Voice of the Customer

1. Voice of the Customer Listen to your customer and change your business

2. Your Presenter – Brian Swanson • Director of Enterprise Excellence at NACS, Inc. At NACS we design and manufacture custom automated equipment for a range of industries. • Prior to NACS I worked in the Wood industry for 20 years. Part of that time was operating my own custom furniture manufacturing business and part was at Lexington Manufacturing, a contract wood component manufacturer.

3. The struggle with Empowerment

4. Our Objective • To examine tools and concepts that will help organizations derive excellence and power from customer input while strengthening the sense of partnership that customers feel for your company. • Note: The tools and steps involved are simple but not easy.

5. Enterprise Excellence Overview

6. Lean Structure

7. Why was your company started? • Work with a group to create a list of the reasons why you believe people start companies. • From your list choose the one that you feel best describes why businesses are started.

8. Why companies are started:

9. Why Companies are started: • “Most entrepreneurs are driven by their passion to start their businesses out of wanting to help others create or obtain something.” • Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook) • “I began to learn what poverty meant. It was burnt into my heart then that my father had to beg for work. And then and there came the resolve that I would cure that when I got to be a man.” • Andrew Carnegie

10. Why Companies are started: • “I worked for other people for 15 years and to be honest I did not like the experience. I started my own business (working twice as hard for myself) and really enjoyed being my own boss and the feeling of being in control of my life and future. One of the best things I ever did.” • Jsantiago • “To maximize time with my daughter I get up at 4:30AM to work on developing the business. Nothing is more motivating than my baby girl.” • jenifer888

11. Companies are not started to serve customers

12. The Enterprise Excellence Cycle Business Review Customer Interviews Execution Affinity Sort Strategy Deployment

13. Business Review • Goals of Employee Interviews: • Discover nuggets of insight within your organization • Engage your organization in the VOC process • Uncover opportunities for improvement in your organization • Prepare your organization to participate in the VOC process

14. Business Review • Ask difficult but open ended questions. • Don’t expect everyone to answer every question. • Begin with a written survey and follow up with interviews to capture actionable information. • Take advantage of this opportunity to reinforce company values and objectives.

15. Business Review • Beware of biases and reluctance to share the truth. • If you think there is a good chance people will hold back information or not provide accurate answers, it may make sense to have an unbiased outsider conduct the surveys and interviews. • See attached Business Review questionnaire example

16. Business Review Customer Interviews • The information gathered from the organization through the Business Review Process is the foundation for discussions with customers.

17. Customer Interviews • Prepare questions for customers that will: • Clarify areas of disagreement among your internal people • Reinforce important points where people seem unsure • Provide clarity in areas where employees see opportunities for improvement • Return actionable information that you can use in your organization

18. Customer Interviews “If I asked my customers what they wanted, they’d have said a faster horse” • Henry Ford • Customers don’t often know what they want until they see it. • The types of questions we ask influence the quality of customer responses. • See attached Discussion Guide

19. The Kano Quality Model Satisfied Excitement Needs Did it Very Well Didn’t do it at all Indifferent Time element Performance Needs Basic Needs Dissatisfied

20. Customer Interviews • Moderator • Conducts the Interview • Establishes a Safe Environment and Rapport • Executes Discussion Guide Questions • Note Taker • Takes Verbatim Notes • Observer • Listens and Watches • Writes down observations • Body Language • Tone • Hesitation • Engagement

21. Customer Interviews • Interviews are a team effort • The goal is to listen and not influence the infromation • Interviewing requires preparation and practice • Biases must be set aside – capture customer’s words • 35% of meaning is transferred verbally – 65% is nonverbal

22. Customer Interviews • Drill down to get to core needs by asking “Why?” or “Please tell me more about that” • “The equipment I buy needs to have a 30 horsepower motor.” • “Your lead times are short”

23. Customer Interviews • Debrief as soon after the interview as possible. • Record impressions • Review and clarify notes • Summarize key points that were made by the customer

24. Customer Interviews • Compile all of the information from the interviews • Record every comment on an individual post-it note • There will be a ton of them – that’s the intention • Be sure to identify the source of the comment • As much as possible, record the exact customer wording.

25. Customer Interviews • Practice Interviewing in Groups • Choose the following roles: • Moderator • Note Taker • Observer

26. Affinity Sort • Goals of the sorting process: • Re-connect the people within your organization to the VOC process • Get people physically involved • Find the hidden nuggets of wisdom that come from the combination of your customers and your employees insights • Bring your company one step closer to alignment

27. Affinity Sort • Put all of the post-it notes on a wall • At this point, don’t organize them, they should remain random

28. Affinity Sort • Have every employee participate in sorting the post-it notes into affinity groups • Don’t predetermine titles to the groupings – let them decide how they fit together and what the titles will be • Some comments will be moved multiple times. Keep track of where the comments have been • Encourage people to come through and re-sort multiple times

29. Affinity Sort Strategy Deployment • The affinity groupings form themes that become the foundation for your corporate strategy.

30. Strategy Deployment • Listen to what the groupings are telling you • Comments that have been in multiple groupings are significant • Groupings that you disagree with are meaningful • Take some time and discuss what the groupings are telling you. • DON’T SHORT CUT THIS STEP

31. Strategy Deployment • Report back to your employees and customers • Review the goals of the process • Highlight the steps that have been taken so far • Summarize your conclusions • Tell them what you heard when they answered your questions • Feed back the nuggets of wisdom that you discovered

32. Strategy Deployment Example Conclusions: • We have four distinct customer groups that each has very different requirements. • Medical R&D - looking for creativity and flexibility in the process that allows them to actively participate in the design and build process. • Medical Production - require discipline and structure to ensure reliability and efficient transition into the validation process. • Non-medical Production - require less rigor in documentation than medical customers while still maintaining discipline and reliability. • Fabrication of parts - Looking for simple and efficient interactions that ensure quality, cost, and delivery are optimized.

33. Strategy Deployment • Our customers value the following in a machinery vendor: Confidence • “Design, price, and concept are what determine who will get the project. Who will meet the requirements of the project? Who will be most likely to make the delivery?” • “I look for enough detail in the proposal that I can be confident that it is clear to both parties.” • “When people are overly optimistic or aggressive just to get the business, that is very frustrating to me. I want the real story.” • “Other vendor’s proposals were higher risk for us. We went with NACS because we had the most confidence in their concept.” • “Integrity is the most important characteristic of a vendor. Do what you say you will do.”

34. Strategy Deployment • Determine at MOST four strategic objectives for the next year. • The key is creating maximizing the experience for your employees and your customers • Expect excellence • Understand that leaders create culture

35. Strategy Deployment • The SDP Matrix:

36. Strategy Deployment • The Scorecard

37. Execution • Communicate, Communicate, Communicate ... • Post SDP Matrices throughout your organization • Talk about the process every day • Tell employees and customers stories about what is happening at every opportunity

38. Execution • Conduct Report-Outs • Teams present monthly to the company • Progress made to date • Results • Next steps • The report-outs have three objectives: • Celebrate results • Cross-pollinate ideas • Maintain accountability to the strategy

39. The Enterprise Excellence Cycle Business Review Customer Interviews Execution Affinity Sort Strategy Deployment