Value is Personal, Value is King
By Jay Forte, Humanetrics, LLC
Value is king. With the magnitude of choice and competition in today’s dynamic information business environment, value must be perceived in the first instant of contact with a customer. It must be clear, it must be consistent and it must be accurate. If not, the customer will search for it elsewhere – and the search process is now easier than ever before. As a result, providing value to customers must be at the very cultural foundation of every company.
Most companies encourage, suggest or mandate that employees provide value to their customers. This may come in the form of a mission statement, corporate edict or management comments. Providing value to customers is the backbone of the customer/supplier relationship but simply to insist on it does not or will not insure that it will happen. This is however the first step; the next step is to translate the process for knowing what value is and how to provide it into a successful way for all employees to understand it and use it. Many employees, anxious to do well in their environment, are willing to provide value to customers. It is just that they are not sure how to do it.
In this article I will introduce a definition of value and three “value concepts” – the concepts are the methods to implement value in the workplace. Each of the value concepts is designed to help all employees fully implement a value culture in the workplace.
So our first issue is to define value – because without it clearly defined, we will not be able to help our employees focus on providing it consistently and accurately to our customers. Our definition must be universal and specific at the same time – universal so that it can be applied to all businesses and specific so that it can be customized for every customer. To that end I offer the following definition:
“Value is doing the right thing for the right person, everyday, all the time.”
It is universal in that it can be used with anyone – value for a customer is doing the right thing for that customer, every time you deal with him; this definition can be used with an employee or a supplier. Its goal is to look at the essence of what is value – and that is the ability to correctly respond to what is important to whoever you are dealing with – at any time, and all the time.
If value is defined as doing the right thing for the customer, we first need to find out what the right thing is. This is our first value concept – Value is personal and must be seen through the eyes of each customer. This means that value for one customer will not necessarily be value for another. We must be aware that we will need to determine what value is for each of our customers and provide it. Once size does not fit all when dealing with customers and value; we each want things our way- and so do our customers. Employees must be aware of the need to “customerize” – to customize the response for each customer based on what the customer determines value to be.
Our second value concept relates to the process of finding out what value is for each customer – that is We must work to create a personal relationship with each customer to encourage customers to openly and honestly communicate their needs, wants and values. Most businesses are still relationship-based; the contact between people still drives the business. Taking time to get to know customers creates a professional bond and gives us significant information about the customer’s needs, wants and values. Only then, can we modify our response to make the right response for this customer.
I summarize needs, wants and values into two captions: service – how the customer wants to be treated in our professional dealings (product, information, access, etc.) and in our personal dealings (how he wants to be treated as a person (formal, informal, strictly business, conversational, etc). Once this information is gathered it should be shared with everyone who has contact with this customer.
This brings us to our third and final value concept – The team approach is critical to successfully providing value to customers. Providing value to customers is never a one-employee show; it is too significant of a task, particularly since the definition requires it to be provided “every day and all the time.” All members of the team are critical in the commitment to providing value. That may include packaging a product in a particular way, delivering a product on a particular date, communicating information about a product or installation process, answering a billing question, handling a return or warranty item or returning a phone call. The united team, armed with critical information about what the customer wants, needs and values can consistently and successfully provide value. Insuring everyone on the team has this information is the first step to creating consistent value for the customer.
When combined, the three value concepts create a clear definition of what has to be done to provide value for each customer. Finding out what the specific needs and values are, seeing it exactly as the customer sees it and then providing it every day, all the time will insure that your response to the customers provides the value that attracts the customer and keeps him coming back.
We know that many times we may have just one opportunity to get value right for the customer. Customers are so much better informed than ever before and they have so many more choices. They still focus on value – they want it the first time, they want it every time. This definition of value, supported by the three value concepts, can successfully deliver value to your customers. Change the word “customer” to “employee,” “community,” “supplier” or “stockholder” and the same process works. Create a value culture and insure value is at the center of each of your business relationships; this will separate you from your competition and drive your business to great results.
Humanetrics LLC. All rights reserved 2007.