We talked last month about customer service and how customer relationships, although the top-ranked item influencing customers, was an ongoing struggle.

This was addressed also in February when we discussed extending the life of our customers’ products being more important in the overall supply chain with customers.

But let’s look forward to something we can control and do something about. The number two ranked item of customer service is operational excellence. Imagine that! Customers like to deal with companies that know what they’re doing.

So what do we do to improve the operational excellence in our businesses?

To make it easier for us, our customers will be more than willing to tell us what they need us to do.Whatever it is they tell us they want—that is what we need to excel at internally. This will create operational excellence.

So what is it?

In your parts business, it is very simple to list internal excellence needs.

1. Find every part that every customer wants.
2. Ship/deliver every part that every customer orders.
3. Transship/deliver every ordered part the day it is received.
4. Put away every stock receipt the day it arrives.

That’s pretty simple, isn’t it? But I want you to get it done before you go home at night—every night. That’s right, the fabulous four customer service items in the parts business have to be done before you go home every night. The thing about customer service is it must be consistent. If you’re going to be mediocre, stay mediocre. Don’t confuse your customers by performing one day and not the next.

In your service business, internal excellence is no more complicated.

1. Inspect everything before you start any work.
2. Provide a fixed-price quotation/ completion date on all jobs before starting any work.
3. Invoice all work the same day it is completed.
4. Call every customer within three days of job completion.

Yes, and for consistency I want these four items looked after every day before you go home.

And then there is marketing.Who are your customers and what are your markets? I am sure you all know about the magical “4 P’s” of marketing: product, price, place, and promotion. I am also sure you know these “4 P’s” have been around since the beginning of time. They are not the only critical items in marketing. So what should we do?

I am very strong on developing and maintaining a “brand”—your brand as a supplier of your product or service in your market. I am very much an advocate of the “supplier” in the supply chain. This is not to the disadvantage of anyone else, it’s just that I want “your” brand to be prominent. I am talking about your customers and your market and as such it is your brand.

The “4 P’s,” clearly no longer applies, alone, as a result of new understanding of customer behaviors.We need to recognize these changes and work not on loyalty, but on retention; not as much on product differentiation, but value additions in the supply chain; and not so much on pricing, but on solutions.

Market segmentation is the key, but this is a complicated area as well. We need to target the markets that make sense to us. There is a trap here in the conventional wisdom. Many businesses segment the world according to people who currently use their products or services or those of their competitors. I believe this is a mistake in that it doesn’t take into account all of those potential customers who “want” to use your offerings. This is a much larger universe.

But let’s start with simple, small steps again and make sure we get them done. Look at your customers and create profiles of customer groups that have similar needs and wants. This is a matter of talking with your customers and finding out where excellence must exist in your internal processes. Once you have the customer attributes, you can then set up clear “segments” of your customers. This segmentation will provide clear demographics for you to work within.

Let’s recap the marketing fabulous four:

1. Interview your customers and determine needs and wants.
2. Establish the client demographics groupings that match the needs.
3. Segment your marketplace based on those demographics.
4. Tune in next month for the next step.

Are you ready to go on offense? I sure am getting tired of being on defense.