customer

Customer value

Submitted by skeptic on Mon, 2013-04-15 08:03

The cult of the customer keeps popping up to annoy me. Yesterday I posted about how being customer-centric doesn't man spending all our time with the customer, about how it's important to spend most of our time inside the factory, delivering. Today I want to talk about "customer value" and how it isn't the Holy Grail of IT. We as organisations don't exist for our customers. We exist for the continuance of the organisation, Click to tweet we exist to maximise value for the organisation, whether it be commercial, public or non-profit. It's not anti-customer to realise they are not the be-all and end-all of our existence.

The goal of our activities should be to maximise value for our organisation. That value is defined by the owners and governors of the organisation not the customers.

The measurement of value is of course different for every organisation. Customer value is not one such metric. Stop foaming: let me explain.

Customer-centric

Submitted by skeptic on Sat, 2013-04-13 21:34

OK I've had it with the cult of the customer. I just saw one remark too many about "it's all inward-looking". We need to be inward-looking most of the time or we're not doing our ****ing job. Let me illustrate with that favourite analogy: a water supply.

A case study in bad customer service

Submitted by skeptic on Sat, 2013-01-12 03:29

We all have our horror stories of customer service. Few people have as many as me - I seem to have a hex on transacting any business with any entity. I like to say I am lucky in the big things in life so I pay for it with bad luck in the little things. When I couldn't stand the instability of ADSL internet connection any more (since I run webinars etc from home), I decided to be an early adopter of New Zealand's Ultra Fast Broadband (i.e. optical fibre) rollout. It didn't go well. Along the way just about every service sin was committed.

Just how awesome is Net Promoter

Submitted by skeptic on Thu, 2013-01-10 01:06

Any product that gets the evangelical reaction that Net Promoter Score or NPS does, immediately raises my skeptical hackles even before I take a good look at it. Chokey the Chimp smells marketing hype from miles downwind.

The cult of the customer

Submitted by skeptic on Wed, 2012-08-08 21:20

Examine your assumptions around "customer first". Often but not always. There is such a thing as over-servicing the customer. Who is paying and what do THEY want?

IT: to protect and serve

Submitted by skeptic on Fri, 2012-06-08 23:16

The motto "to protect and serve" is a good one for IT. OK, "to protect and serve" has acquired some negative baggage but the US police slogan still resonates as far away as where I live on The Last Rock On The Planet. There seems to be this expectation that IT exists only to create new IT in response to the demands of the business. It's not true.

Who is the customer?

Submitted by skeptic on Sun, 2011-05-29 23:47

It is important to distinguish between customers and users, as ITIL does. Confusing the two leads to problems.

Why ITIL is IT-centric not customer-centric

Submitted by skeptic on Sun, 2011-05-22 10:35

Despite all the fine words, ITIL is clearly still a body of knowledge written by IT geeks for IT geeks and focused inward on IT. It has as much to do with the customer as a blue-print for a ship has to do with fishing.

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