E-NEWSLETTER | JANUARY 2007
Feature Article:

Developing Customer Focused People

-- By Greg Baker, President and CEO, Advance Consulting

As we discussed in last month’s newsletter, many companies and organizations are striving to enhance customer focus in some fashion.  To successfully implement customer focus, we have found that businesses need to focus on incorporating the customer into four areas: 

  1. Individuals - Customer focused employees practice creating value for customers within virtually every task and interaction. 
  2. Operations - Customer focused operations imbed the customer into their processes and technology. 
  3. Organization - Customer focused organizations are structured around their operations – to optimize the ability of the operational component to deliver customer focused products and services.
  4. Products and Services - Customer focused products and services incorporate customer feedback and data to both address and anticipate customer needs.

In this month’s newsletter our focus is on the individual.  How do we develop customer focused people as part of the larger customer focus transformation?  The answer lies in understanding two things:

Path of Change: Let’s work backwards to make a point.  You know you want people to exhibit certain customer focus behaviors, right?  Well, for that to happen they will need the skills and ability to behave that way.  And if you want to teach people customer focus skills they have to be motivated to learn, and must understand why learning is important in the first place.  Have you ever tried to teach a person who had a negative attitude?  So the path of change starts with the appropriate customer focus attitudes, so that people are ready to acquire customer focus skills, so that they can then begin to exhibit and practice customer focus behaviors.

Desired Customer Focused Behaviors: We talk about customer focused behaviors, but what are they?  In our experience they fall into six categories:

  1. Knowing the customer - this involves understanding who the customer is and what they prefer. 
  2. Listening and questioning - employees who are able to listen and question effectively are better able to uncover real issues and needs.
  3. Communicating personal value proposition - this involves forming and delivering expertise statements that communicate who you are and the value you bring. 
  4. Building customer focused solutions - this is the ability to link solutions to business needs and issues. 
  5. Building alignment and buy-in - this involves engaging clients, teams, and stakeholders along the way to build alignment.
  6. Being flexible in interactions and roles - this is the ability to play different customer-focused roles to maximize your value. 

When organizations provide their employees with these skills and abilities as part of a systematic path of change, they see true behavioral change.  Customer-focus is no longer just a slogan or mantra.  It becomes a part of each individual’s actions and behaviors.    

At Advance Consulting we have helped tens of thousands of people become more customer focused.  Our Workshop is ideally suited to provide your people with customer focus skills addressing the six critical areas above.  We can also help you develop and implement a roadmap that will lead your organization to higher levels of customer focus by embedding customer focus into virtually every aspect of your business.  For more information on how we can assist you, please contact us at (831) 372-9444 or email us at advanceinfo@advanceconsulting.com.

Skills Corner - Tips for Working Smart

Are You A Coach?

Do you realize that you, as an individual, can also add value to your clients and team members by stepping into the "coaching shoes?"  Every one of us has the potential and is occasionally called upon to coach others, whether we know it or not.  We may not have a managerial position or be in charge of a team, but based on our expertise and insights, others may seek us out for coaching or we may recognize we can assist others by offering coaching.

The next time you find yourself in a coaching role, remember:

  • Ask questions to understand issues.  Peel the onion to get to the core.
  • Don't just tell people what to do.  Help them to figure out the answer themselves.
  • Provide insights and knowledge through expertise statements.
  • Share your findings and how they are relevant to the client.
  • Provide motivation to try something different and let them know that you are there supporting them.
  • Work collaboratively with others to achieve a common goal.
  • Take the opportunity to coach others and you will be perceived as a valuable resource to the team and the organization.

If you find yourself practicing the above-mentioned skills, you are already playing the important role of a coach - even if you didn't recognize it!


In This Issue:
Path of Change - Inside Out



What’s New at Advance Consulting?
New and Improved Coaching and Feedback Workshops!

We are pleased to announce completion of important enhancements to our coaching and feedback classes that make them better than ever!  To optimize their impact, we more thoroughly integrated these workshops with their “Consultative Approach” partner.  Reflecting this linkage, we have renamed our coaching workshop Consultative Coaching and our feedback workshop Consultative Feedback.

Working consultatively is a culture shift that requires ongoing coaching and feedback to drive behavior change.  Consultative Coaching gives managers the tools to coach their people to reinforce skills, improve performance, and ultimately drive behavior change.  Consultative Feedback provides the skills to give and receive feedback in ways that are productive and non-threatening; thus driving positive behavior change at all levels.  These workshops, either alone or partnered with the Workshop, provide a solid foundation to drive any strategic change.

Give us a call today to find out why Consultative Coaching and Consultative Feedback will help your organization improve performance and meet specific business goals.


About Us

Advance Consulting Inc., a premier management consulting and professional development firm, serves corporate and government clients in the U.S. and abroad.  Established in 1990, Advance Consulting specializes in the transformation of people, teams, and organizations as they aspire to create their “Enterprises of the Future” with the ability to adapt and thrive in the turbulent and challenging global business environment.  We work with our clients to build aligned consultative cultures by addressing the organizational, operational, and individual issues that are integral to an organization’s success in achieving desired business results.


Give Us Your Feedback

We’d appreciate hearing your thoughts and suggestions on how we can shape our newsletter to better meet your needs.  Let us know what topics you’d like to see covered.   Please contact us at advanceinfo@advanceconsulting.com, or call us at (831) 372-9444.