Internal integration, path to excel with customers

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In the last articles, I have been pointing how important CSS (Customer Support & Services)  is for the sustainability of the company. I also pointed that processes and KPI management is vital to deliver excellence.

I would like to motivate you to look at the goal of BEING EXCELENT from an internal perspective.

When we say that our goal is to excel with customers, what does this mean?

Are we talking about having a good team of people to interface with the customers? A good call center and a nice website? Don’t we have to add being proactive and preventive, avoiding issues in their operation, providing quick and assertive responses, predicting properly when and where spare parts shall be available, make the product reliable and easily maintainable, etc, etc? 

I guess we all know what the answer is. I am not saying that customer interface, call center and website are not important, in fact they are keys for the long lasting relationship with the customer, but without some basic back office support it will be like swimming and swimming and dying at the beach. I want today to explore the internal aspects of any support & services activities which will be the foundation for the customer experience.

It is not that difficult to figure out that it is not only the CSS department who is responsible to make things happen. The entire company must be in the same page, like  engineering teams, program & product management, purchase and production departments, suppliers management, quality area, finance department, human resources, sales, etc, etc must be breathing the same air.

Nothing goes out well to a customer that does not involve some internal areas. A company will not provide high quality products and services if not well integrated, sharing the same values, business results, customers results, with the same mind set.

In order to guarantee such excellence, several “bridges” will have to be built between CSS teams and these areas, meaning, agreed processes, targets, management procedures among others.

Considering that each area has its basic responsibilities and priorities, such endeavor will only be possible if the leadership and teams are really aligned, if the company is truly customer oriented.

Imagine situations when a customer priority conflicts with an area internal target. What to do?

If the area has a customer oriented leadership and trust the CSS judgment of the case, it will support the customer first, and later will find a way not to miss the internal target and from time to time will review the cases to build stronger database and procedures. (I guess you have already witnessed the opposite ….) 

One step further, if the integration is set before processes are developed there won’t even be that many conflicts as all deliverables were well thought based on the same mind set.

So, no matter what, the internal integration, the leadership comprehension of the customer value for the company can make a big difference on the customer experience.

The company areas supporting and trusting each other is the answer and another important “material” to the pavement of the path to excellence in CSS.

CSS processes are probably the ones with more “tentacles” in the company depending on almost every area. The high level of capillarity demands focus on process management and company value mind set.

Let’s then try to answer some basic questions:

Are all the “bridges” strongly built to guarantee a smooth operation?

Do you have KPIs which allows you to understand in what maturity level your company is and what actions are needed to keep improving?

Do your teams support blindly each other?

What is the level of trust between them?

Do they have the customer as their first priority?

The answers to these questions will give you a good idea where your company stands.

I hope this insight have called up your attention to the importance and complexity of the CSS processes.  

Nov 2018