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"Thinking About Customers" — (It's All About The Thinking)
By: Virginia McBride

How much time do you spend thinking about running your company? About developing new products and services? About creating new marketing messages? About revenues? About mergers and acquisitions? About besting your competitors? Now, how much time do you spend thinking about pleasing your customers? About learning what is important to your customers? About how you provide a compelling value to your customers? About how you develop a sustained relationship with your customers? Unless you are truly the exception, not much time is spent looking at your company from your customers' perspective.

Refocusing your thinking is the starting point. You need to look at all of the people who are your customers, both the internal and external customers. They all belong to your business culture. Certainly, you can ask questions to identify how people view your business culture. Also, you can observe customer behavior to see how customers behave toward you and how you behave toward them. As you gather information, choose to direct your thinking toward the changes that need to be made — changes that improve your customer relationships.

CHANGING THE CULTURE — Generally, change occurs one person at a time. You have the power to change only one person — YOU, YOURSELF. However, as you change your behavior, others see the change, question it, evaluate it, and test it to see if you really have changed. If you want to avoid startling your internal customers, those whom you serve within the company, begin with your company's unwritten rules — rules that generally relate to behavior about which no one speaks directly. In an article in "DM Review," Barnaby S. Donlon of the Palladium Group suggested that if you want to analyze your unwritten rules, use a framework called MET — Motivators, Enablers, and Triggers.

Look, first to yourself. To determine your Motivators, confront the question, "What is important to me?" To identify your personal Enablers, ask "Who is important to me to get what is important to me?" To define your personal Triggers ask, "What do I need to do in order to get what is important to me?" As you answer each question, analyze each answer for positive impact and negative impact. Then, decide what you need to change about yourself and your own behavior to refocus any negative energy you have. Also, decide what you need to change about yourself to greatly enhance the positive energy you have. Any change in you changes your culture. Any change in you changes your relationships with the people within that culture.

EMPLOYING A CARPENTER'S TOOLBOX — Think of all the tools that a carpenter uses. Take each tool separately and apply the metaphor to your changing. For example, take a saw. Cut away whatever does not fit the design-pattern for what you want to build. Take the planer. Shave away the rough edges. Take the sand paper. Smooth all surfaces until you see yourself holding a hammer. By refocusing your concentration, you have hit the nail directly on the head.

When you finish your carpentry, ask yourself the MET questions again. In a positive sense, do you know what is important to you, who is important to you, and what you need to do to achieve what is important to you? Now, describe the behavior changes you must put into place to establish the most positive MET possible.

PRACTICING THE NEW YOU — Your first attempts at change will be extremely clumsy if you begin with large changes. Make some small changes that you can monitor closely. Watch for reactions from your internal customers to your small gestures of change. Watch especially for any comments that show you that people are noticing. These comments will be slow in coming because people typically want you to stay the same. They know how to deal with the OLD YOU! Dealing with a CHANGED YOU initially threatens those around you. They do not know how to behave around you.

To help you understand — Some years ago I was not happy with the person I was becoming. I wanted to change how I was feeling about myself. I believed the people around me would not let me change. Then, I accepted a position as a professor on a floating college campus that would remove me from my current environment for 3 1/2 months. I would be with people who had no preconceived idea of who I was. I saw this as a tremendous opportunity to change dramatically. I envisioned the person I wanted to be.

As I boarded the airplane to fly to meet the ship at its departure site, I changed. I had five hours to learn how to believe the change. With relentless repetition, I had the trip to practice, practice, practice. Gradually, the desired behavior became so comfortable that I behaved as the CHANGED ME without having to think about it. Surprisingly, when I returned home, everyone who knew me before the trip, without exception, commented on how much the trip changed me. They claimed they liked the change! Our secret.

True, you cannot make the change as I did. However, you must recognize the need to practice your new behavior until it becomes so habitual that you no longer have to think about what you are doing. At some point, the NEW YOU walks in your skin. Also, the skins of those around you have changed to embrace the new you. Help them embrace and appreciate their own positive changes.

WHAT ABOUT EXTERNAL CUSTOMERS — Well, you changed the internal culture. Now you need to apply what you have learned about changing your behavior toward changing the relationships with your vendors, your suppliers, and your paying customers. Remember, the little things you do that will make big and lasting impressions on your external customers is your goal. [Check out "Mavericks at Work" by William C. Taylor and Polly LaBarre, Harper - 2006 if you want additional ideas or you need to be convinced.] You are your behavior. Be certain all of your customers know that you are thinking about them.

Article Source: http://www.excitingdestiny.com/articles

Virginia L. McBride, The Haven Maven Founder, EPROW Images Creator, "IT'S ALL ABOUT THE THINKING" Virginia builds personalized "thinking environments" to strengthen innovative thought. Working with EPROW Images, clients identify the needed behavior changes toward all customers. These needed changes improve relationships. To qualify for a free 30-minute consultation, submit a "pitch" through EPROW's PAPPY program => www.eprowimages.com

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