Strategic Discipline Blog

It wasn’t long ago when speed of delivery wasn’t expected to be next day.

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Topics: Customer Feedback, Net Promoter Score, customer satisfaction metrics, customer loyalty, Fred Reichheld, Customer Satisfaction

In October of 2008, I wrote a blog Even in a difficult economy Customer Service can Make a Difference! My car wash customer was looking to improve his business during the summer, due to skyrocketing gas prices. The solution: measure customer satisfaction. Autopia Car Wash in California was one of the first customers I shared Fred Reichheld’s Ultimate question, Net Promoter Score (NPS).

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Topics: Good to Great, customer survey, Net Promoter Score, customer satisfaction metrics, Jim Collins, customer loyalty, Fred Reichheld, Winning on Purpose

A customer complaint is a good thing.  It means you know that you need do to something for improvement.

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Topics: Customer Feedback, Net Promoter Score, employee engagement, customer service, customer satisfaction metrics, Qualitative Customer Feedback, customer loyalty

Discovered a great customer experience recently?  When and how were you sure?

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Topics: employee engagement, customer service, customer satisfaction metrics, Q12, customer loyalty, Gallup's Q12 Employee Engagement Survey

Customer Satisfaction surveys should be part of your company’s regimented discipline to stay in touch with evolving customer relations.  With respect to customers, Gazelles/Rockefeller Habits coaches like Positioning Systems suggest your business have your top line leadership team calling one or more of your customers a week to conduct a personal survey of four questions to stay in close contact with your customers and then report this information as part of your weekly meeting rhythms.

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Topics: The Ultimate Question, customer survey, Customer Feedback, Net Promoter Score, customer satisfaction metrics, Customer Advocacy

Discretion at the operating level of your business can absolutely destroy your business!  When you fail to be consistent, customers come away with a different experience every time.  This headline, “Eliminate Discretion at the Operating Level of Your Business” is a mantra from Michael Gerber’s E-Myth, Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It. It is the principal of systems at its core.  A starting  point for systems take precedent over people.  (See Topgrading - Was Michael Gerber Wrong)

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Topics: Acute Myeloid Luekemia, E-Myth, People, customer satisfaction metrics, Business Culture, E-Myth Revisited, Eliminate Discretion at the Operating Level of You

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Topics: Customer Feedback, Net Promoter Score, weekly meetings, Strategic Discipline, customer satisfaction metrics

There are a number of components within the inner working of Meetings, Metrics and Priorities to make Strategic Discipline work for your business.  When we begin working with clients at Positioning Systems, any implementation of Strategic Discipline includes customer and employee reporting in the weekly and monthly meeting segments. This is critical due to the importance of pattern recognition and the need for balance in your business metrics and priorities.

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Topics: The Ultimate Question, customer survey, Customer Feedback, Net Promoter Score, weekly meetings, customer satisfaction metrics, measurement

Last week’s newsletter (sign up here) which I publish monthly was How to Link Customer Feedback to Profitability.

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Topics: Net Promoter Score, customer satisfaction metrics, Execution

Setting objectives and priorities is over stated focus of any new year.  Most of all of us do it personally and even more businesses certainly demand it.  Strategic Discipline extends to recognizing the need for balance in the priorities and metrics you establish.  You can place so much emphasis on attaining a priority or metric you may lose sight of the affect this effort puts on other aspects of your business.  Every action has an equal and opposite reaction.  In our Rockefeller Habits Workshops we tell the story of Delta Airlines emphasis to have their flights arrive on time.  They reached their objective, however the affect of their efforts turned a positive into a negative when customers complained that their bags weren’t arriving on time. 

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Topics: Discipline, meeting rhythms, customer satisfaction metrics