|
|
By:
Richard
D S Hill -
To
be more responsive to customer needs, emphasise customer
satisfaction, develop closer relationships with their
customers and flatten the management structure some
companies have adopted Customer Teams or Customer Focus
Teams. These are cross-functional, customer focused
teams exist to provide customers a ‘one-stop
shopping’ service.
Teams have complete ownership of their accounts, with
each team empowered to decide how to work with each of
their customers and bring together each service function
such as accounting, sales and service into a single team
structure to serve all the needs of the specific
|
|
customers
assigned to them based on a mindset of continuous
improvement in customer experience. Teams are empowered
to take corrective actions to resolve day-to-day
problems and have direct access to information that
allows them to plan, control and improve their
operations. The teams manage themselves and work within
the team is generally allocated on the basis of skills
and strengths, rather than just job title. This enables
a team
to
provide fast turnaround on all a customer's issues and
concerns. By self managing, like players on a pitch
during a team game, the managers’ role becomes that of
coach, developing skills and knowledge rather than
simply directing and controlling actions.
Working in customer focused teams interdependence and
joint responsibility for outputs become the goal and
thus instead of organizing work traditionally from the
top down, reducing processes to individual steps work
becomes structured around whole processes. Traditional
approaches reduce the required skill at every level of
work leading to boring and repetitive tasks, but team
based approaches are more likely to consider the fit of
team members with the work to be done with those closest
to the jobs agreeing the jobs specifications.
The advantages of ownership and self management include
customers being more comfortable knowing who they will
deal with, and teams gaining in-depth knowledge of the
needs of each customer because of improved internal
communications as team members understand the
customer’s expectations and share information,
realizing there is no advantage in hoarding knowledge
– as their pay will be affected by their customers’
results on their own company’s profitability.
Self managing teams do not just happen and they are not
‘an easy answer’. Teams go through several stages on
their way to self-management and it can take two or more
years to achieve this objective. Comprehensive training
in basic management skills such as problem solving and
decision making is critical, as is functional cross
training so they can manage their own processes.
To fully realize their potential, teams need not only to
be cross-functional but also need to be managed by
entrepreneurial and experienced managers who understand
that they exist to provide greater profitability for
their company by providing better customer experience to
their company’s clients or customers and to this end
support and drive team initiatives, including playing an
active role in building an ongoing working relationship
with the customer’s management.
Teams also must not become ‘customer silos’ rather
than ‘functional silos’ and must work on sharing
policies, systems and processes and people so that the
results of ‘winning teams - those that provide
increased customer satisfaction together with superior
profitability and increasing volume – are quickly
tested and replicated elsewhere. To achieve this senior
management needs need to fine tune structure, roles,
processes and systems to meet the ever-changing needs
and increasing complexity of both the customer’s
business and their own.
Senior management also have to set the tone and reality
– teams exist to provide greater profitability for
their company by providing better customer experience to
their company’s clients or customers.
To achieve these corporate goals teams must:
1. Make customer satisfaction their top priority.
2. Have a common understanding of the organization's
vision and mission and their role in that.
3. Understand the roles of individual members within the
team as well as its role with the organization.
4. Work together to plan, make decisions and resolve
differences and build trust.
5. Understand what is and is not possible and walk
before they try to run
6. Set goals for continuous improvement in inputs,
processes, outputs and measured results.
It is in this last area that CRM software such as
Customer FOCUS [ http://www.e-crm.co.uk/crm/customer_focus/customer_focus.htm
] can really help.
Article
Source:
http://articles-4-free.com
Richard
Hill is a director of E-CRM Solutions and has spent many
years in senior direct and interactive marketing roles.
E-CRM - www.e-crm.co.uk
- helps you to grow by getting you more customers that
stay with you longer. We provide practical solutions
that pay for themselves. We help you to make sure that
your marketing works.
|
