Working in quality can sometimes feel removed from the customer and thats just not right.
Sometimes the only time we hear the voice of the customer is through the management of complaints or when collating the results of the annual survey.
At the heart of quality is the customer so surely this should be a much bigger focus for the quality team, but how?
Today lets talk about three ways you can be more customer focused:
Be where your customers hang out
- Make it easy to hear what your customers are saying.
- Don’t send out a 30-page survey once a year.
- Can people access you? Social media? A number to call you on your website that's not buried 20 clicks deep?
- Are their advocacy groups and peer support groups who can help you understand your customers?
Treat customers like partners in business
- Listen to feedback to get better.
- Ask yourselves how many customers can be unhappy with a system before you change something? Put a number on it, make it real.
Combine data with reason
- If your data shows an increase in adverse outcomes or complaints make these numbers people.
- How many poor outcomes are acceptable?
- Ask the governance team to put a number on it so you can internally benchmark.
Are you willing to put every customer first every time?