Tag Archives: Customer focus

Pay Attention to the Results that Matter

Play pumps is a great sounding idea. Most people reading this blog have clean tap water a few steps away. Over a billion people today still struggle to get water every day. A common method to get water is using … Continue reading

Posted in Management | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Customers Are Often Irrational

Penney Pinching “The first rule is that there are no irrational customers,” Drucker wrote in Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices. “Customers almost without exception behave rationally in terms of their own realities and their own situation.” “in terms of their own … Continue reading

Posted in Psychology | Tagged , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

The Customer is the Purpose of Our Work

A customer is the most important visitor on our premises. He is not dependent on us. We are dependent on him. He is not an interruption in our work. He is the purpose of it. He is not an outsider … Continue reading

Posted in Customer focus, Management, Psychology, quote, Respect, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Eliminate the Waste of Waiting in Line with Queuing Theory

One thing that frustrates me is how managers fail to adopt proven strategies for decades. One very obvious example is using queuing theory to setup lines. Yes it may be even better to adopt strategies to eliminate as much waiting … Continue reading

Posted in Customer focus, Data, Management, Process improvement, Quality tools, Statistics, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

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

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 , , , , | 1 Comment

Rude Behavior Costs Companies

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 , , , , , | 6 Comments

Steve Jobs Discussing Customer Focus at NeXT

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

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

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 , , , , , | 1 Comment

Sometimes Micro-managing Works

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 , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Innovation in Thinking and the Web

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

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