Putting Your Customers' Needs First

It is that Customer Need or Focus that drives their business model. How successful they are at fulfilling that need will usually determine how successful they will be as a company. It takes dedicated employees to run a company successfully and companies must also satisfy their owners or stockholders interests to maintain a company over the long term. Some companies lose sight of the reason they were created in the first place. Yes…the owners and/or shareholders want to make money and be successful but if you are not taking good care of your employees who make these products and/or services available and not keeping up with taking care of your customers’ needs with continual improvements in your product/service offerings at competitive prices … you will likely lose market share and ultimately fail at satisfying your customers’ needs. The raging debate in corporate America is whether this company or that company is the best place to work, or whether they provide the best shareholder value or whether they are a leader within their industry in serving their customers' needs. • Is your company EMPLOYEE focused...are they consistently ranked among the Top 100 companies to work for in America? Probably not. • Is your company CUSTOMER focused...are they the leader in their industry in all that they do? Unlikely. • Does your company provide maximum SHAREHOLDER value compared to your major competitors and to other peer groups within your industry? Maybe...maybe not. Sometimes it seems like a big "tug of war"... does the HR (Human Resources) Department really represent the Employee? Is Marketing and Sales always committed to serving the Customers' best interests? Are the Financial folks and Operations personnel always maximizing Shareholder value? When PUSH comes to SHOVE ... which one of these sides of the triangle do most companies end up supporting? The overriding answer from most people (not surprisingly) would be working to enhance Shareholder Value. You don't have to look much beyond the compensation packages of most top executives in corporate America to determine where their focus lies. The truth is that the best companies have a combination of all three of these traits to be successful over the long term. Without good employees, you cannot implement plans and provide services to build customer loyalty. If a company is not profitable, it is of little value to the customer or the employee if it goes out of business. It takes a balanced effort to achieve superior results over time. The moral of this story is that it takes all three elements to be a successful company. What this book will attempt to show is that a company can excel at being customer focused without sacrificing their financial goals in maximizing shareholder value or their goals in providing their employees with a secure and productive work environment. What is YOUR Company’s Focus?