. Ulwick It’s important to listen to customers – but not follow their words without skepticism. Ask them to design your next product and you’re likely to miss the mark, suggests … Continue reading →

Posted in Customer focus, Deming, Innovation, Management, Management Articles | Tagged critical thinking, Customer focus, Data, evidence based management, organization as a system, variation | Comments Off