Putting Your Customers' Needs First

o Person(s) are comfortable at interfacing with different management levels o Person(s) have a good awareness of the competitive landscape in their industry o Person(s) keep themselves up-to-date on technology and business trends o Person(s) are “politically aware” of company politics but not overly impacted by them o Person(s) are always looking out for the best interests of customers and prospects o Person(s) value the customer relationship above their own personal gain o Person(s) are very loyal to their company and support its growth and prosperity o Person(s) tend to work with little or no direction; there are no boundaries to serving their customers’ needs; they will cross department lines when necessary and work with other employees to satisfy the customer’s needs o Person(s) tend to be “enablers” in that they will routinely assist others in serving the customers’ needs o Person(s) will work to solve the immediate problem, but more importantly, they will seek out permanent solutions to resolve or eliminate the problem from reoccurring o Person(s) will always keep their management informed of current activities and future action(s) required to meet or exceed the needs of the customer Thus, the Customer Advocate becomes a role model for other employees to emulate. Personal job satisfaction comes from serving your customers’ needs well; it is not a function of what department you work in, the position you hold in the company or the size of your paycheck! It helps to know where you have been versus where you are now versus where you would like to go. Publishing an annual report on your customer support activities is an excellent vehicle for communicating your progress (or lack thereof) in serving your customers’ needs to all the key management personnel in your company. My annual e-Commerce report grew to about 70 or more pages and had an annual circulation of 100 or more people. I would frequently get queries from various managers on our e-Commerce activities; often I would respond by saying the info you are requesting is on page 53 in your annual e-Commerce report that I sent you! o Prior year overview by market segment of number of accounts served, number of orders, total dollars and number of lines along with same attributes for EDI and Web orders showing overall percentages of accounts, orders, dollars and lines that were generated electronically o Overview of prior year’s target goals versus actuals with pertinent comments o Profile of top customers web order entry and EDI showing number of locations, orders, dollars and lines for their entire business versus web entry versus EDI with percentages; customers would be color coded as Best in Class, Good Performance, or Needs Improvement Here is a typical outline for the annual progress report: • Annual Progress Report