Focus on Customer Needs

LNP s primary successful strategy was simply to focus on each customer s needs. It faltered when it deviated from this strategy, such as the attempted 

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All of these actions require a thorough understanding of the current and potential cost and price drivers along the entire chain. Downstream players more focused on customer needs and product performance often lack this knowledge and may need, for example, to hire upstream experts to achieve the skills needed to dissect these exposures and identify cost-effective hedging solutions. 

Operational Excellence (OE) Operational Excellence (OE) is an element of organizational leadership that stresses the apphcation of a variety of principles, systems, and tools toward the sustainable improvement of key performance indexes. The process involves focusing on customer needs, keeping employees positive and empowered, and continuous improvement of activities in the workplace... 

In our innovation project examples we have focused on generic needs and requirements, and our associated customers are the pharmaceutical R D team members, managers, and operators in various industries. 

Richard M. Gross Let me take these questions in reverse beginning with unmet market needs. The first thing is to work with the marketplace, not specific customers. Customers tend to be focused on their needs, not necessarily the broader market needs. It is beneficial to work with a large array of customers or players in the market, so the entire picture can be seen. 

This classification leads to different strategies for the different types of customer. In general, the A customers will form the core of any customer portfoho and the focus on them needs to be particularly emphasized. B customers fall into two categories those who are highly attractive externally but not so internally and those who are generally only attractive internally. 

This office has now used my products exclusively for over 5 years. Here is a secret to my success. Focus on the needs and wants of your customers. In other words, just listen and take notes when your customer talks. Never interrupt and always ask them questions about what they want. 

Some firms use the concept of internal customer to remind their employees that each employee performs just one step in a supply chain whose purpose it is to provide a good or service to the end customer. The purpose of the internal customer logic is to keep each employee focused on the needs of the end customer. This helps employees recognize that not only is their firm just one link of a larger supply chain, but that the firm itself can be viewed as a chain of processes each of which is a customer of the preceding process. 

By focusing on customers, particularly the end customer, all members of the supply chain see the need and benefits of obtaining and using information... 

Like conventional systems, proactive systems center on major processes. What proactive systems add is a focus on decision-maker needs in those processes. Decision makers fulfill roles in the process based on customer needs. Thus, where decisions are required, such as the case of our large widget order, the proactive system uses preset rules to process information. This processing then routes information to decision makers, following those rules. 

Target costing A strategic profit planning and cost management system that incorporates a strict focus on customer wants, needs, and values, and translates them into delivered products and services. A variation is using cost as a design criterion in product development. 

Focus on business needs before technology implementation. When a firm introduces CRM without a clear connection to its business needs, it falls into a trap. The salespeople do not populate the database with the required customer information and other functions struggle to get data into a usable form for their needs. To be successful, the company must take the time to present the compelling business case behind the CRM effort and clearly articulate to the sales and service people involved in execution how the improved methodology will help them in the execution of their work. With the business needs identified and the objectives tied to personal benefits, the technology or software can be installed in a way that will assist the people and make more money for everyone. Without these ingredients, most efforts fail. 

In order to estabUsh this type of service, the maintenance management should meet often with their outside suppHer as weU as with their iaside customers to benefit the end user the external customers. During these meetings the foUowiag steps should be taken to assure nonstop quahty Hsten to the customers, work with customers to clarify expectations, identify measurable iadicators, exceed expectations, deUver products and services when customers need them, keep promises, design for ease of use, constandy improve, focus improvements on areas related to customer expectations, and respond quickly (5). 

An example of an audit guide that focuses on environmental, health, and safety inspections during the toll-processing phase is included as Appendix B, Sample Toller HS E Assessment. This example should be customized to meet specific needs by adding quality concerns or other processing related items. 

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