Category Archives: Customer focus

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 on managing by the numbers even when the most important figures are unknown and maybe unknowable. Using HR to find the right person to work in a process they don’t understand (which reinforces the desire to focus on specifications instead … 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 Making [the broken link was removed] (videocast) by Avinash Kaushik (Occam’s Razor – his blog) How can we better understand customers? [the broken link was removed] by Ely Dahan (related papers by him: The Predictive Power of Internet-Based Product Concept … 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 the model of phone. I guess if you operationally define “nothing wrong” as a failure to work as the manufacturer intended that would be true. But is that what really matters? What is the number of defects that should be … 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 – including recruiting and training (250 hours for first-year front-line associates) – around its customers, by offering opportunities for professional development, and by encouraging personnel to advance within the organization. Curious Cat Management Improvement Career Center – job opening: Manager – … 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). This getting out and seeing work in action is exposed a great deal, including a lean management concept, Genchi Genbutsu – to go to see the problem in situ (not just reading a report about it). he’s shaping the company … 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 redesign the sales process to be as good as their cars…. For me it did happen to someone else so it is funny 🙂 However, I run across similar thinking and “customer service” and then I don’t find it as … 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 called, emailed, filled out online forms, and I have never reached a live person or received confirmation that my account was shut down, and I still get charged. I finally had to file a dispute through my credit card company. … 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 this Harvard Business Review excerpt. Excellent point. Some management ideas are pretty easy and straight forward. But many management practices require knowledge and judgment to apply them successfully. Easy solutions may be desired, but, often you must choose between easy … 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

Airline Quality

Posted on April 30, 2006 by John Hunter

The Inmates Are Running The Asylums by Bill Waddell. For instance, I found something called NWA’s [Nortwest Airlines] “Customer First” Customer Service Guide. Incredibly, it includes the statement, “Ensure that you receive a response to your written complaints within 60 days of their receipt by our Customer Relations department.” That’s right – you tell them about a problem in writing and, by golly, within two months they’ll get back to you. I flew JetBlue Airways last week. The help at … Continue reading →

Posted in Customer focus, Management | 3 Comments

Dell, Reddit and Customer Focus

Posted on April 13, 2006 by John Hunter

Reddit is a site for what’s new and popular on the web (votes by the user community rate web links). That user community is highly skewed toward software engineers who are a bit irreverent (as some of the language in this post shows). Today Reddit linked to: Introducing the Dell De-Crapifier… [the broken link was removed] which is essentially a tool to help you get rid of all the extra software you get with the Dell computer. Dell gets paid … Continue reading →

Posted in Customer focus, IT, Management | Tagged bad customer service, Customer focus, Systems thinking | 10 Comments

The Art of Customer Service

Posted on April 10, 2006 by John Hunter

The Art of Customer Service [the broken link was removed] by Guy Kawasaki: 4. Don’t point the finger. This is the flip side of taking responsibility. As computer owners we all know that when a program doesn’t work, vendors often resort to finger pointing: “It’s Apple’s system software.” “It’s Microsoft’s ‘special’ way of doing things.” “It’s the way Adobe created PDF.” A great customer service company doesn’t point the finger–it figures out what the solution is regardless of whose fault … Continue reading →

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

Good Customer Service Example

Posted on March 26, 2006 by John Hunter

No More Lean Excuses [the broken link was removed] by Dan Jones I have recently been getting a striking reaction from many senior management audiences. They all agree that products have got vastly better over recent years, but they equally agree that the process of ordering and buying them and getting them serviced has got worse! This is a theme in Jones and Womack’s recent book: Lean Solutions. Recently I bought a new digital camera, Canon A700. Part of the … Continue reading →

Posted in Customer focus, Lean thinking, Management | Tagged Customer focus, customer service, usability | 4 Comments

Customer Focus

Posted on March 15, 2006 by John Hunter

Winning With Service [the broken link was removed] by John Teresko: “From our viewpoint, machines are increasingly more difficult to differentiate for most applications,” admits Harry C. Moser, president, Agie Charmilles Corp., Lincolnshire, Ill. “There are many good competitors, and while we think our products are the best, for a lot of applications it is getting increasingly hard to prove, and therefore we have chosen to [also] differentiate via service. Service can be a great differentiator, if you can do … Continue reading →

Posted in Customer focus, Management Articles | Tagged Customer focus, customer service

Consumer Idealized Design

Posted on March 8, 2006 by John Hunter

Consumer Idealized Design: Involving Consumers in The Product Development Process Interactive Design vs. Reactive “Focus” A consumer design session is characterized by at least three features which distinguish it from a focus group. (1) It requires innovation and interaction from participants. (2) It is task-oriented, competitive and consensus-generating. (3) It requires the articulation and design of the group’s notion of the ideal in a designated product or service category. This concept is based on the idea of Russell Ackoff – … Continue reading →

Posted in Customer focus, Innovation, Management, Quality tools, Systems thinking | Tagged Ackoff, Customer focus, Quality tools

Not Lean Retailing

Posted on March 1, 2006 by John Hunter

Renovating Home Depot [the broken link was removed], Business Week It is always dangerous to make too much of a magazine article, but Home Depot seems to be moving away from lean thinking in the following examples, to me anyway. The Home Depot founders: allowed store managers immense autonomy. “Whether it was an aisle, department, or store, you were truly in charge of it,” says former store operations manager… These days every major decision and goal at Home Depot flows … Continue reading →

Posted in Customer focus, Lean thinking, Management | Tagged Customer focus, Lean thinking, retail

Quality Customer Focus

Posted on February 21, 2006 by John Hunter

Delivering Two Kinds of Quality [the broken link was removed] by Keith McFarland, Business Week: What do the Japanese take for granted when it comes to quality? They take for granted that things should work as they are supposed to, and they even see an elegance to things working properly — whether it’s cars, subway schedules, traditional flower arranging, or the famous tea ceremony. Japanese manufacturers were so obsessed with taken-for-granted quality that they created a constant stream of innovations … Continue reading →

Posted in Customer focus, Management, Management Articles, Quality tools | Tagged Customer focus, customer service, management concepts, management tools, Quality tools