How Close Should One Get to the Customer?

Peters and Waterman, the literary duo best known for their management treatise, In Search of Excellence , pioneered the term – “getting close to the customer.” This management rhyme, pathfinding in the late 1980’s, has moved on somewhat and is no longer standard fodder in most annual reports.

It had became a key piece of the cheerleading by total quality management gurus, such as Phil Crosby. The total quality management gurus argued that customers defined quality, and to the extent that their expectations for quality were satisfied, the enterprise held a competitive advantage.

The popularity of the total quality movement has waned somewhat over the past 15 years, with probably the notable exception of the General Electric-inspired Six Sigma movement, complete with Black Belts and other reformulations of the early teachings of E. Edward Deming, whose principles helped to resurrect the industry of post-WWII Japan.

However, customer service continues to receive a lot of priority in the business world – and it rightfully should. The original tenants embodied in Peters and Waterman’s work – e.g., know what the customer wants and please them – continues to be a common theme in the sermons by customer service gurus. What’s unfortunate is that most of their devotees walk away from the sermons believing that the path to corporate salvation can be found by doing whatever it takes to make the customer happy. Lost in the shuffle, however, is the reality that complete customer satisfaction is a sure recipe for bankruptcy.

Nonetheless, firms that do a better job of satisfying the customer in a particular market or industry, and especially if they are the first to do it, typically enjoy greater market share and superior firm performance.

All firms should strive to “get close to their customers,” provided they proceed with the following points in mind:

• Customers do not always know what they want. Simply put, they are not always able to articulate their needs. The American public never articulated to Litton that they had a need for a microwave oven. Those who can remember their first appearance in the home improvemen t b ooths at various county fairs in Iowa will recall that the customer had to be “sold” on it use, something that the retired Generals heading up Litton could not do.
• Assisting the customer to help them understand their needs will require more than a lathered-up marketing department. It may require becoming familiar with the customer’s business, perhaps as much as the customer.
• Strive for continuous improvement in lowering the cost of doing business so that in the pursuit of satisfying known customer needs, the firm does no t b reak the bank in satisfying a tertiary form of satisfaction.
• Recognize that “getting close to one customer or a few customers” is significantly easier than getting close to a diverse customer base. There are usually many customers – and none are average!

Any firm that elects to take seriously “getting close to the customer” needs to recognize the advantages and the costs. The term is as sacrosanct as motherhood, but integrating fully with the customer is no small matter. It’s not a flawed concep t b y any means; just one that’s not as simple as the motto.