Category Archives: Customer focus

Be Thankful for Customer That Are Complaining, They Haven’t Given Up All Hope

Posted on December 13, 2011 by John Hunter

I ran across this message and liked it (by wuqi256): My time spent in a fast food chain (factory worker on weekends and security guard at night, yes really thanks to them, i have great jobs like that) when i … Continue reading →

Posted in Customer focus | Tagged Creativity, Customer focus, customer service, Process improvement, Psychology | 1 Comment

The Impact of Leadership on Business Outcomes

Posted on October 18, 2011 by John Hunter

Guest post by Joe Folkman Have you ever been part of an organization where things were proceeding smoothly, where goals were achieved, people were busy and the organization was doing well? Then, a new leader came and everything suddenly changed … Continue reading →

Posted in Customer focus, Psychology | Tagged customer service, guest post, leadership, Psychology | 6 Comments

Rude Behavior Costs Companies

Posted on September 26, 2011 by John Hunter

Approximately one-third of consumers surveyed reported they’re treated rudely by an employee on an average of once a month and that these and other episodes of uncivil worker behavior make them less likely to patronize those businesses. Customers rarely report … Continue reading →

Posted in Competition, Customer focus, Psychology, Respect | Tagged bad service, Customer focus, customer service, management research, Psychology, respect for people | 6 Comments

Steve Jobs Discussing Customer Focus at NeXT

Posted on September 8, 2011 by John Hunter

Video from 1991 when Steve Jobs was at NeXT. Even with the customer focus however, NeXT failed. But this does show the difficulty in how to truly apply customer focus. You have to be creative. You have examine data. You … Continue reading →

Posted in Customer focus, Data, IT, Software Development | Tagged Customer focus, Data, engineering, IT, management, management webcast, marketing, Software Development | Comments Off

When Companies Can Treat You Like an ATM, Many Will Do So

Posted on August 29, 2011 by John Hunter

The End of Refrigeration One small custom chip, some relays, a transformer, a couple of heat sinks, and a bunch of passive parts. Maybe a build cost of $20-30 or so? But GE’s price to me was $250, plus $150 … Continue reading →

Posted in Customer focus, Deming, Investing, Lean thinking, Management, Process improvement, Systems thinking | Tagged Customer focus, customer service, Deming, Investing, Lean thinking, Systems thinking | 1 Comment

Sometimes Micro-managing Works

Posted on April 27, 2011 by John Hunter

Sometimes micro-managing works. That doesn’t mean it is a good strategy to replicate. If you benchmark Apple you might decide that you should have a tyrannical obsessive involved CEO who is directly involved in every detail of products and services. … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, Customer focus, Innovation, Management | Tagged Apple, Creativity, Customer focus, Investing, leadership, management, stockholders | 5 Comments

Innovation in Thinking and the Web

Posted on March 29, 2011 by John Hunter

Investing time and effort to attract “the right kind” of contributors to a news site He thought we needed to make the same shift with our users – instead of seeing having to engage with them digitally as a time-consuming … Continue reading →

Posted in Customer focus, Deming, IT, Management, Process improvement | Tagged Creativity, Customer focus, Innovation, internet, Systems thinking | Comments Off

Customer Focus and Internet Travel Search

Posted on March 24, 2011 by John Hunter

The internet should make finding airline flight information easy. Instead it is a huge pain. Hipmunk has taken on the challenge of doing this well, and I think they have done a great job. This video provides an excellent view … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, Customer focus, Innovation, IT, Management, Process improvement | Tagged Creativity, Customer focus, Innovation, internet, IT, travel, usability, webcast | 4 Comments

Airport Security with Lean Management Principles

Posted on November 16, 2010 by John Hunter

The ‘Israelification’ of airports: High security, little bother [the broken link was removed] We [Israel] said, ‘We’re not going to do this. You’re going to find a way that will take care of security without touching the efficiency of the … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, Customer focus, Deming, Lean thinking, Psychology, Respect | Tagged airlines, commentary, Creativity, evidence based management, Innovation, Lean thinking, problem solving, Quality tools, Systems thinking | 1 Comment

Technical Non-Support

Posted on August 12, 2010 by John Hunter

A bit of fun from Dilbert. I have had the exact experience Dilbert does of tech support refusing to think about the actual symptoms of the problem and insisting on following some script and wasting my time – repeatedly. The … Continue reading →

Posted in Customer focus, Fun, webcast | Tagged bad customer service, Fun, meetings, webcast | 2 Comments